Memorial High School - Humanist Yearbook (West New York, NJ)

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I 27 ylffuscle 'Graining and Wealth A popular slogan just now is health. A great many people seem to feel that the knowledge of the laws of health will result automatically in the development of proper health habits. Mere knowledge of what to do without the will or power to put that knowledge to a practical test are two very different things. By common report more doctors, in proportion to their number, are drug addicts or dope fiends than are found in any other profession. No one knows better than the doctor the dangers of the narcotic habit, but his knowledge does not necessarily keep him from the use of dangerous nar- cotics. Doctors know the laws of health but violate those laws knowingly. So, what is the com- mon man to do? First, he must know the laws of health and second he must put them into practice. Perhaps the most common mistake in every day thinking is that muscle training is synonymous with health or that it lays the basis for sound health. Our own physical training law in New jersey is largely based upon that idea. It may be true, of course, that our athletes are the healthi- est and the strongest boys and girls in our school but that they are healthy and strong because of their muscular development does not follow. It would seem that God just made 'em that way and that they are strong and healthy because of their hereditary endowment and because of their normal envi- ronment. While muscular exercise has something to do with health and strength and normal living, its importance as a basis of health is almost always over-emphasized. No one can, of course, give specific rules for health because that would mean a rule for every single individual in the world. However, there are certain rules which, if followed, will tend to make any group of people enjoy the best possible health. The rules of health prescribed by the Life Extension Institute, if practiced by our people, would make most of them fairly healthy and strong and incidentally decrease seriously the profits from the sale of medicines, good or bad, which people are constantly buying in large quantities in the hope that they may remove or remedy those conditions which they themselves have brought on. In so far as the schools are concerned the most important thing they can do is to induce their pupils to put into practice the rules of health which the doctors have prescribed. Schools teach anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, but unless the knowledge, especially the knowledge of hygiene, be translated into permanent habits, the knowledge of the laws of life will be of little value. There is, however, one thing which the mothers of every community can do. They can do more than any other single agency to make school boys and girls healthy and happy. How? l. By getting up early enough in the morning to call their children in time for breakfast. 2. By requiring the children to get up promptly when called or when their alarm clock rings. 3. By preparing a good substantial breakfast to be eaten at leisure without hurry or haste. 4. By compelling their children to go to the bathroom after breakfast to clean themselves inside and out, scrub their teeth, comb their hair, and brush their clothing. 5. By sending their children to school so that they can arrive on time without rushing breath- less at the last bell. These things the mothers of our community can do. These things they ought to do. The health and happiness of their children depend so much on these four or five requirements that to violate them is to fail in the greatest task in the world, that of being a kind, sympathetic, intelligent, understanding mother. C. A. Woonwoaru. 12

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Modern Languages MARY ROSS Hrad Trarllfr Edna Moreau Elvira Chxricosta Bertha J DeLaney VValter Ercltmann Mathematics BERT!-IA GODFREY, Hrad Teachrr Alice J. Halfpenny Ruth Meinzer Alice Palmer Mary Robinson Gilbert C. Wagner Commercial Department ESTHER E. HANNA, Ilrad Trachrr Louis Brenner Florence Bruell Alice Deliros Marie duliois Viola M. Donovan Grace L. K. Lupino Nicholas LeRose Lillian S. Silver Nancy A. Smith Bernice Y. Worth Physical Education EDWARD E. CARROLL, Gertrude Gleason James Growney Gertrude Reiley Dirrrtor Catherine DeLaney, R.N.

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Seniors 3