Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

Page 13 text:

(Eli? ijtglj Submit Now that we are established in our line new building and have all made our high resolves to get the most out of its opportunities, let us recall what it is that we expect our High School to do for us. We know full well that we must get value for the time we spend here. We know that the school costs money which the taxpayers of Petaluma cheerfully furnish. e know that it costs parents much hard earned money to send young men and women to school when they might be at work earning part or all of their own living. We know that it is pleasant to be familiar with history and science and literature, and to be able thus to enjoy the world’s store of good things. But we also know that the High School is not provided merely to the end that we shall get more pleasure out of life through these things. It is provided for a more serious purpose than that; it is provided so that we ourselves shall be able to do better our part in the world ' s work, and so that we shall have ambition enough to want to do a large and worthy part. It is provided for the purpose of making us more useful and better and happier in all the serious relation¬ ships that make men and women worth while,—as workers, as citizens, as parents, as friends. We have often to explain what a High School is for, and it is not always easy to give an answer that is satisfying either to ourselves or to our questioner. The truth of the matter is that our conception of what a High School should aim to accomplish has changed greatly in the past few years under the pressure of modern demands. The older type of school was one in which the student was, for a time, withdrawn in his interest from active life, to study classic thoughts, manners and ideals of bvgone times, together with certain other subjects whose purpose was to cultivate mental agility. This course produced a few—a very few—educated people, of broad culture and frequently great ability. Its defect lay in the narrowness of its field; only those who could afford a long, expensive course, which required supplementary work in a profes¬ sional school or in business, could secure the benefits of its training. To supply an education that would lead more quickly to increased ability as a wage earner, business colleges and trade schools sprang up. — 13 — •Tv