Norwell High School - Shipbuilder Yearbook (Norwell, MA)

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g THE Page fifteen FRENCH DEPARTMENT Many think that the study of French has little or no practical val- ue. With the following I hope to show otherwise. They are letters written by young people in France to members of our foreign languages class. They serve to illustrate one tangible advantage in taking French in high school. Pupils obtain their correspondents through a bureau in Boston which se- cures and distributes the names of French boys and girls who desire to correspond. These letters are copied exactly as they were written. Any errors in grammar are not mistakes on my part, but mistakes that a person might naturally make when writing in a language not native to him. This first letter is from a French boy who has had the advantage of a great amount of travel. He seems to have come from a family of some means, for as well as being well edu- cated in school he has broadened him- self by touring over most of Europe. At the time he writes this letter he is in London attending the Corona- tion of King George VI. Today we have the coronation of King George the sixth, which was very emotioning. The King and the Queen were crowned in the St. Paul's by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and they were taken in their carriage to Buckingham Palace. London was not more to be recog- nized, everywhere garlands and flags. The whole city was in joy, at each window the Union-Jack. Everybody walks, the head lifted up, the eyes looking at heaven. Each place cov- ered with crowds. But this is nothing compared to Oxford Street. Sunday evening this large street was all covered with crowds, running, and fexcuse the ex- pressionj were flowing like the waves and streamings of a great river. You can hardly understand what the coronation is for an Englishman. Now every, I myself, am shouting: Long life to the King. The church, I want to say, the Westminster Ab- bey, is surrounded by black crowds, awaiting the sovereigns. In the roy- al carriage are the sovereigns, the royal princes, Girard Lashel, and CExcuse me for having forgotten herb the heiress of the throne Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth. Now the sovereigns are already in the Buckingham Palace, surrounded by thousands and thousands of crowds. The whole British army, filed before the royal balcony and then presents the weapons, the cortege of Queen Mary follows, and the Scottish regi- ments play upon their bag pipes. The soverigns are hailed, but the princess Margaret and Elizabeth are hailed longly too. Do you come to Paris for the Exi- bition? I hope so. You will welcome to my family and I shall show to you the whole city. Now I hope to see you soon in Par- is, for if you come, you will be receiv- ed like a home. This next piece is a short excerpt from another letter written by the same boy. Except my studies, I sometimes go to the movies or we have a party. Always the same old dances: Lam- beth Walk, Big Apple, The Flat Foot Flotty and so on. Sometimes we lis- ton to Bing Crosby, or by radio, to good ol' Duke Ellington. The concluding letter is from a girl who has not studied English as long as the boy who wrote the previous letters and thus is not able to express herself quite so well. Her letter is rather interesting, however. I have been seeing in a French newspaper, that a terrible hurricane has ravaged the New United States but I am happy that the Massachu- setts have not suffered very much, because I am afraid for you and your family. In your last letter, you asked me to tell you what I think of the affair, German-Czech. France and England are very, very strong, and the United States are for us. We have been afraid because, the war was near, but M. Daladier, Chamberlain and Roosevelt have made very much good work. I hope that we will have no fear of war any more, but if the war does Continued on Next Page

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Page fourteen CAN CIVILIZATION DESTROY WAR? As long as people continue to think that the grass is greener in some- body else's land, there will always be wars and petty quarrels. The more civilized a nation becomes, the more it feels the urge for new lands and more power. Today the world is supposed to be civilized, and yet with bombs, submarines, airplanes and oth- er war instruments designed to wipe out cities and towns without the slightest effort, we kill and plunder our neighbors. In the days of Julius Caesar, when the only fighting implements were slings, bows, arrows, and fists, the people who were hurt or killed were the men on the battle fields. Now if a country is at war, the people in the cities, hundreds of miles from the fields of conflict, live in dread of an air raid. Children are taught to wear gas masks and to use first aid kits. Sci- entists who could be of real value to the world are put to work experi- menting on new ways of killing peo- ple. These great minds should be turned towards improving the coun- try, not to developing its war instru- ments. In previous years we have celebrat- ed the Armistice with parades, ora- tions and dedications. This year as we march. speak, and dedicate our gifts to those who have not died in vain, let us think of the cost of war -of the millions of young men who died for something that did not exist, -of their mothers who bravely gave their sons to their country,-of the millions of people who were left home- less and destitute. They were all civilized. They all lived in clean homes, used telephones, radios, elec- tric lights and other things that are supposed to make a person civilized, yet they were drawn into war. There is only one way that civil- ization can destroy war, and that is by educating the people against it. So far this has been of little value. We may speak of the horrors and use- lessness of war, but being patriotic, we cannot desert our country when it has been drawn into a conflict by seemingly educated and civilized men, who would probably stay at home if there was a war. There is no doubt in my mind that being civilized can help us to over- come war, IF we use our knowledge in the right Way. But, at present I think that civilization is a hindrance rather than an aid to this cause. We do not have to be great states- men or politicians to help our coun- try stay out of war. If we live peace- fully with our neighbors we may feel that we are helping in a small way to destroy something that may in the end destroy us. GERTRUDE GOLDMAN, College English + + + PAGEANT Continued from Page Ten olutiong Dean's History of Scituate : Mr. Joseph Merritt's book, Anecdotes of the North River g Mr. Merritt's latest book, The Historv of Nor- well3 Mr. Harvy Pratt's, Early Plantersf' and Dr. L. Vernon Briggs' Shipbuilding on the North River. Other material was obtained from in- terviews with several Norwell histor- ians. We thank the parents and friends for their patronage of our graduation exercises of the year 1939. + + + THE CANDLE IN THE WINDOW In the dark and dreary night, As the traveler homeward goesg A candle sends out its eery light. Happy is the traveler's heart, Pouring blessings on the candle, As its warm rays cast a glow, Before the traveler's sandal. Safe at home, the traveler sleeps, Still, the candle keeps its vigil, As the fire skyward leaps. Still, it shines in the window, 'Till 'ere the dawn brings the sun: And finds the candle is no more, For its duty has been done. Elizabeth Jean Ross, Grade VI

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Page sixteen THE SHIPBUILDER Continued From Previous Page come, we will be heart and soul with Czechoslovakia. These letters were all in English, but just as often the correspondent writes his or her letter in French. In return we write our letters in Eng- lish. In this manner valuable prac- tice in reading a foreign language is received at both ends. Such corres- pondence not only affords the student an enjoyable pastime, but also broad- ens his knowledge of how the rest of the world lives. LAWRENCE NEWCOMB, Jr. +++ SOCIAL STUDIES Social studies include United States and modern history, economics, and Problems of Democracy for the up- per classes. In grades seven through nine there is a course of combined civics, geography and history. The classes are taught, not by the tradi- tional single text book style, but by the use of a variety of pamphlets, bulletins, papers, books and maga- zines. The social studies collection is filed by unit subjects in a large clos- et titted for the purpose. In studying a unit, each pupil re- ceives work sheets of activity and problems, vocabularies, outlines, and reference lists. These are used as guides to enable each pupil to work independently, at his own rate. Each student gets credit for his own inter- est, initiative and ideas. No two pa- pers are done alike. The teacher acts as a guide in explaining prob- lems, and suggesting ideas at a con- ference between pupils and teacher. He also helps to find and plan the use of materials. All work, in its first form, is checked for possible ini- provement before being iinally made into booklets. In the course of a year each pupil writes eight to twelve units - ill- ustrated with graphs, charts, clip- pings and other material that makes the booklet interesting. This method of teaching has ap- pealed to everyone, and is very inter- esting. VIRCINIA HALL, '39 REPORT OF UARSENE LUPIN By Maurice le Blanc, famous writer of crime stories This tale is composed of six minor stories, all individual, yet all in chron- ological order and recounting the adventures of a certain part of the life of Arsene Lupin, gentleman burg- lar. The first story, L'Arrestation d' Arsene Lupin, tells how, journey- ing on an ocean liner, this man was arrested for the theft of jewels and money. The story, written in the first person, is a surprise as the sup- posedly innocent guest telling it turns out to be the guilty one. The second story, Arsene Lupin en Prison, deals with his attempts at escape, and his final success by which he was released by the court as being the wrong prisoner, and had really disguised himself, is told in L'Evasion d' Arsene Lupin. The fourth story, La Perle Noir, is, I think, the most exciting. The Countess of Andillot was relieved of a precious black pearl and assassin- ated early one night. Arsene, ignor- ant of this, and having the same idea, crept in and discovered her. Sus- pecting a certain man of having done this, he posed as a detective, forcing him to give up the pearl. Le Mysterieux Voyageur was the account of Arsene's train ride from Paris while sought for escaping, his li ing hed up by a bandit whom a lady passenger supposed to be the hunted Lupin himself, and how, by the help of the police, he recovered his stolen papers, which in the hands of the police, would have sent him back to prison. Le Sept de Coeur contained an interesting episode in which Arsene played the good samaritan against a couple of blackmailers. I very much enjoyed reading this book, for the following reasons: C15 The stories were interesting, humor- ous, mysterious, with plenty of ac- tion, chills, etcg C21 The French was extremely easy to read- that is, by the help oi' footnotes and analyses of syntax. I didn't have many new words to look up, and also most of Continued on Page Twenty-eight