Mondovi High School - Mirror Yearbook (Mondovi, WI)

Page 19 text:

come, we would be unable to take care of them. In the past, we have sent out representatives to urge the country children to enter some high school; but such a policy would now be little less than foolhardy, for our high school is already filled to capacity. The only alternative remaining, then, is equal taxation for school purposes. It is true that every country child pays a tuition fee of $72.00 a year, but this amount is not sufficient to pay the bare current expense of educating him. No provision whatever is made for improving the facilities for that education. Therefore, if improvements are to be made, all such expenses must be met by the city and school district. This is hardly fair, for inasmuch as they receive the full benefit of our educational facilities, it is only right and just that the country districts should pay their share of all such costs. T would therefore advocate that a Joint High School District be formed, comprising the city and the territory that surrounds it to a distance of at least five or six miles; and that all property within this district be taxed to build a new and modern rchool plant, and provide equipment and talent such as will enable our children to receive a better and broade education that would ever be possible otherwise. But even after we have secured a new school building and a consolidated high school, our need will not have been entirely filled. We need a system that will not only keep in touch with the child for a bare six hours a day, five days a week and nine months in a year; we need one which will reach the life of the pupil in after-school hours as well. What amusements arc orovided for children? Too often they are left to their own devices to hunt out their amusements. and the result is too well known. Why should not the city provide proper harmless entertainments sunerintended by persons especially trained for this work, through which its child life can work off surplus exuberance? Whv not take away all desire for evil habits bv providing the nroper environment to counteract them9 Why not mold the thoughts and tastes of our children through good public concerts and lectures? For the sake of the crowing children of Mondovi and vlcinitv whose educational advantsces must otherwise he greatly restricted, for the sake of the taxpayers of Mondovi who have responded in the past and who are now so unselfishlv responding w'ith financial aid: fo” tho sake of our nst?on whose future depends so vitally upon a tra’ued and eniightened c,-tizenrv. will r ot vou who live outside our school district loin w5th us Ik the support of a school system which shall »n no wav fall be’ow the b’ch standard which we have alw'avs maintained? SEVTOB9 OF 19?ft:- We are met together as a class for the last time. We have now' come to the finad mnm°pt of on- school life when we must nart and say adieu. It is with mingled pride and re-

Page 18 text:

necessary requirements, we have lost nearly $1,400 of Federal Aid for Agriculture purposes, a sum which is badly needed. In the second place, our school building is in such a weak and tumble-down condition as to be an eye-sore to all public-minded citizens, a source of danger to its occupants, and a general discredit to our city. It is giving us a bad name among other schools. A rep resentative of the American Hook Concern of Chicago who has visited every high school in the state has been quoted to me as having said. “The City of Moiulovi has one of the very few old tumble-down, ramshackle high school buildings still in service in the State.” Anyone walking along the upper floor of the structure will shake the whole building from top to bottom. In certain parts of the building the floors have fallen away from the walls from two to three inches. Certain kinds of singing cannot be indulged in, and large and enthusiastic mass meetings are impossible. While I do not wish to be considered radical or quoted as having said that the building would collapse this year, next year, or within five years. I must still assert that with the physical corn! tlons as they are, Mondovi High School cannot maintain for long its customary high educational standard. Especially will we realize this fact when we consider the great difficulty we are yearly expe iencing in securing competen teachers a difficulty that is increasing year by year. We find that in spite of our conservative policy we have been unable to keep up with the times, to save enough money to meet the increased demands of all teachers. Then too, it is natural for a teacho” to prefer a position where she is surrounded with better conditions, where she need teach only the subjects for which she is hired, and is not overworked or overcrow’ded. We find also that the members of our faculty are being offered very attractive salaries by other and larger schools, and it is very doubtful whether the school boa d can keep them an other year without outside help, without assistance from those who are receding full benefit from our school facilities, but are not paying their share of the costs. Briefly then, the situation that confronts our city is this: Mondovi has found that its high school is overcrowded, is in a bad condition, and lacks the funds sufficient to hire proper teachers. It has further discovered that these difficulties have arisen at least in part from the presence of country children in its schools, that without their attendance, there would probably be sufficient room and equipment to provide for the education of its own children. Should we then bar out all country children from our schools? No! Such a course would be repugnant to the citizens of the country districts and of our city alike. Too few of those children are attending high school as it is. In the past our policy has been to encourage all such attendance; tut we can do this no longer, for if they should

Page 20 text:

gret that we look back over the history of our class—pride for its achievements, regret for its failures. For four long years we ha e toiled and endured. We have accomplished much and failed often. We have added some to our members and lost others through withdrawals, but inspired by the spirit of our motto, we have steadily pressed forward to the goal of our ambition; to make the Class .jl 20 the most illustrious that has ever graduated from our High School. i To our teachers and professors we owe much for the skillful and conscientious manner in which they have guided our efforts. Especially are we indebted to Prof. Dodge for. during the entire four years of our High School life he has been with us, molding and directing the course of our history until at last we have reached our goal. And finally, to the public we owe a debt of gratitude for it is only through their generosity and kindness that we were enabled to obtain eur education. New we have come to the parting of the ways. Behind us are our school days, before us is the future. Though we may never as semble again in a body, let us still be one in spirit, in a high hesolve that wherever we may be, and in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, we will always make the best citizens that in us lies. With this as our last hope and desire, to teachers, friends and classmates, we bid farewell. THE SALUTATORY By Samuel Blum Citizens of our community, members of the faculty, students of the Mondovi High School, to me has fallen the honor in behalr of the class of 1920 to welcome you this evening to our Commencement Exercises. We wish to give public expression of our gratitude to our parents, whose realization of the value of education has enabled us to devote twelve long years to school. We wish to thank the teachers who have labored to transform dullness into intellect, and inattention into interest, and the value of whose work we know we shall realize more fully as the years go by. Wc wish to thank the members of the School Board who have so freely devoted their time to the cause of education; and, finally, to thank the taxpayers, who have never failed to respond to the ever-increasing calls made upon them and but for whom we would not be able to celebrate this great occasion in our lives. It has always been the custom at these commencement exercises to permit youth to assume the wisdom of age. May I. with as much humility as it is possible for a newly-fledged high school graduate to exercise, ask you to consider the outstanding problem of today vnl