Shaker Heights High School - Gristmill Yearbook (Shaker Heights, OH)

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Time ticks on slowly from day to day and hour to hour; its movement goes al- most unnoticed. Time lends both a sweet and sorrowing shadow to all things past. It covers future hopes and future dreams with the mys- tical substance of uncertainty. The briefly passing minutes hold the key to ephemeral happenings and happiness — gay times, games, dances, romances. Time lulls all into a sense of false security. These high school days seem never-ending. Yet, after giving each of the three years spent here careful scrutinization, the realization ap- pears that each year has hurtled down that once endless road to a rather abrupt, startling and perhaps even awakening halt. It seems as if the years move at a much more rapid pace than the minutes and the days. At the start of the high school years, time was a kind of sheltering factor. The 8:30 bell, classes, dates, weekends, parties — every- thing was set down clear and easy to follow. Looking back, not much real thought and ef- fort were present at first. Then suddenly the slowly rolling ball of days and months was caught up in the whirlwind flashing speed of years. In the future, things past are unable to be remembered in a singular form — the year of that game, the year of those gay times. Time is no longer friendly. It is calling all out of a protective shelter into a menacing, threatening open space where short-lived events do not matter, where a second chance Is unlikely to be found. Friend time that has kept life lively during three years as a student becomes moody, wanting to be courted all over again. Thus time makes memories sad though they be of happy times. There is no need to wonder whom time beckons from this stepping place. It calls with a shrill and plerc- H ing voice luring each and every one out of the green and golden years into the shadows.

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Graduation involves a million details — like cap and gown fittings. Individuals find enjoyment in working to- gether. Al Benson reveals the typical senior enthusiasm in activities. Of time and the dance The Big Year-An Ending and Beginning The senior girls provide the beauty for the queens and courts. In the last year is mixed the glow of self- importance and the worry of what is to come. The fun is supreme; honors and prizes shower on the big cheeses. Diversity takes over com- pletely, for individuality has emerged to send each his separate way. When the three years fall into perspective, there is a satisfaction for the accomplishments and the growth and a regret for that not done and the lost oppor- tunities. And always there is that sense of an- ticipation for the next years. 28

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CURRICULUM Guaranteed to all in shaker: life, liberty, and the opportunity to pursue excel- lence. Excellence is the nth dimension, the ever receding object of academic quest. The pursuit of excellence is the essence of the experience of education. The driving force behind this pursuit is simply the inherent desire to know, to understand. This desire is one of man ' s basic motivations, al- though many students seem to do their best to stifle it. Hov ever, the influence of stimulating teachers is usually able to bring out this desire, to shape it, to give it form and direction. The primary business of a high school is to provide an education. Shaker is unusually well organized for this business: superior laboratory facilities, advanced placement classes for the gifted, experienced counselors, and dedicated teachers blend to form a magnificent educa- tional atmosphere. The key to this atmosphere is the general feeling of curiosity on the part of both teachers and students. The best teachers we knew were also still students. They all combined a desire to under- stand with a passion for teaching which found expression in highly individual ways. We shall remember Mr. Cramer ' s broad, sweeping ges- tures, Mr. Pickering ' s challenging irony, Mr. Szwaja ' s impassioned lectures. Education was not limited to class periods. The Shaker staff led us in class, sponsored our extracurricular activities, counseled us willingly, and, as our friends and teachers, stayed long hours after school to teach and aid us. 30