Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

Page 13 text:

SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR 5 The Hardening Process I “Ole Swimmin’ Hole is deserted again. The folks at home and country relations get a moment of peace now and then, yet the neighborhood grocer misses his errand boy. May we not flatter ourselves for once by saying that we are missed when we are in school? Do you know that there is a belief that when one is born the head contains a soft substance? Evidently, so the tale goes, this matter be- comes hardened as the young person learns a new trick or name, or the like, and so on through life. Now I suppose you are thinking that some of these professors and so-called “know-it-alls should be top-heavy. However, we’ll not go into that for the thing that really concerns us is whether or not we are getting any “hard spots. Surely we could wish for no more helpful surroundings than Somerville High School. Don’t you feel a little bit of self-importance when you come in sight of school in the morn- ing and realize that this convenient and inspir- ing layout is all for you? I do. Of course, I sympathize with those who dread entering, for isn’t it uncomfortable when you’re con- tinually wondering if the history teacher will call on you and when you’ve been to a show or dance the night before and haven’t done a bit of home study? You just know a reception will be tendered you, only it will be during the seventh period or else a chum remarks: “Say, Bill, you had all the luck today. You weren’t even asked to recite. Luck. Is it really luck and do we wait to be asked to re- cite? Certainly it is luck for the teacher but hardly for us, is it? Why, the way I’m carry- ing on you’d think we never studied, wouldn’t you? Still it’s good to remind ourselves that anyone can say “I don’t know, but it takes study and observation to learn to think so that one may honestly say and feel confident that he does know. What difference will it make in later years whether or not we remember a poem or a cer- tain “brain-teaser” in mathematics? No dif- ference whatever because after all if we ac- tually learned the poem, or whatever it might have been, our brain developed that much more as a result of it and even though the very words are not on the tip of our tongues, still our brains have conserved the idea expressed in the words and their beauty and meaning have developed the senses which make human life livable, for it is the union of all these senses which gives power to think. Then is it not easy to see that if each of these separate senses are well developed then their union into a thinking body should enable that person to appreciate the beauties and enjoy the happi- ness of life. Great educators and authors have purposely written books, poems and songs to convey this very idea and how can we, the leaders of to- morrow, conscientiously feel that we want to go through life missing half of what it holds for us solely because we did not make use of the opportunity that our schools and teachers offered — the opportunity to learn to think. W. C. R. ADVICE TO AN EDITOR By Edna Morus, ’34 When you feel that things arc slow. When your stock of news runs low, When there seems a woeful lack, And the murder-market’s slack, When, I say, you’re short of copy, Don’t grow lachrymose and sloppy.

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 CHARLES T. C. WHITCOMB HEAD MASTER, SOMERVILLE ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL. 1895 - 1906 HEN the English High School was established in 1895 the School Board chose Mr. Whit- comb, then a young man of thirty-fire, to organize it. Mr. Whitcomb came to Som- erville from Wakefield, where for sev n years he had been principal of its High School. He brought to his new position enthusiasm and an unusual leadership. High Schools at that time were beginning to broaden from strictly college preparation. English High Schools were being established with a view to giving a broad general education to the many. With this in view Mr. Whitcomb was called upon to arrange a new course of study, to select a corps of teachers sympathetic to the new educational requirements, and to weld all into an effective unit. This he did with unusual success. An able administrator, an enthusiastic leader and an in- spiring influence among young people, he soon developed the Somerville English High School into one of the best known and best organized in the state. From a small school of 456 in 1895, with nineteen teachers, it grew in eleven years to 1,095 with a faculty of forty. Of this number who were with him here in 1906, ten still remain in the school. In 1906 Mr. Whitcomb left Somerville to take charge of the Brockton High School, where he remained till 1915. Those of us who had the privilege of serving under him remember him as a man of high ideals, of great ability, of intense interest in his work. Somerville owes to him a profound feeling of gratitude for the deep imprint he left on the city’s educational system. Many of the best traditions of the present High School may be traced directly to his initiative and guidance. JOHN A. AVERY. October 4, 1931.

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6 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR ARE YOU AN ACTOR? By Pauline Dudley, ’32 A LL the World is a Stage,” said A Shakespeare, and never was there a truer statement, for we all act, do we not? Some of us give fine, splendid per- formances. Others seem to be merely walking across the stage. Haven’t we all, at one time or another, been so dejected and miserable that we could have screamed and yet we kept on laughing, talking, being gay, even some- times overdoing it? What was that but act- ing? Which are you, a good actor or a bad one? Are you glorifying your part whether it is large or small, or are you degrading it? For remember, your own part, whether it has brought you glory or not, will be most impor- tant to you when the curtain is rung down on the final scene. Will your audience remember or will they forget? It all rests with you! The people of the theatrical life have an ex- pression which is like a code of honor to them; it is rarely violated. Always it is their motto, their one and only permanent creed: “The show must go on.” How many, many times we have seen this enacted on the stage, but isn’t it true outside the theatre, too? Isn’t it one of the cruelties of life that even though your own little world seems to be falling in broken bits around you, although your dreams seem shattered, life keeps on, unmoved, un- changed, racing on toward the inevitable goal which is never quite attained. There is no time to stop and sympathize for more than a moment. Then it is, when the sunshine seems to have faded away, that you find out what it .means to be a good trouper, to go forward with your head up and your eyes turned to- ward the future, to give the best performance of your life and spread happiness around you instead of making life miserable for your as- sociates. But no matter what you do the show will go on and either you will learn to be in the front ranks taking your cues without a falter, or you will fall to the rear, unnoticed, a shadow across the stage. Even if your part is but a bit, some one will understand and real- ize what lies in back of that gallant perform- ance, but, far better, you will have the realiza- tion in your own heart that you are carrying on, doing your part in the drama that is life. AN APPEAL! By Julia Saparoflf, '32 DO YOU KNOW that last year the Radia- tor was rated among the six best school publications in Massachusetts? This is a high honor, and I suppose we should be satisfied, but, like all ambitious editors we would like our paper to carry off first prize this year. But we can’t accomplish that feat or even keep our old success unless you, the student body, contribute much more material to the paper than you have so far this year. If more of you would write, we would have a greater variety of talent, and so have a better, more interesting Radiator. We need, especially, more poetry by different writers. If poets would buckle down and work, and give us the fruits of their labors, our Poet’s Corner would be the richer for it. You may be authors and poets without knowing it, so why don’t all of you try your hand at writing, and give us a “break”? You’ll be astonished at your capabil- ities, and so may the school. Come on, and put your finger in the literary pie! With your co-operation perhaps we can lead the ranks. ON LOOKING WISE By Marion Standish ISDOM is natural sagacity. There are many people, however, who think it is necessary for them to try to look wise. They really believe that if they look wise others will think they are wise. Such people are “wiseacres” and the character of this type of person is often not up to the stand- ard that it should be. It seems that when they begin to deceive by their appearance their whole life becomes mixed with deceit. We all can understand that people who naturally look wise have the advantage, but not as much advantage as one might think at first, because character shows plainly on the faces of men and women who are wise, and these people need not depend on their appear- ance when wisdom is tested. It may be that some people who are not wise succeed fairly well when they try to appear wise. But such people fear the result of their mask of knowl- edge for they are in constant danger of hav- (Continued on page 23)