McKinley High School - Nugget Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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apiiii.. THE CARNA Tzoiv Tru zffiml 5a'zzm!z'01z The history of education in the United States, for the last century, has shown it to be eminently practical, and peculiarly responsive to public de- mand. Its close relation and responsibility to the people preclude its taking any other form. It is not a thing apart from the public and for the benefit of the few as in the days of the Egyptian priesthood, but ratherit is the instru- ment of the people in shaping the destiny of the country. Given, then, the trend of the development of this country and there follows as its corallary, the tendency of its education. The twentieth century is the scene of the struggle for commercial and industrial supremacy. The rivalry of nations has become intense and their activities are turned toward the thousand-fold phases of commerce and industry, each requiring special training, and each dependent on the Hexibility of mind and adaptability to conditions of its followers. The United States has entered this world conflict, with all its energy, and the successes it has gained have startled its competitors. The kind of education, therefore, of value to these changed conditions, and best likely to train our citizens for their future work, will be the kind of education to which our schools will perforce adapt themselves. This falls naturally into three divisions: education for commerce, education for trades and other industries, and education for agriculture. The educational leaders of the country are busily engaged upon the problem of how to adapt sufficient training in these lines to meet the demands of the age, and, at the same time to retain, the balance which has been maintained in our curriculums with the more clearly cultural subjects, the broad and liberal training in which has been the source of our past strength and present power. This must not be sacrificed in the adjustment which must inevitably come, for to do so would be to remove the cornerstone of the edifice. The education of a democracy determines its duration. We are engaged upon the greatest experiment in popular government the world has ever seen. Our remarkable progress should not blind us to the inherent danger of a republic. The advancing tide of socialism, the destructive doctrine of anarchy, the theories of Utopians, and false principles of government can only be met by making our general public familiar with true economic principles. To bring economic science within the reach of the masses is the vital problem of a democracy. There is only one machinery that can effect- ually do this-education. Education including a continuous and extensive drill on the rational principles of political and social economics, during the formative period of the minds of our future citizens. It is an old saying that every artisan philosophizes in his own way, but it is a responsibility of the state to teach them the right way. The strength and promise of our great country depend on the correct education of the boys and girls of today, who are to be the citizens of tomorrow. -NELLIE BOSWELL

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THE SPIRIT or AMERICAN EDUCATION wiglzgjgen The dlblflil' of Q1 merzkwz gducafion When we speak of the education of a country, we must go much deeper than its course of study, its methods, and its administrative machinery. To thoroughly appreciate the growth of education in the United States, we must know the history of the people, their temperament, their traditions, and the spirit of their institutions. Education is the outcome of all these. It is the embodiment of the genius, the aspirations and the compromises of a people. No adequate idea of Greek art or Greek literature could be obtained unless there were known the characteristics of the Greek people, their intense love of freedom, and their passion for physical beauty and development. We must look, therefore, to historical beginnings. The United States has been particularly fortunate in this respect. It has had no legacy of ignorance and stupidity bequeathed from the Middle Ages. The very fact that the settlers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries must have had keen minds and stout hearts to lead them to brave the dangers of the ocean and the wilderness, precluded the forming of the stolid, inert mass of citizenship, which every older civilization inherits. The United States have never been burdened with blind allegience to precedent or servility to a creed. Whatever nation of Europe you may choose for an example, whether we take France, or Prussia, which for nearly a cen- tury have been engaged upon the problem of education for the masses, or England, which has been engaged upon it for a lesser time, or Russia, which isjust making a beginning-they have all had first to penetrate down through the ignorance, the superstition, and even the antipathy to culture developed by centuries of mental apathy. They have had first to awaken a responsive spirit-a problem which the- United States has escaped. In fact, our educa- tional policies, like other administrative features, have sprung into being in response to the demands of the people and the spirit of the times. Education is a broad term and means not only the mechanism of instruction, but the national life outside the schools, and that vital intelligence of the people which maintains its institutions and establishes its ideals. -NELLIE BoswELL S6fl0Ol ISl0z'rz'z' You probably hear people talk about school spirit, but do you know what it means? You might think that it means attend all the athletic games. Yes, it means that and more. It means that you put forty minutes of study every evening on each study, this means at least two hours. There are but few who do this. It also means that we pay strict attention in class. We talk about raising lVIcKinley's standards. We can never accomplish this without these things being done. Continued on Page 128

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CHEMISTRY IN THE I-IoME --eglzgjgiu qflzemziftry 172 the H ome Let us stop for a moment to consider a few of the myriads of articles which we use daily, in the preparation or discovery of which the chemist plays a more or less important part. , Imagine that there is to be a party given at your home. You arise early in the morning in order to start preparations, but find your mother already engaged in the all important process of cake baking. As she sifts in the flour, you cannot see how it is possible that the chemist has had a hand in its production. But stop. How could the wheat be grown without the aid of a fertilizer? And what is the fertilizer but phosphates prepared or at least purified in the laboratory? After the wheat had been ground, it was bleached by nitrogen peroxide, another product of the chemist's art. Now the baking powder is added. The chemist has prepared the bicarbonate in it from salt, the alum from mineral matter. Even the tin in which the baking powder is purchased is an artificial product prepared by the chemist. When the gas jet is turned on, it belches out a gas made by the chemist from coal. A match is applied, and, as its head is scratched, the phosphorous compound in the head is ignited by the friction, and is kept lighted by some substance which imparts oxygen to it. The heat is now transferred to the stick by means of paraffin. All of these substances are made and the laws governing their action formulated by the chemist. After the cake is put into the oven you go upstairs to dress. The soap you use has been made by the chemist. The guests have arrived and it is now time to take snapshots. The collodion film has been made by the chemist from cotton. After this you adjourn to the dining room. It is gayly lighted by means of electricity, which the chemist has made possible by the discovery of tungsten. After the meal is finished, the phonograph is turned on. The chemist has obtained large quantities ofcarbolic acid, used on this invention for the making ofthe records, from coal. This sounds strange, but is nevertheless true. The day after the party your mother feels slightly rheumatic from yesterday's exertion. She takes sodium salicylate. The natural source of the acid from which this is derived is the wintergreen leaf. If this were, however, the only source of it, the supply would be very limited and the price very high. However, the chemist has found a way to prepare it from coal. So you see from these few illustrations how largely both the necessaries and luxuries of our lives depend upon the chemist. -PHILIP SCHUTZ Trogreff 0 Ifz'vefzz'z'0m Little did our ancestors dream, some century and a half ago, that we of today would be able to sail under the surface of the water. Little did they dream that we would be able to make trans-continental voyages over land and sea. But science will march onward!