River Rouge High School - Vigilant Yearbook (River Rouge, MI)

Page 15 text:

SUPERINTENDENT ALEXANDER MCDONALD Music as a Character Builder Serving as it does in the capacity of produc- ing happiness and contributing the element of harmony between work and leisure, to music must also be credited the building of character. Since music is an expression of the soul in its attempt to attain the true, the beautiful and the perfect, one who is a lover of music is not one to enjoy discordant notes in conduct or the commission of Wrong-doing, so We often say that where spontaneous music is there is no mischief. Citizenship The basis of good citizenship is character. Anything that gives joy to life as does music contributes stability and therefore reliability. These are essential factors of good citizenship. Music Not cz Luxury Because of the high estimate we hold for music, we cannot therefore call it a luxury. We must establish instrumental or vocal music in the life of the young people as a habit, and conclude by adding that music at best ex- presses that which cannot be said adequately in words but about which it is impossible to remain silent. -A. McDonald.

Page 14 text:

ERNEST W. MILLS ROY W. HOWELL ARTHUR L. VALADE ALEXANDER Trustee Trustee President MCDONALD Superintendent MUSIC FOR CULTURAL HAPPINESS AND HUMAN UNDERSTANDING Who carry music in their heart Through dusty lane and wrangling mart, Playing their daily tasks with busier feet, Because their secret souls a holier strain repeat. The Board of Education, the teaching staff and the administration believe most thorough- ly in music and therefore give it prime con- sideration from the kindergarten through the high school. There are several reasons for that indorsement. Cultural Happiness Music being the art of tones in harmony and creating melody thereby stands in contrast with noise. Time is the essence of music and is free from the three dimensions of space. This fact accounts for the unhampered character of freedom in music and therefore for its high ideality as an arty both to the producer and to the audience. The content of music then is man's innermost emotional nature. The emo- tions of man in the presence of the experience of life finds expression in music. With its un- utterable and indefinable message from the soul of one to the other music summons us away from the hard world of reality to the un- known, invisible and perfect world of ideals, where things are as we want them to be. This ecstacy of feeling produces happiness and thereby serves as a profitable consumer of leisure time as well as to wash away from the soul the accumulated dust of everyday life. CARL J. THRUN DANIEL GONIEA ALBERT R. HEUER CHARLES W. Trustee Treasurer Trustee SCHULTZ Secretary

Page 16 text:

PRINCIPAL HARVEY M. ROSA PRINCIPAL ACCLAIMS PROGRESS IN MUSIC It we are going to interpret public educa- tion in the strict sense as education tor the public, states Mr. Harvey M. Rosa, our princi- pal, there is no reason why the student with unusual ability in music should not have the same opportunities as the student who is in- terested in mathematics or language. Mr. Rosa believes this is a musical age. Having little or no opportunity for training in his earlier years, he is putting forth his best efforts to give students interested in music a chance to develop their talents. It has been the purpose of the administration, together with the cooperation of the Board ot Education, to develop the musical department in our school second to none in the state of Michigan, and to see that every student is given an oppor- tunity to reach his mature years with an un- derstanding and appreciation of good music. Mr. Rosa believes it is the duty of the young- er people with their numerous opportunities lor learning and developing their natural apti- tudes to help educate this generation in the light of what is expected in 1940. However, Mr. Rosa concludes, it should not be misinterpreted that it is the purpose ot the public school to train students to seek their living through music, lout rather, first, to help them discover any special musical talent they might possessg second, to develop an apprecia- tion for this talent, and third, to point a way for them toward attaining ta higher degree of efficiency in music than the high school is able to offer.