Ottumwa High School - Argus Yearbook (Ottumwa, IA)

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 UCTION • I Early in the history of Ottumwa, its far-sighted citizens began to realize the importance of instructing their young in the rudiments of book learning. Of | practical education there was a great plenty; a child could learn all there was to know about nature, the ways of the woods, how to shelter himself against cold, hunger, and danger from the heavily timbered hills that rose—and still do rise- from the edge of the Des Vloines river. But of book learning there was little in- deed until 1865. when a commodious brick schoolhouse was built on College Square, where the present high school is located. Before this there had been several schools established in succession, but they were schools without their own build- ings—schools that met in homes, churches, and even the fields. Finally, when in 1865 the first Adams school, as it was called, was erected for approximately S28,ooo, j Ottumwa was launched on its great public school system. From then on the other grade school buildings were built with great rapidity. High school was held in the first Adams building, and when it was torn down, school was held in the new one. Later, in i8qq, when the Adams was outgrown I the Washington, then known as the new high school. was completed. By 1921, the attendance at this school had increased so greatly that it became necessary to build our present Si,000,000 high school. We students of the Ottumwa High School are grateful to those early pioneers who had sufficient foresight to provide an efficient system of schools. They built better than they knew, for in its most important aspects our modern or- ganization of the educational system differs surprisingly little from theirs. , We citizens of Ottumwa appreciate and acknowledge our good fortune in having fallen heir to such a legacy. Our fine schools are known all over the state. We arc justly proud. I )

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Three hundred' years of learning! Three hundred years of teaching! Three hundred years of advancing! I his is what the three hundred years between 1635 and 1935 have meant. Cn .April 15, 1635. when the freemen of Boston provided for the first secondary school in America, they little realized what a period in the history of education they had started. From that small school with one teacher and a handful of students has grow n our great modern high school w ith many hundreds of pupils and teachers. Did they dream, these innovators of the greatest free public school system in the world, that only three centuries later the seed they planted would be multi- plied into the 26,000 high schools and 6,000,000 students of the year 1935? On this three-hundredth anniversary of the first high school wc wish to cele- brate the accomplishments of those who have preceded us in the great struggle to establish a free education for a free people. Moving w ith the nation as it ex- panded westward, conquering the obstacles of poverty and ignorance, those early teachers and educators impregnated every pioneer community with the desire to educate its children until the schoolhouse became the focal point of American life. Where they sowed, we reap, and no pride in our splendid buildings, far-sighted ideals, and search for public good can ignore what they did for us. And so we ask this question of us all—graduating seniors, underclassmen, faculty, parents, impartial friends—will the next three hundred years see as great an advancement in education as the last? Knowing what has beeen done and what is left to do, will we seize the torch and carry it on toward the goal to which our forefathers' glorious past urges us? We hear the challenge and ponder. Are we puppets or are we men? On with the march! OTTUMWA V

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