Montpelier High School - Mirror Yearbook (Montpelier, OH)

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the present day has expanded its cur' riculum to include Commercial train' ing, Vocational Agriculture, Vocational Home Economics, Music and Art, and Health and Physical Education courses. However even more attention will probf ably be given in the future to the spef cific training of all youths for their probf able positions in life. Increasing recogf nition will be given to the student who will step from high school immediately into his life work. Various types of shop courses are already extending themselves from the initial large city areas to surrounding rural communities from which the city draws many of its workers. This development of the trend tof ward practical education will ultimately bring about a reversal of the tendency toward easy learning and lowered ref quirements which has accompanied the first liberalization of the curriculum. Definite preparation for the earning of a livelihood and the increasing stress and competition of the current era will def mand a generation trained to meet those stresses without protection or favor. To meet the requirements of coming days the watchword of educational training must be Take it rather than Dodge it . Increasing population and the ever developing interfdependence of social and economic groups will demand the continuance of the activity programs by which group cooperation is developed and the traditional book knowledge is translated into experience. However the program is likely to be developed to include required credits in activity work on the part of each individual in conf trast to the over specialization and over training of the few athletes, musicians, dramatists, etc., of the present day. It is needless to state that if this be a true glimpse into the school trends of the future, buildings and equipment must develop with the program in order to make it possible. Manufacturers atf tempting to produce goods with the buildings and machinery of the blackf smith shop era would soon find themf selves on the outside of the industrial picture. School buildings of the ninef ties have already proven inadequate for present educational needs and likef wise careful planning for the future will be necessary if similar situations are not to be encountered in the future. Lastly, no school program of the fuf ture can ignore that fleeting, intangible, but always sought, group spirit or the development of loyalty and love for the associations of the present and past. Without this factor any school must be but a mill for the making of wooden puppets by mechanical processes and its products can be of little value to the so' ciety which made their development possible. For, as in the past, huge buildings, the latest equipment, and the most strict observance of the latest L'trends will not guarantee a school . 4H. W. Newton Leisure Monuents Page 11

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Supt. H. W. Newton Name: H. W. NEWTON Department: Superintendent of Schools I Home: Montpelier QEamily home at Norwalk, Ohioj Schools: North Fairfield High School, Nor' walk High School, Hiram College 1918f 1922, Ohio State University 1924f1925, Summer 1936 Degrees: A. B. in Education, Hiram College 1922, A. M. in School Administration Ohio State University 1925 College Honors or Achievements: Election of Pi Kappa Delta, National Debating Fraterf nity, Hiram College 1922, Election to Phi Delta Kappa National Honorary Education Fraternity, Ohio State University 1925 First Teaching Experience: Superintendent of North Fairfield H. S. Norwalk, Ohio, 2 years Teaching Career: Superintendent Centralized School in Lorain Co., 6 years, Superinf tendent Rockford, Mercer County, Ohio, schools for 6 years. Total of fifteen years as school administrator Outside Activities: Coached athletics, di' rected plays, sponsored school newspaper, 4fH Clubs, HifY, taught young peoples' classes in S. S. and acted as S. S. Supt. Hobbies: Horticulture, Economics and Bus' mess FUTURISMS During the year 1938 we are celebratf ing the advent of the first settlers into the old Northwest Territory, of which Ohio is a part. Those brave pioneers might have remained in New England and gone along from day to day in the comparative security of established set' tlements. However today we owe our own great state of Ohio to the vision of those early New Englanders and many others of like caliber who could look beyond the smug complacency of established existence to see the vision of the future. For humanity sweeps one ward and he who would secure future satisfaction must see beyond present ease. So it is with individuals and organif zations of the present as well as with those of the past. Likewise the organif zation in which we are most interested, the school, cannot rest upon the oars of past accomplishments but must also look forward to the future, if it is not to stagnate and ultimately lose sight of its basic purpose, that of preparing boys and girls and young men and women for life. In order not to make necessary too great a break from the essential and established past this program of progress must be planned far into the future and be realized gradually from year to year. Otherwise the surf rounding forces of progress will necesf sitate more radical changes at a future date in order to compensate for past neglect. In considering the foundation stones upon which the schools of the future will be built, one of the first consideraf tions is that of curriculum. We have progressed immeasurably since the days of the classical and college prepare atory courses. The average school of Page 10

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Name: H. M. SHAEFFER Department: Mathematics Horne: Montpelier Schools: Heidelberg College and Ohio State University Degrees: B. A. First 'Teaching Experience: Boys' Industrial School, Lancaster, Ohio Teaching Careet: 15 years Extra Activities: Student Council Advisor Outside Interests: Presbyterian Church, Mas' on, Library Board, American Legion and Rotary Club Hobby: Fishing H. M. Shaeffer, Principal TRANSITION It is not so many years ago that a high school pupil attended school and asked few, if any questions concerning what course or subjects he should take or study. In fact there were only about sixteen or seventeen offerings, therefore he had the choice of taking what the curriculum offered or considering his education completed and find a job. He was a child or at least a near cousin of the behaviorists. That there should have been a change from that philosophy is not surprising. Surely the limitations of such a curriculum were ill adapted to the democratic philosophy or the present day pragamatism. Today we find every high school, large or small, offering as many courses of study in the curriculum as staff, class periods, and administration can muster. In fact some schools have found it quite advisable to increase the offerings and yet maintain a low per capita class cost by investing in correspondence courses. In addition to the curricular we have seen the extrafcurricular expand until at times it seems to take the place of the parent. That such work is worthwhile is not to be questioned. The point in question is how large a dose should the patient take. The pendulum has moved from the very conservative position of the past to, it would seem, an almost radical liberalism of the present, until we are again questioning what is grain and what is chaff. Various committees of local, state, and national char' acter are trying to determine an answer to the question. It is not an answer and yet, out of the complacency of yesterday has arisen the conf fusion of today from which it is to be hoped there may emerge the practicalness of doing, the emotionalism of invention, and the genius of control, our material which we have so needlessly wasted, humanity, so neglected and forgotten, and spiritual, which though denied will rise again. Page 12