Newton High School - Newtonian Yearbook (Newton, MA)

Page 4 text:

'Q 375.761 ,v,,wH ' L k1.,,r N' 'f3!V JAN 141991 Q 4 F

Page 6 text:

. , v WU 'Y ' ff xl, N. ,I ff . f ff' f X ,. Q ja ,, . fi , r Q... if-. f . ' E 'fr-'- it 6? f . 1 f , Y , -. . X 5. v I I' Xl ,ft I-hz ' Pg ZX' 5 1 , 5, Q Q - V .. tn ,y L 51 , re' -4 t r YQ ' sf 5? il f 3 A i ti . Z 'W ' . .' gf . 1 . Y t 15' ' X Q is f ft 4 l ps. F - 2 'Q ,. - fr 1' a ' 1, if 5.5 - r fl 5 ' 32 4 A 2 L VL y 6 9 5 f tr ' J fr 4 i fl X ' i Q? Bi . . L V -fx wr' . we , W, 5 Q - .fi A ' ll, 5 5. ' ga A .f ' 1 ii 3 l E? v , . xi? ' 5.1! Fi.. get i .bfi 5 . 1 -1 .1 -I ,J 'w J xx No society appreciated its htunanity as much as the classical Greek society. They bequeathed to mankind a priceless idea from which springs much of Western civilization: the Greeks realized what an individual could do. They constructed a liberal civilization which gave individuality para- mount expression. The areopngnr and the eccleria developed into organs of political democracy. In his quest for arete-excellence-the Greek achieved his goal, gaining personal honor. The Olympic games rewarded those who silently told of their individuality with glistening muscles. From the amphi- theater carved out of the green hill came the raillery of Aristophanes and the eternal tragic notes of Sophocles. At the academy and in the dusty square Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, and the peripatetic philosophers eagerly shone their powerful lights in the dark enticing regions of the abstruse and the disputable. And over it all loomed Zeus and his semidivine brethren, looking down benignly from lofty Olympus. To draw this imagery has been easy. The Greek tradition certainly has a magnificent beauty, if nothing else. But what does it all mean? Amid the aesthetic glory there were those who asked. Socrates, for one, would have each man examine his life. In examining our lives we study our heritage, and finding beauty in tradition we may be satisfied. But that is not enough. Though an unexamined heritage petrifies, an unchanged heritage dies. Hav- ing examined and learned, we must go forth in quest of our own arete, for our own world. The 1963 Newtonian seeks to charge us with that responsi- bility. Our victories and our disappointments, our scholastic struggles and our gay events, all the joys of the past year are recorded within its covers. And all are illumined and deepened as we realize the value and the challenge of the Greeks' great gift. 2