Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR 7 ©ur lltcw teachers Miss Ber-tha Bray is a graduate of the Somer- ville Latin High School and Tufts College. At Tufts College she was secretary of her class four years, captain of the basket ball team, active in track athletics and tennis, a member of the col- lege choir, and prominent in dramatics. She was also assistant editor of the Brown and Blue. Since graduating Miss Bray has made a specialty of French and German, traveling abroad and studying at the University of Gottingen, Germany. She will teach French and German. Miss Mildred V. Clark, the new cooking teacher, is a graduate of Boston Domestic Science- School, and has spent one year at Simmons Col- lege. Mr. Walter 1. Chapman was born in Somerville, lie is a graduate of the Edgcrly Grammar School, Latin High, and Boston University. While in High School he was the first treasurer of the Radiatok. He has been supervisor of public schools, Bago. Occidental Xegros, I I., principal of Rigal Institute. Provincial High School, Occi- dental Xegros. I I., and master of several gram- mar schools. Mr. Chapman is now teaching alge- bra and Spanish. The position of laboratory assistant is filled this year by Mr. A. W. W’athan, of South Dartmouth, Mass. Mr. W'athan is a graduate of Brown Uni- versity. and has had about two years’ experience in public and private school work. Xetters to a jfrcsbman H-tumbcv One Dear Freshman:— As you are now entering upon your high school career, take a few words of advice from one who is nearing the end of high school days, and who writes from personal experience. The courses which you will take arc for the purpose of preparing you to cope successfully with the problems of life. Don’t neglect them. Even- time you do it means so much more for the next lesson. Don't let them go unlearned because of some social affair which is of less importance than Study. Let studies be the uppermost thought in mind. I don’t mean worry about them, but do lessons first, and then you will enjoy your pleas- ure a great deal more. Do your work well and faithfully each day. and then you won't have to worry about examinations at the end of the year. Take time to choose your friends. A few months with a poorly-chosen friend means the loss of much valuable time. Choose one who knows a little more than you do; try to gain something by your intimacy with him. and let him find some- thing good in you. thus making the friendship valuable to all concerned. Find a friend who is always ready to lend a willing hand when difii- culties arise. The choice of a true friend is some- thing which can never be regretted. Always work in co-operation with the teachers. When you are studying in a room with a division reciting, use the time for study and not in taking the teacher’s time to look after you. .Teachers are here to instruct and help you. Do all you can to help them. Last, but not least, let me mention school spirit. Do all you can to help along a good cause. In a school of 1,800, individual aid means a great deal; try to do your part, and you will be all right. Enter into the school spirit, abide by the laws of the school, attend the games, if possible, and do your share toward making a better, busier Som- erville High School. Sincerely your friend, A Senior.

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6 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR their written opinions on matters of school inter- est, an opportunity of placing their ideas before their fellow students, that they may read and re- flect thereon. To the alumnus it affords an op- portunity of communication with the student body. The teacher, too, must have some point which he wishes to make clear to the parents of his pupils, or vice versa. In short, we are glad to receive communications upon any subject of school or local interest. The writer's name will be kept back upon request. Mr. Clark’s interest in the Radiator, shown by this kindly contribution, is deeply appreciated by the management. We feel that the students at large will also appreciate this interest. r » n 9, We feel sure that our readers will welcome an article from the pen of the Radiator's old friend. Mr. Baxter, and we appreciate his kindness in contributing. It is only a new instance of the great and friendly interest in the Radiator which he has always shown. We are proud to number among our contributors this great good man. The Radiator joins in expressing the sentiment that has been voiced everywhere—that of regret at his absence and of best wishes for felicity in his future career. 9t ► r The Debating Club has not been organized yet this year, but when it is let it be with much enthu- siasm. With the united forces of the combined school there should be a large number of inter- debaters. The club has made a splendid record in the past, and we must not fall short of past achievements. A challenge has already been re- ceived from the Brookline High School which should arouse us to prompt action. Athletic interests in the High School have met with a great loss in the resignation of Mr. Harry L. Jones as treasurer and faculty manager. Mr. Jones has achieved a great deal under trying con- ditions, and sometimes in the face of opposition. He has sacrificed his own personal comfort and interest for the good of high school athletics, r. r. r r, The Radiator wishes to make clear its position with regard to the School Notes department of this number. Instead of being worked out, as in the past, by class editors elected by the various classes, this department has been placed for one month in the hands of a board composed of las: year’s class editors and their assistants. This has been done at the request of the headmaster for a reason which we shall endeavor to explain. Considering the circumstances growing out of the recent uniting of what was two schools. Mr. A very has deemed it beneficial to the school that no class elections be held so early in the year, hollowing out this idea, he requested that last year’s class representatives be appointed to look after the School Notes in the first number. It is our intention to make provision for the election of class editors by the classes in time for the November Radiator. » »• The High School, in common with the city at large, suffers an irreparable loss in the death of Mr. S. Newton Cutler. I'or many years as mem- ber of the School Board he was the faithful guar- dian of our interests, and throughout his life lie has been the generous helper of the school, the personal friend of each instructor, and the one whose optimistic good will followed each member of the classes which yearly go forth from our midst. Mr. Cutler was graduated from Somerville High school in 1873, from Harvard College in IS?L attaining honors in English and membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Throughout a busy and successful career he still found time to cultivate his marked intellectual tastes. In many of the great bookstores of Boston in a quiet corner a chair was kept “for Mr. Cutler. where, when a leisure half-hour served, the latest and choicest books were brought for his inspec- tion. to the enrichment not only of his own exten- sive library, but that of our school and the private libraries of many of his friends. His genial smile, his courteous bearing, the up- lift which followed even a momentary greeting from the cultured Christian gentleman will be greatly missed, yet his inlluencc cannot cease among us. nor his name be forgotten. By his many benefactions in the past and by his last generous bequest, through all the future, as in the past, one of the strongest working factors of the school will continue to owe much to Mr. S. Newton Cutler. We could fain wish the High School many friends like him. We are thankful to have had and to have come under the influence of one such as he was.

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8 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR (Ibe Xatc fllMss jfov Miss Sarah Winslow Fox, teacher in Somer- villes High Schools for thirty-eight years, and per- sonal friend of a large number of alumni, passed away a few weeks ago. In this connection the following obituary has been written by former Headmaster George I,. Baxter, who was for so many years associated with Miss Fox:— “I first met Miss box in February, 1808, when she was a young woman in her twenties. Miss Sarah R. Osgood, teacher of classics and mathe- matics in the high school, had resigned to accept the position of head assistant in the Salem High School. Miss Osgood was a very successful teacher, and when she gave up her position in Somerville she was asked if she knew of anyone whom she could recommend to fill her place, one as good as herself. Her answer was: ’I will recommend a teacher better than I. Sarah Wins- low Fox.' The committee and superintendent were impressed by what she said, and interviewed Miss Fox. The latter asked to be tried in the schoolroom. She proposed to come to Somer- ville. take for one day the classes that would be given the new teacher, and conduct the recitations without seeing the pupils beforehand or knowing what lessons had been assigned. The proposal was accepted, and the committee were so pleased with her teaching and management that she was chosen directly to (ill the vacancy. Miss Fox was of the best Xew England blood, descended on her mother's side from the brother of Governor Winslow, and on her father's side from Thomas Fox, one of the original proprietors of Cambridge. The opportunities for the education of young women were not such in the fifties as they are to- day. Miss Fox, after completing with the young men a course preparatory to college, continued her studies under private instructors and by her- self until she became more highly educated than most college graduates. Endowed with a brilliant mind, with an eager appetite for learning, her natural taste for the in- tellectual cultivated by severe discipline and con- stant study, she would have been a marked woman whatever line of life she had chosen. Perhaps her sphere of influence was largest as a teacher. Probably no woman teacher in Xew England has made a deeper impression on the minds of her pu- pils. She knew Latin better than many college professors. In mathematics she delighted to solve original problems, problems that puzzled the best teacher. Her success in teaching history to college-bound pupils was remarkable, and no one laid a better foundation in Greek in the mind ot beginners. Quiet and dignified in the classroom, she had perfect control over her pupils, and her whole time was given to instruction. If a pupil did not succeed he confessed that it was his fault alone. I ler health was never very strong, but she took the best care of herself, and after several years of teaching always asked for a year’s leave of ab- sence for travel abroad. 'Phis broadened her mind, taking away all narrowness of the school- room. and gave her extra opportunity for study, so that she came back better ccpiippcd in mind and body for teaching. She loved the Somerville .High School, and, although she had many opportunities to go else- where. was tempted but once. Xewton asked her to teach in the high school at a larger salary, and she accepted in 1873. She had taught there less than two years when she heard that the Somer- ville committee were sorry they let her go. She offered to come back and was immediately elected to her old position. Her relations with her fellow teachers were ex- ceedingly pleasant. The younger teacher came to her for advice, which was freely and wisely given : the older teacher frequently consulted her in regard to methods of instruction and the man- agement of pupils. Outside the schoolroom Miss Fox was greatly admired, sought for in society, welcome everywhere. ‘ She was an example of the highest type of the old-time teacher, oeginning teaching in a public high school at seventeen, and continuing her work as an instructor without intermission, except when she had leave of absence for travel, for fifty years.”