Paxton High School - Reflector Yearbook (Paxton, IL)

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BASE BALL OUTLOOK The prospects for a winning base ball team this year are unusually bright. The surrounding schools gen- erally have due respect for our bunch In base ball because of our strong pitchers. Kelso held them all at bay for a number of years and Swenson is equally feared. This is his last year, however, and we will have to make the most of a good thing as next year we will be in a precarious position as to pitchers. In fact, if ever we expect to make a good record and a clean-sweep, the chances favor us this year. The fel- lows have showed a great deal of in- terest and enthusnasm about a team this year as twenty have promised to become candidates. The lack of a suitable place to play will not trouble us this year. Swenson, Carlson, Overstreet, Ham- merlund and McKegney, are the regu- lars from last year’s team and Mc- Colley and Morgan have had base ball experience at other schools. C-apt. Swenson knows the game from start to finish and we can rely upon him rounding out a winning team for us. Roy Hutchinson, formerly of Clar- ence has been elected captain of the Perdue University foot ball team for next year. “Hutch” starred for the P. H. S. team during the season of 'OIL The U. of I. has had hard luck in basket ball, having lost three big games straight. Lack of capable substitutes and the flunking of some of the men in their studies, are given as the causes for their defeats. The indoor track men, however, are look- ing forward to a successful season and intend to carry off their share of gold medals. Byrd, the all-around athlete, from Milford, has received an invitation to- attend the try outs at Chicago from which the men are picked who repre- sent the U. S. at the Olympic games. Byrd drew a great deal of attention because of his records in weight- throwing at the various high school meets. The P. H. S. basket ball team are enjoying themselves immensely. They are merely out for exercise and amusement and ‘allow’ the other teams to tramp on and play ’tiddle-de- winks’ with them. The fellows would make a strong team if they could get a place in which to practice, but are certain to put up a losing fight as conditions stand. The score has actu- ally totaled over 150 in favor of oppo»- nents so far. Pat ’em on the back.

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72 THE TAX TON HIGH SCHOOL REFLECTOR Cear’s L etter to Teachers, which is published below, ough. to be of in- terest to high school students as well as to teachers. It may be that it is never given to any teacher to know when, or where, or how he may “ring the rising bell in the dormitory of his pupils’ souls”; but, if the secret could be dis- covered, every true teacher would gladly pay the price of its possession. That such a teacher may at some time, or in some way—unconscious though it be—touch the secret springs that thrill to noble, purposeful, use- ful, joyous life, is his highest and his most ardent hope. Perhaps if students more generally understood this, they would pardon something to human frailty, and ac- credit at least a trifle more to the spirit of unselfish devotion, the no- bility of purpose, and the unwavering faith that together make it possible for a true teacher to labor and to wait.’ Teachers and students, let us all read this letter from Superintendent Blair:—yes, read it, study it, ponder it. Perhaps his stirring words shall have the magic power to teach the way, or touch direct the hidden springs. O. J. B. New Year's Letter To Superintendents and Teachers: “He rang the rising bell in the dor- mitory of my soul.” The gentleman was speaking gratefully of what one of his teachers had done for him. Happily, he found a fine expression for his feeling. You and I would probably have said, “He woke me up.” Nevertheless, I am glad that he used just that figure. It says so much and suggests so much. How many boys and girls grow to men and women and die without near- ing the rising bell! How many of our pupils have heard it? How many of them are still dreaming, dozing, sleep- ing? How many teachers are real bell ringers? How many of them grow old in the school room without awaken- ing a single new idea or latent power in the dormintory of a child’s soul? It may be that the best bell ringers are unconscious of it. It may be that most boys and girls forget when their rising bell was rung and the hand that rang it. Little matter. The result is the main thing. The influence of a teacher is not measured in years. It is measured in the thoughts stimulated, the hearts quickened, the minds awakened. The quantity and quality of her service is not marked on the calendar. It is recorded in the flash of opened eyes, in the sparkle of kindled emotions and in the joy of awakened powers. There is your quiet, tidy little body tiptoeing about the dormitory, hold- ing her breath for fear she will awake some one. If she ever rings a bell, it’s by accident and is a matter of regret rather than congratulation. Her heart’s desire is to go on year after year without disturbing any one. O, for the clang of a bell or a dash of cold water! We have just been ringing out the old year and ringing in the new. Some people, no doubt, think there was entirely too much noise and fuss and disturbance about it. But it came in the middle of the night while we were sound asleep and some one had to blow the whistles and ring the bells to wake us up so that we might see the beginning of a brand new year that had never begun before and will never begin again. New years of op- portunity are beginning every day for our pupils in the dormitories of their souls. Shall we ring the bell or let them sleep? F. G. Blair Superintendent.

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THE PAXTOy HIGH SCHOOL EE ELECT OK GENERAL NOTES Attendance during the first two weeks of school after Christmas was somewhat irregular on account of the cold weather. Classes were dis- missed several days as the rooms were not warm enough. The heating system has been gone ov£r and more radiation added in several of the rooms. It is quite comfortable now. A new bell system has been put • into use since the vacation. The signals are given now by an au’omat- ic clock which rings every bell in the building at certain times. It took quite a little time and work to get the system in perfect order. All the foot ball team appeared in new sweaters after vacation. The sweaters are dark blue with the plain block letter P on them. The swea- ters were very popular during the cold weather, especially among the girls. We have had a little trouble about arranging the program for the second semester. Having so many classes and so few in our faculty, it takes quite a little work to arrange the program to please everyone. Some of the subjects are studied only one semester and new ones are taken in their place. The changes this year are: Physiography to Physiology: Zoology to Botany; English History to American History; Algebra IV. to Geometry IV.; Civics IV. to Reviews; Algebra II. to English History II. Just a gentle reminder that the next number of the Reflector is general. You, who write themes for English should make them extra good during the next two weeks so we may have some good stories. 74 The following have visited our high school during this month: Hazel Hanson, Verne Healy, Miss Bridge- man, C. C. Strickland, Ethel Birket, Clithroe Rudolph Eva Karr, Margaret Gourley, Miss Helgeland. A spelling exam, was given Jan. 23. The pupils having an average of 95 for the semester were exempt. The average grade in spelling counts one- fifth on the grades in English. In many cases this helps the student greatly. Monday, January 29th, was a day of readjustment of classes for the sec- ond semester. The work of many of the classes was necessarily interrup- ted. By Wednesday everything was running smoothly. Some radical changes in the return pipes from the steam radiators of the recitation rooms in the old part of the building, made last Saturday, have put a quietus on the so-called “radia- tor strike”. At times, during the past month, the noise made by the pound- ing of the steam plant in this part of the building sounded as though old Cyclops had brought a gang of his blacksmiths from the nether world to hammer the thing to pieces. We ought not to sufTer in zero weather from inadequately heated rooms hereafter. The two n w radia tors placed in the window alcoves of ihe high school room have increased the heat radiation about one-thir.l. A new radiator has been placed in the Superintendent’s office, and addi- tional sections have been added to radiators in all of the recitation rooms except the biological labora- tory, which has always been comfort- able in extreme weather.