Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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THE GOLDEN-HOD Alumni Notes Saroent School of physical B ucatton In the fall of 1904 the new Sargent Gym- nasium was opened which is in every way adapted to the needs of a modern school of physical education. The new building has two independent gym- nasiums, shower baths, several locker rooms and a gallery for special apparatus. On the middle floor between the two gymnasiums is an assembly hall, library, laboratory, lecture rooms and a “ rest room.” The work of the school is divided into a three years’ course. The first year is the Freshman year; the second, the Junior, and the last, the Senior year. In the Freshman year the girls are trained in the lighter gymnastics including free exercises, Delsartc movements, chest weights, Indian clubs and dumb bells, in the elementary athletics and heavy gymnastics, also military marching which is a feature. The theory during the first year is difficult and important, as it forms the fundamental basis of the theory of the next two years. The course consists of anatomy, physiology, histology and a brief study of physics and chemistry. In the junior year follow the more complicated drills in Indian clubs, wands and dumb-bells. Intermediate heavy gymnastics on the parallel bars, German horse-back and horizontal bar, are performed by the Juniors in excellent form. The theory is also advanced. The pupil is taught how to make a physical examination and how to analyze any form of exercise. The voice is cul- tivated in such a way that it may be used in long continued efforts without fatigue, especially in giving the commands necessary in all forms of gymnastics. The Senior is taught how to teach physical training in almost all its branches. She must be able to instruct a class from the simpler forms of free exercises to the most difficult movements of fencing. She receives practice in teaching corrective, medical and heavy gymnastics with instruction as to the best methods of assisting pupils. The Senior can diagnose disease and can give one the progress and decline of physical education from the Greek and Roman to the athlete of the present day. The Freshmen and Juniors look upon the wise Senior as a “star” in esthetic dancing, “ dandy ” in swinging clubs and “great” in fencing. If anything in her theory puzzles the little “ Freshy ” let her run to the noble Senior who is as wise as an M. D. and her troubles are over. Hut, with work we must have play and there’s always a time for play at old Sargent’s. Basket ball is played throughout the year. Great is the enthusiasm when the teams come out for a class game. In the autumn and spring tennis is an amusement on Jarvis Field. A class tournament causes much excitement. Every year an athletic meet is conducted by the Seniors and here the class rivalry is very evident. Occasionally a real dance is given in the evening. The lower gym. is a fairyland decorated with Japanese lanterns and flags from the different colleges with a huge Sargent banner over all. The swimming tank opens in the early spring. On a hot May day the following is a familiar scene : Swimming Tank. Water,—three or four feet deep. In it,—one-half dozen girls eating ice cream from paper boxes. Costumes,—wet bathing suits. So from October to June one hundred Sar- gent girls are growing both mentally and physi- cally, preparing themselves in the theory and practice of physical training in its broadest acceptation with the purpose of teaching this much neglected branch of education. Lois Elmer Williams, ’04. TfClellesle It is almost impossible to try to give any idea of Wellesley in a few words, for it is so large itself, and so many-sided, that if I once get started on such a subject, I can go on forever. There is no reason for speaking of the academic side of college, for one can learn that from the catalogue, but w'hat one cannot learn from any book or catalogue, are the good times, the free and easy, informal social “events,” where the girls can meet in that sweet good fellowship, which is one of the strongest tics of college life. “ The Barn Swallows ” is the most representative social organization, for this includes every girl in college, who is willing to pay the small fee re- quired. The meetings are held in a huge barn,

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THE GOLDEN-ROD Fhe New Building “Off with the old and on with the new” is a thought that fills teachers and pupils of the Ouincy High School with no feelings of regret, but rather with anticipations of great happiness. Seven years of crowding without proper accommo- dations for recitations or for study have tended to kill those finer emotions which endear a school building to a community and to replace them with an indifference that is unfortunate, to say the least. The time of awakening however is at hand. Dreams arc coming true. The foundations are laid and the rising walls give promise that soon class and recitation rooms will be provided for all, and that corridors and laboratories will no longer be used for purposes other than those for which they were intended. The new building with its twenty-three class, rooms, three laboratories, three commercial rooms, three manual training rooms, drawing room, science lecture room, library, reception room, teachers' rooms, office, gymnasium, lunch counter and assembly hall will give Quincy a high school building consistent with its educational reputation and as fine as any in New England. The new class-rooms are larger than the old and will accommodate forty-nine pupils each — making it possible to use the front of the rooms for recitation and the back for study. Each room will be well-lighted, heated, ventilated, and equipped with book cases and closets. The com- mercial rooms are large enough to accommodate regular divisions provided with business desks. The new laboratories have ample supply and apparatus rooms, and will be used for the chemi- cal, physical and biological sciences. An adjoin- ing room will be furnished to meet the needs of demonstration work in science classes. No longer will it be necessary to use the chemical laboratory as a kitchen for the cooking classes. In the basement there will be room for domestic science, with a neighboring lunch counter pro- viding an opportunity for the application of the useful knowledge gained. The manual training rooms and gymnasium will open the way for developing the bodies as well as the minds of the pupils. In the gymna- sium, round shoulders, narrow chests and bad postures will be corrected and young men and women taught to walk, stand and sit correctly. In the manual training rooms, the hands will be trained to express what the mind sees and to obey accurately what the will dictates. Finally the assembly hall with accommodations ample for a thousand pupils, will provide a place where the whole school can assemble for general exercises, or where classes can meet for special purposes.

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THE GOLDEN-ROI) remodelled into a general playroom, with a stage and a good dance floor. Here, every other Saturday evening, there is some sort of enter- tainment given, — perhaps a play, perhaps an impromptu masquerade ball, or perhaps a baby party, where everyone has a chance to show her ingenuity in inventing a costume out of what she has herself or what she can borrow, beg or steal from her neighbors. When the girls gather for these good times, they forget that there is such a thing as a forty-page forensic, or a special topic in German to prepare. They go in for a good time, and they have it to their hearts’ content, and then come back ready for hard work. After one of these Barnswallow entertainments, the girls go back to their houses, and particularly at College Hall, the largest building on the campus, and the one which forms the centre of college life, they gather together in “centre” to sing college songs, class songs for a few minutes be- fore the “quiet bell ” rings, always ending up with “ Alma Mater,” the “ My Country, Tis of Thee ” of college. This gives only a glimpse of the side of college life one hears least about, for there are many other forms of entertainment, the societies, with their pretty houses for the upper-class girls, the debating clubs, the athletic association, which gives every girl a chance for plenty of good hard exercise in the open air, and the literary clubs for those inclined that way; but it is a side of college life which is of no small importance, for not the least part of the education one receives is the chance to come into close comradeship with many girls of many types; to learn how to have a good time as well as to work, to learn the value of true friendship, and, above all, to learn to take a girl for what she is, not for what she has, for this is one of the principles upon which Welles- ley prides herself. No matter how unattractive a girl may seem at first, no matter how little she may have to give,— if she gives herself loyally and unselfishly, she is sure to find a hearty wel- come everywhere. Margaret Mills, 1904. o J J IRafccliffe Golleoe Radcliffe has been called “Harvard's little sister,” but of course not by a real sane person, only by someone who was hard up for joking material! For it is very clear to any visitors to our college that we are perfectly able to stand on our own feet without help from “our friend across the common.” At almost any time one may sec all kinds of life going on in different parts of the college. A panoramic view would show first a crowd of girls in the theatre, rehearsing for a play, merrily sewing on their costumes and arranging the scenery; over in the gymnasium, we may see a fencing class downstairs, regular gym work up- stairs, girls getting read) for basket ball in their dressing rooms, and still others splashing round in the swimming tank. In the living room of the new building, Agassiz House, forces are divided between girls who are doing light study- ing, and those who are hovering about the piano, singing or dancing. As a closing scene, to prove that we do have something besides frivolity at Radcliffe, a glance into the library will show girls of all classes, — from seniors, in their caps and gowns, to freshmen, trying to adjust themselves to new methods — studying, and studying hard, for concentration for the moment is one of the first lessons a college girl must learn. Surely, the days when Radcliffe existed only under the stupendous title of “The Society for the Intercollegiate Instruction of Women” are past — well past — and now she takes her place among the foremost colleges in New England, not for the instruction of “women,” but for the physical, intellectual and moral development of girls, strong, healthy, active girls, who gather from all over the United States, work together and play together for four years — and then go forth better fitted to fill a woman’s place in the world because they have spent those four years under the careful supervision of their alma mater, whose motto is “Veritas.” J J J Umpression of fttauvarC» Uliupersitp A man’s success at Harvard depends almost entirely upon himself. It makes absolutely no difference who a man is, where he comes from, how much or how little money he has, if he proves himself a gentleman. If he displays ability, by his own efforts he may succeed in scholarship, athletics, class life, or club life. If a man works diligently for his class, and through