Plainfield High School - Hermiad Yearbook (Central Village, CT)

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THE HERMIAD 7 TO A PENCIL CFrank Koss-19325 I know not where thou art. I only know Thou rested on my desk, Beautiful and contented, A moment back. And as I turned my head To view the clock, Some heartless wretch Went West with thee. I know not who he was Nor shall I ask Perchance, It may have been The man I stole thee from tie CONCILIATION WITH MR. CHAPMAN fWalter Reese-19303 HOPE Sir, that notwithstanding the Supreme power of your principalship. your exceeding good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence to- wards your unruly pupils. As I came into your ofnce full of anxiety about the event of my plea and found to my inhnite surprise that your secretary treated me as a royal visitor instead of the humble petitioner that I am, I took this treat- ment as a providential favor and hope secretly to get some more like it. By the granting of this interview you have given us an opportunity to make an earnest plea for the elimination of a menace very detrimental to the pupils of this beloved institution. This menace we speak of is the final examinations. Snre'y examinations are an awful subject or there is none this side of the grave. Sir, the student body, by the practice of these examinations is kept in continued and constant agitation. One of my worthy schoolmates has already submitted a plan by which the exams may be eliminated for some students. He would have such pupils as have a high average for their work throughout the year excused from the examination. This, Sir, I call outrageous, refined policy which has ever been the parent of confusion. Plain good intention, very easily detected from the hrst, is my ideal. You, Sir, have admitted that there are grounds for our plea by carefully considering, as we know you did, that plan: you have gone further, you have given us to believe that the examinations may be eliminated upon the presenta- tion of proof of their deplorable intiuences.

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fi THE Hl-IRMIAD MUD CElizabeth VVi1de-19305 NE warm Sunday afternoon. early in the month of March, Mrs. Vanderbilt was seized with an insatiable desire to visit her sister-in-law, who lived in a neighboring town. Mr. Vanderbilt, however. did not share his wife's desire, as most devoted husbands are supposed to do, for he was blissfully wandering in the proverbial Land of Nod. Upon being awakened by his better half and requested to drive the family to the fraternal mansion he QFOWICCI. blinked, yawned and finally said, Let Teddy do it. Teddy was the oldest son and had just reached the advanced age of fifteen. But Percival dear, you know that Teddy has no driver's license, although he drives as well as you do, remonstrated his wife. Now Percival Vanderbilt regarded Sunday as his day of rest ton the old couchl and did not intend to be persuaded into driving his family anywhere, even if it did happen to be to his sister's house, so he replied, Go by the back road. No one will see you there. If you see a state cop, stop by the side of the road and tell him you are waiting for your father, he said to Teddy. Mrs. Vanderbilt feared that the back road in question would be very muddy for it had rained all the previous day, and she did not hesitate to tell her husband so. But at last all of her misgivings were overcome and she timidly set out with her father and two daughters for the seven mile trin to the neierhborinyr town. Teddy, of course was at the wheel of the family coach, whirh happened in this modern day and age to be a Willys-Knight. The first quarter of the iourney was traversed in safety. Mrs. Vanderbilt gave a sigh of relief and remarked upon the good condition of the road. but, alas! she had spoken too soon. Before them was a large pool of mud. Teddy stepped on the gas and was nearly across it when the ear gave a shudder and groan and then stopped entirely. In vain did Teddy attempt to extricate the noble and valiant Knight. Such mud! A little way up the road was a farmhouse. and imagine the surprise of Mrs. Vanderbilt to see a strong work horse, led by half a dozen small urchins rome galloping down the road. But the attempts of old Dobbin to rr-move the car from its bed in the mire were as fruitless as those of Teddy. The urchins returned the horse to a well-earned rest in the barn and reappeared a few minutes later with a large tractor. It was but a short time after this that the Knirrht and its occupants were once more merrily rolling down the road. But not for long. for another and much worse mud-hole appeared before their eyes. Teddy gritted his teeth and muttered, I won't get stuck this time ! True to his word he plowed the car through the mud although Mrs. Vander- bilt and her father preferred walking through. This performance was repeated every few rods along the well-paved CPU road. Two hours later the party reached its destination. Mrs. Vanderbilt's first act was to call her Sleeping Beauty on the telephone, and order him to come up on the next bus to drive the family home. Mr. Vanderbilt did so and the return journey was safely made via the state road.

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8 THE HERMIAD Thi y exams or the stu- dents who were lcastuharmed by them. High average students, Sir, have their ranks lowered by fallllig to pass exams but this lower rank is not detrimental. I plead for the pupils who would not beneht by my schoolmates plan, those whose average would be too low to enable them to escape the exams. Their failures would lower the year's rank d ' - ' ' ' 1 ' an It would be exceedingly detrimental, for it would mean their failure for the year. s refined policy of my schoolmate would do awa with f Excuse me, Sir, if I continue my remarks on the same line. Exams should he entirely eliminated by my plan rather than partially eliminated by my school- mate's plan and will now endeavor, without, I hope appearing to you to be too his flunking an exam will mean Hunking for the year, grows exceedingly nervous and does much worseg while the high average pupil consoles himself with the thought that if he flunk th ' ' g s e exam he can stlll pass for the year, remains calm and does lns best. I am sensible, Sir, that all that I have said proves the absurdit of m h I- I . y y sc oo mate's plan and will now endeavor, without, I hope appearing to you to be too nervy, to prove that exams should be entirely abolished. There are three main reasons why examinations should be abolished. First, they are not a test of the subject as a whole, certain parts only are touched upon it lies, Sir, entirely with luck whether or not the pupil is more and better prepared on these certain few questions than on the rest of the subject. Second, they do not represent the pupil at his best, they represent the pupil at his worstg the reason is, if I may have the right to present it, that so much hinges on the results of this exam, that the pupil's future itself hinges on it-which is indeed a terrifying fact to the pupil. Third, they take up too much of the pupiI's and the teacher's time. If the time thus taken up were spent in further study by the pupils and in further teaching by the teachers it would indeed be much more wisely spent. I pray, Sir, that if this plea displeases you, the austerity of your position will prevent you from kicking me from your genteel presence: I further pray, Sir, that if you approve of this plan you may execute it immediately in order that I and the others of my class may derive from it our due benefit. S? +35 THE NIGHT BEFORE EXAMS CLove Fleisher-19325 'Twas the eve of exams and all through that night, I lay groaning in bed in fear of my plight, The ghosts of the lessons I did not prepare Came trooping in line to enjoy my despair. , The history dates danced a jig on my pillow T ' Till I'm sure I cried more than a large weeping willow. French verbs that I most surely ought to have known For some reason or other from my mem'ry had flown.