Nauset Regional High School - Nauset Tides Yearbook (North Eastham, MA)

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These past years we have sat in classes approximately 3600 hours, listening to our teachers, taking tests, having discussions, writ¬ ing themes, book reports, giving oral reports, or any number of the myriad activities of a classroom. We have discovered Shakespeare, poetry, essays, Napoleon, the Battle of Gettys¬ burg, Latin grammar, geography, Newton ' s laws of motion, the test tube, hemstitching, plywood, the typewriter, and the metal lathe. We have come to know our teachers well, to assume at least some measure of self-discipline, maturity, and respect for authority. We have discovered the virtue of an open mind and the rewards of accepting guidance and help when we were in trouble. We have planned dances, picnics, class trips, a yearbook, and gradua¬ tion. We have played and cheered our way through winning and losing seasons on the soccer field, the basketball court, and the baseball diamond. We have barked our shins on hockey sticks, played volleyball, done calisthenics, and taken innumerable showers. We have sweated out report cards, sometimes tried to talk our way to success, and in the end realized that there is, after all, no substitute for hard work. We have watched movies, listened to our own voices recorded, learned to use a slide rule, be¬ come aware of world problems, acted in plays, and entered speaking contests. We have then, to sum up, spent four of the happiest, busiest, and probably the most vital years of our lives in high school. I

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electorate, cannot hope to survive unless schools like ours all over America rise to the challenge. Here in Orleans much has been done and more will be done to meet this challenge. 1957-1958 has been a banner year in the progress of our educational services. Orleans High School, as it stands today, was completed in 1939. Over the years the number of students has steadily increased and will in all probability continue to do so. We have divided one large room into two classrooms and taken to using the Cafeteria for study halls, but beyond this our physical changes have been few up to the present. Far more significant, our curricu¬ lum has been enlarged and diver¬ sified. We are departing from our high school with a greater ability to reason and a greater awareness of our environment than our predeces¬ sors. It is our hope that succeeding classes shall benefit even more from the curriculum changes of the new Regional High School. This year 44 seniors are graduat¬ ing from Orleans High School. Each of us will bear in our hand a diploma. Just what does that signify? Perhaps a brief accounting of the many and varied educational experiences we have shared during the last four years will answer the question.

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What then does our diploma mean? It means we have earned 16 units of credit, taken four years of English and Physical Education, studied U. S. History, Current History, Civics, Algebra I, plus our chosen electives. But in a larger sense it means we have grown up, matured, learned to live with each other and to re¬ spect knowledge. It means we have developed into responsible young adults ready to make our place in the world. Orleans High School has done for us, as best it could, the job it was built to do. What about the future classes who are coming up the ladder we have climbed? We think that Orleans will have even more to offer them. In all probability many of them will be graduated from the proposed Regional High School. This new school with its im¬ proved equipment and facilities will provide opportunity for more varied instruction in all fields. There will be greater opportunities for scientific experimentation, practical experience, oral expression, and foreign language study. The library, so vital for self-education, will improve. Advanced courses in English, Math¬ ematics, and Science may be offered as the need arises. The larger school with a broader range of interests, activities, and equipment should stimulate future Orleans students to greater academic achievements. To the men and women who have played a part in our educa¬ tion, we should like to express our deepest appreciation. To our teach¬ ers, principal, superintendent, and our local and regional school com¬ mittees, we say thanks. Our only hope is that as the years pass we can prove once again that, after all, education is the key to the problems of any age and the an¬ swer for the future of our world.