New Bern High School - Bruin Yearbook (New Bern, NC)

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cation. Your fore-fathers-the men who gave all they had to lay the foundations for a great free world- knew the value of education. They organized a school and set aside the taxes collected on spiritous liquors com- ing down the Neuse River to pay the teacher's salary. Strange, it was, to have a man's livelihood depend on a commodity he was morally bound to exhort men not to use. But to return to our subject! This beautiful building itself, abandoned as the seat of government, became the community school. I was headmaster. I loved the work-'twas a pleasure to see young minds wake up and grow. Believe me, I never let them forget that theirs was an unusual lot-the privilege of having a voice in the government. But, now, I am making a nuisance of myself, rambling on in this fashion. Oh, no, sir, I exclaimed, my fears miraculously gone. We of New Bern are quite history-conscious. It is refreshing to talk to one who participated in the events. You know, of course, that the Old Academy Building is still in use? The one built in 1806? That pleases me. I was an old man, but I remember with what delight I watched the construction of it. Come, I would look upon it. And somehow I found myself following him down the street, breathless in my effort to keep up with him and gasping with alarm every now and then when he seemed about to walk right into cars or other obstruc- tions. He seemed, however, to know what he was doing and walked unerringly toward the old building, always within my sight but always slightly ahead of me-a fact for which I was profoundly grateful. It relieved me of the necessity of carrying on a conversation which I might have found difficult to explain to passersby. I followed him into the building, ready to cope with his inevitable wonder over the strange desks and other equipment, but to my surprise, he searched the hall with his eyes, then rushed from room to room. Finally he turned to me in consternation and pain. It's gone! What is gone?i' The copy of the Declaration of Independence that used to hang here in the hallway. It should not have been removed. Always it should hang where young Americans may read it. Don't worry, sir, I soothed him. We are re- quired to study it and even to learn portions of it. I be- gan to quote When, in the course of human events . . . We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal . . . Stop! Stop right there! What does that mean to you? Well, sir, to us today it means equality of oppor- tunity-that is every individual has the right to choose his task in life and to develop his powers to his own satisfaction. It is on that concept that American educa- tion rests today. And as he nodded in contentment, I told him about our. . .

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SA., F if lp? 4662 In the picture at the top of this page are shown members of the class in United States history as they gathered in anticipation of a film on the life of Benjamin Franklin. just below is de- picted a regular meeting of the psycho- logy class. Janice Messer and Sarah Hansen directed the attention of the class to the fact that the brain is more than the seat of the intellect. At right is shown just one means Qdebateb by which the Problems of Democracy group solved the nation's problems. Just wait, they said, till we get hold of the govern- ment. 12 1 ,-. We, the students . .in order to assure per- petual classroom tranquility, promote the general knowledge, and maintain respectable grades for ourselves and our classmates, did therefore submit, though often reluctantly, to the sometimes arduous task of acquainting ourselves with the achievements of the world. Everything from the policies of the fabulous Nero to the height of the Paraima Falls was covered by the courses offered in the social studies field. In fact, few events of significance slipped by unnoticed, as affairs of the world, both past and present, were thoroughly ex- amined and expounded. Pages packed with earthy matters in- trigued the inhabitants of the physical geogra- phy class, while other inquiring minds delved deep into intranational and international strug- gles from earliest time to the more recent cold war with Russia. ie of fda laaaf Cub