Midwood High School - Epilog Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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Dear Seniors This Yearbook finds us celebrating the twenty-fifth year of our existence as a school. In a sense you rep- resent the end-product of our hopes and plans of one- quarter of a century, of our striving toward important educational goals. It is therefore appropriate that we review these goals at this time. From the very outset we have tried to provide a climate that is favorable to self-propelled student growth and development. We have tried to impress upon our students that we had faith and confidence in them, that we were interested in them as persons and as important members of society, that they mat- ter and count as individuals, and that they have a con- tribution to make to our nation and to the world. You must bear in mind that humanity recognizes your sig- nificance and depends upon you. It has been our conviction that you were more than minds that might vacuum up facts from books and laboratories. We have held to the view that you had the capacity for emotional as well as intellectual growth. Scholarship has been just one facet of your learning experience. Equally important, if not more so, to you and to society has been the kind of feeling person you have become. We have therefore placed great emphasis, by precept and practice, on the ideal of brotherhood of man, on your attitude toward other human beings, and upon the concept of human rights and dignity regardless of differences of race and re- ligion. It was John Donne who, way back in the 17th century, expressed this thought in the inspiring words, uNo man is an island, entire of itself; every man is part of the main . . Intellect and feeling or attitude have always been closely associated with our ideal of development of character or morality. One might ask, What does it mean to be moral? Morality means simply right con- duct e not right conduct in reference to the stars or to a stone, but right conduct in reference to other liv- ing creatures. You and you alone will have to decide what is moral on the basis of whether or not your act will truly hurt yourself and others. As invariably as the law of gravity operates on terrestrial bodies, so there operates invariably on human relationships a law which makes the kind, the good, and the loving act a source of personal pleasure and the base upon which a better civilization must be built. Some of you who are in a stage of religious speculation might wish to consider God in connection with the invariability of this law. Moral behavior, that is, right conduct, can thus be the basis for your own personal enjoy- ment as well as for your meaningful participation in the thing called life. Intellect, attitude, service and character-these have been the foundations upon which Midwood has built its more specific goals and its reputation. Is it asking too much of you to live the ideals of your school, developed and applied these past twenty- iive years? In expressing the hope that you will make them part of your life are we expecting too much? I call your attention to the beautiful thought expressed by the poet, Browning: Oh, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for? As you leave us I wish you Godspeed. Sincerely yours, W I. L. BERNSTEIN Principal

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Mrs. Rosenberg, Grade Advisor Mrs. Kelly. Grade Adviser