Polytechnic High School - Polytechnic Student Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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uotedfrom the Alumni Books will never lose their interest, but they have lost much in charm by the substi- tution of machinery for hand-copying. The reason why the stalls of second-hand dealers never lack for wistful Caryatids is that most book-lovers want volumes mellow with experience as well as wisdomvrich not only with the considerations of the author but with the opinions of former readers,though it be shown only in an excla- mation point in the margin here and there .... And so it is with the manuscripts of Chaucer's great bouquet of stories. None of the scribes or readers, or writers of spuri- ous lines, can give a grain of what the poet accomplishes in a single phrase, and yet the master's revelation of his age in its learning and muddle-headedness, its piety and grossness, is enforced and emphasized by the additionsgyes, and the blundersfof these lesser men. From Readers and Writers of Chaucer, a study of manuscripts of THE CANTERBURY TALES. Delivered before the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, 1925. MARGERY BAILEY, S'O9, Ph.D., Yale Anociate Prafenor of Englixli, Stanford Uf1i1'tfJifj' Stajf of the P0lj'fECl9l1fC Student and Poly High, IQ09 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. These lines, taken from a poem by Robert Frost, epitomize the lives of those men and women . . . the few in each generation . . . who shape their lives less according to the pattern ofthe many, than to a design of their own making, who determine upon a career, the road to which may be rough but which appeals to their imagination and expresses their idealism. I fear that most of us, when choosing a profession, follow the line of least resist- ance, provided it promises in due time a reasonable assurance of financial advancement and personal success. And by taking this road of comparatively safe travel, have not some of us, perhaps, shut our eyes to the alluring by-road, abandoned our dreams of those other and more ideal walks of life in which our essential idealism might have found expression? Only the rare ones among us have the courage to take the road less travelled by. The young person who dreams a dream and insists upon making that dream a reality has the difficult by-road to travel, with little encouragement from his skeptical fel- lows, yet the bright blade of his own shining ambition will serve as an instrument to cut his way through the tangle of the untrodden roads and bring him ultimately to high, clear places. From an address by ISABEL FOTHERGILL SMITH, S'09, Ph.D., Bryn Mawr Dean and Pfofcuor of Gealagy, Scripps College Prexident Girlf' Self-Government, 1909

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PIIILLIP NoR'roN W, A. DUNN CARI, ll. Wmscuwo 'IUIIN llnatx Jllemomfzdum 0 C0lldifi0ll5 RLII,A'l'lVE TO NVILLIS A. DUNN MEDAL AVVARDS F1RsT: It is anticipated that the Willis A. Dunn medal awards will be made annually to selected students of the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles by the President of the Alumni Association. Siacorsin: lt is anticipated that three awards will be made, as follows: Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal Timm: lt is anticipated that the recipients of these awards will be selected from the student body by a group of the faculty to be selected hy the Principal of the Polytechnic High School annually, Fouaruz lt is anticipated that in making the Willis A. Dunn awards that much weight will be given to scholarship accomplishments of students under consideration, but it is not anticipated that scholarship alone shall be a determining factor, as the governing elements of the award shall be based on the accomplishment of the students as regards effort, character building, and actual achievement. Primarily it is intended to give large consideration to the elliorts of selected students, rather than to a high grade of scholastic accomplish- ment, and it is conceivable that in only infrequent instances will the awards be made to those having the highest scholastic grades.

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. . . To thine own self he true, And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then he false to any man. Our former heloved principal of Polytechnic High School, ,lohn H. Francis, made the principle expressed in this quotation the corner stone of his life and that of his stu- dents. His dynamic personality so impressed its significance upon our minds that no admonition received hy us during our lives has had such a profound and lasting effect upon our consciousness. The especial value of the thought grows with the years, for it is true that as age ap- proaches we either show an ever increasing reliance upon truth or else a degradation into untrustworthiness. There is an old proverh to the elfect that as a twig is hent so shall grow the tree. By so indelihly impressing upon us the value of honesty, .Iohn H. Francis has done us a greater service even than that resulting from our material education. lt is my hope that I shall he ever true to the ideal set hefore us hy him. 'IOHN Black, S'O9, fitt11r11qy-111-fi111' Pre.r11Je11l A.l'.l'lILifzIfFtl .S't1z1Je11t lglllfl' Olgrlllfzzlffrlll, .Snug ln our country we are called upon to give hut little in return for the advantages which we receive. Shall we give that little reluctantly? Patriotism calls for the faith- ful performance of the ordinary duties of citizenship in small matters as well as in great. There is no more menacing feature of these times than the disinclination of so- called husy people to assume tl1e hurdens of government. lf we desire to preserve to future generations the high standard of our institutions, we must impress upon our new citizens that ahove all pleasure, ahove all conveniences, ahove all husiness they must plan first their duty to their government. LnoNAno WIl,SL7N, S'12, Att11r11qy-txt-lt111' D1'l211t111g H111mr.r, 1911-1912 To one who has had the opportunity of going to a high school such as Polytechnic, which draws its students from all sections ofthe community, the advantages are mani- fold, hut most important is the experience one gains from friendships with those in school from the different walks of life. A student seldom looks into the future and realizes what the friendships he is mak- ing will mean. But after heing an alumnus for many years, he looks into the past, and comes to the realization that such friendships have proven of inestimahle value. for it will he found that the companions of school days are now husiness associates. One comes to realize further that after all, an important privilege of going to high school is this opportunity of meeting others so that one's sphere of influence may he propor- tionately hroadened and one ceases to he just another person in the life of the com- munity. Therefore, cultivate such friendships while young and your value to the community will increase with time. As a reward you will reap success with the ioy and happiness which accompany it. FRANK FRANK, W'l5, .Tt'L'lll'fli'l'-l'ifl'.l'f Nt1tio11.1l Hank Registrar' Aflllllllf Arrociutiazz