South High School - Tiger Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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IVUCUI ETUEVP-l7fi.UULS'Jl ELM participants health is worse than under-development. The student re- ceiving many honors is liable to value them too highly and resort to politics to gain the desired offices. Under a system used at many modern high schools, the evil of one indi- vidual undertaking too many responsibilities is eliminated. This method of curbing the too prominent student's extra-curricular activities. makes each office or executive position count a certain number of points. For example, one Nlinneapolis high school counts a lead in the class play for three points: an office in a club, twog membership on a newspaper or annual staff, three. Five is the maximum number of points allowed any one stu- dent. Thus a pupil could not be on a newspaper staff and have a leading role in the classplay, too. Joseph Jorgens favors the point system and says he would like to have it put in practice at South. Perhaps in future years, this plan will be in- augurated much to the betterment of both the individual and the activity concerned. -4.-XRNoi.D BRAs'rAn. 6 G C -sl u- '5- O the high school journalist in as great a share as to the professional comes the thrill of the scoop, the smell of printer's ink, the endless value and usefulness of words, and the everlasting joy of service through news. Editors of metropolitan dailies of forty-five pages may smile at the high school student fretting over the publication of a four-page weekly. but after all, the two have the same end-service. To the busy institu- tion of a high school, the newspaper, magazine, and annual mean the same as do publications to the outside world. All the news that's fit to printw is as applicable to a school newspaper as it is to one of the world's best newspapers. Telling news is the pri- mary function of a school newspaper. In it, the reading public must be reckoned with as must it be in a professional newspaper. Second to its news value, a paper is read for its editorial comment. In this field, the high school publication has an even greater influence than its larger model. High school students are at the impressionable age when reading opinions of faculty and school leaders. These opinions create a sense of what is fitting. Thus, a school newspaper largely molds the public opinion of the school. School publications serve in one Way that is common only to them. The magazine, newspaper, or annual mirror the spirit of the school and all its tendencies. By the reading of its publications, a school may be immediately and accurately classified. The untutored miss out on the values of school publications, not to the school, but to the individual participant. Journalism in high school is an elective, therefore only those who find a joy in the work enter into it. Aside from the joy that all journalists find in their work, no profession in the world is as sharpening to the workers' talent, wits, and brains. Something is indeed earned by the boys and girls who plan and write a school publication from the headlines to jokes, or in the case of an annual from cover to cover. -JANE OLTMAN. Azul 1011111 tliry llllfff' to dream of, IIIIFU I0 rlolu Page Thirfcrn Rl' ri E' V- . QW: is

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'K ull'UlfSQUE9Z,EiLI'UL5l ELK! Ctfhiturials HERE has lately been some little debate on whether it would not be advisable to bar extra-curricular activities from public schools. Une primary purpose of education is to develop 'good citizens. Extra- curricular activities play an important part in this development. Student organizations teach the individual to cooperate with his fel- lows and to assume responsibility with greater success than is possible in the school room. If a pupil has any special talent, school organizations will develop it far better than the class room. The SoL I'H1QRNIQR staff and the literary societies have a place for anyone with the desire to write, the debate team and the D. D. D. club welcome would-be speakersg and the band, orches- tra, and glee clubs give opportunity to any who may be musically inclined. One of the finest things that any student can get out of his four years in high school is the friends that he makes. But there is little time in the routine of class Work for the formation of friendships. It is in the com- radeship of extra-curricular activities that the finest and firmest friend- ships are made and cemented. It has been argued that the many organizations of our modern high school lower the scholastic standing of their members. It is, no doubt, true that a few pupils do indulge in extra-curricular activities almost to the exclusion of their regular school work. But such a student is the ex- ception rather than the rule. If one looks over the senior honor roll he finds the names of many of the students who are most prominent in school organizations. On the other hand, the list of failures is made up, for a large part, of those who are inactive in extra-curricular activities. One reason for this difference is probably the fact that many organizations de- mand a high scholastic average as a requirement for membership. A large number of extra-curricular activities are necessary to meet the needs of the various interests and talents of different students. No pupil is required to join any such organizations. Each student is his own best judge of the amount of extra work that he can carry. It would certainly be unfair to deprive all students of the many benefits of extra-curricular activities because a few pupils may be so foolish as to abuse the privilege. -Ro1a1cRTs DAY'IES. Q 2 2 N justice to both participants and organizations, the tendency at pres- ent in high school lite is to strike a happy medium in extra-curricular activities. Too many outside interests result in a lowering of marks, the shifting of responsibility upon other persons who should have the honor of the office, and, lastly, sometimes, the wrecking of the student's health. On the other side of the question, it must be acknowledged that outside activities develop the personality, but over-development at the risk of the Castles in the air are better than lI,IlIIfjl'Oll5 i Page Tmcelft'e

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l H mrufuigiuwaznfursieife When the TIGER directors asked the students of the English classes to write themes on f'lVIy Favorite Adventurer, they had two purposes in mind. The first one was to obtain the students' idea of the word adventurer, and the second was to create an interest in the theme of the 1926 annual and to procure literary contributions from students on the subject. Winning essays were written by Chester Gunderson and Helen Langert. -THE Emroiz. THE ADVENTURER HERE are many men in history who stand out because of their superi- ority in certain things. VVC admire Demosthene's oratory and So- crate's philosophy. YVe remember Caesar as a great statesman and a general. VVe love to listen to music written by great composers. VVC admire these men because they have excelled in some one thing. They were superior to othersg therefore they were remembered. 1 wonder if there is a superior adventurer. If there is, what qualifies him as such? VVhen the word, adventurer, is used, T immediately think of Captain Kidd. Probably most of the stories about him are myths, nevertheless, he was an adventurer without some of the finer qualities. He probably lacked courtesy, but that is dispensable in a pirate. An adventurer has a restless, roving spirit. The sameness of things tires him. His soul craves excitement, and no amount of danger can keep him from it. The explorers of hundreds of years ago were adventurers to their very souls. It was some new land they wanted to see-something different from what they had known. lncidentally they claimed their discovery for France, Spain, or England, or whatever country from which they came. Leif Ericson was an explorer. He and his band of roving seamen discovered America early in the Eleventh Century. The boats used by the Norsemen were small and open, but that fact did not daunt these men of the sea. They believed that the sea was as good a grave as any. It did not matter how or where they died, just so they died bravely. Later Columbus discovered a part of this same country, America. He was a scientific adventurer attempting to prove a theory. Balboa, Cortez, De Sota, and Drake were adventurers of the same type. Many of us today are adventurers. Probably we do not think so be- cause we have limited an adventurer to a very narrow field, nevertheless, we are investigating and exploring in factories, in books, in science, and in the imagination. lt is the spirit of quest that makes the real adventurer. -CHESTER GITNu1aRsoN. HTVOIIF but the brazfe zlfrffrwf the fair. Puyz' 1'-0lIl'fl'lII