Mason City High School - Masonian Yearbook (Mason City, IA)

Page 18 text:

Names? WHEN I first came to Mason City it was my duty to copy the names of the students ofthe Mason City High School upon small yellow cards. For several days as I sat and copied them that is all you meant to me, just names, names, names. But gradually out of this jumble of names and ideas about you all, associated intangibly in my mind tangible individuals have evolved during the passing of the year. And now instead of J-0-h-n B-a-r-n-e-s I see one of our splen- did High School athletes, IVI-a-r-y J-o-n-e-s has become the honor pu- pil: ,I-a-m-e-s R-o-g-e-r-s, the boy who must be watched because he sometimes forgets to come to school and forges his excuse for admit- tance, R-e-b-e-c-c-a A-I-I-e-n is the girl 'iwho can smile when everything goes dead wrong and is active in the school's best interests, B-i-I-I-y J-o-n-e-s is no longer a hazy name but a leader of the activities for boys, and so each name has become a separate entity, an individual as it were. Your name must and does stand for something and you being the masters of your own destiny must be the one to decide for what it will stand. Several days ago a little pamphlet came to me through the mail. It contained some splendid thoughts for High School boys and girls. I believe the Masonian is the ideal vehicle to carry these thoughts to you. To make your name stand for something worth while remem- ber to: Be Honest-not only in talking but be too proud to cheat, to hand in copied work and attempt to bluff. Be honest with yourself. Be kind--no need to wait for someone to be kind to you, be look- ing for opportunities to give pleasure, not with the thought of gain for yourself but for the sake of playing your part in the social life about you. Have courage to do the thing you know to be right, fortunately it is possible to be loyal to your standards without being a prig or a reformer. Work hard--work undertaken cheerfully, intelligently, and pur- posefully brings strength, skill, and a joyful pride in accomplishment which is one of the greatest satisfactions in life. TOMMY D. PRIEST

Page 17 text:

High School Standards SATlSl7A'CTlON with one's condition and circumstances is largely relative. By pleasing contrasts we arrive at posi- tions of contentment and by unsatisfac- tory comparisons we become dissatisfied. The driver of the newest Ford in a given community is fully content until someone appears with a Studebaker, whereupon he lays his plans to surpass his neighbor by acquiring a Cadillac, and only upon its possession does his former peace of mind return. This characteristic of human na- ture to surpass our ancestors and associ- ates in possessions and attainments has contributed much to bring our race to its present advanced position and will con- tinue to be an incentive to further achieve- ments. The law of contentment and dis- satisfaction is fully operative in educa- tional matters. Pitiful is the case of the young person who from his own reasoning or through the influence of others is fully satisfied because his educational attain- ments equal or surpass those of his parents. His comparisons involve too few cases and his horizon of view is too limited. l-lis field of opportunity will have very narrow boundaries. Fortunate is the young person who has the visions to foresee the satisfaction to accrue from surpassing ancestors and com- panions in educational proficiency. The Mason City l-ligh School is organized to give the young people of this community the opportunities and the advantages to attain to a proficiency surpassing many others. It takes the young people for training just as the homes of Mason City furnish them. There is no formula or prescription by which a magic charm is wrought in the natures and tendencies of these young people when they cross the threshold of the high school building. Neither is the school privileged to select or reject its material. The school cannot be legitimately criticised because some of its members may not at all times deport themselves properly. The population of the High School and junior College this year is twelve hundred. ls there any community of this number, even if carefully selected, in which no criticism may be directed at some of its mem- bers? The High School is not a reform school, but it does aim to inculcate as far as possible correct habits of thought and action on the part of its mem- bers. It cannot, however, assume those obligations which because of their very nature belong to the home. Coming specifically to some standards as applied to our High School, we feel proud of our standing. Because of our equipment, faculty, program of studies and scholarship of students, this school has been placed in the highest class of schools by the accrediting agencies in the state and in the middle west group of states. Our students compete successfully with those of other schools in extra curricular activities, debate, declamatory, extemporaneous speaking, athletics, etc. We are proud of our rating by other schools of our standards of sportsmanship in all contests. We prize the respect and good fellowship established by competitive relationships. To govern our actions we have two expressed standards, the attainment of which we feel will accomplish success in whatever undertaking a student may engage. Be at all times ladies and gentlemen and 'il-lonor thy father and thy mother. JAMES RAE.

Page 19 text:

R Yifg - 1 5 s A if ummm' '- J . 1 , fTTv 1,1147 , . NWN uf!! 1 'Qi . WW -H!'u!b-lg LNIJXNW !-li 'Ill -' '1-Ulu ull! My 1 ,V 'Buggy j Classes