Spaulding High School - Red and White Yearbook (Rochester, NH)

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4 THE RED AND WHITE would provide vocational training in doing some type of work. Oftentimes boys will quit school and enter some branch of the service. True, some may use the service to good advantage and make use of their facilities to learn a trade, but in many cases the opposite is true. Are these boys .really any better off than those who just quit? Sometimes employers will hire them, but just as many times it doesn't happen. Nowadays, even a high school edu- cation is insuflicient for one to get a worthwhile position. Even if a boy or girl has to Work to help pay his way through college, the sacrifice and ef- fort will certainly pay off in the end. The Value of a College Education RICHARD CHARLES, '53 In the minds of all who read The Value of a 'High School Education certain facts are known. One often wonders also, what actually is the Value of a college education. Thus, as one sits down to think of the advant- ages gained by a high school gradu- ate's going to college, there are sev- eral. For example, I like athletics so I tried developing my thoughts along a parallel of an organized sport. For the development of this article I chose basketball, because in the not- too-distant past our basketball team went through a rugged schedule. So let's follow a typical fellow destined to make a career out of basketball. As this boy, whom we will call Bob, enters grammar school and advances through the different grades he is introduced to what is known as ed- ucation. He begins to realize that what he learns in school will be of help to him in his daily life. He learns the fundamentals. Here, also, he is first brought into contact with a game called basketball. He masters the very simple points of the game, its funda- mentals also. Then, Bob enters high school where his education branches out from the fundamentals and he learns how to make use of his elementary knowledge in order to do advanced mathematics, etc. His experience with education is probably very much the same as yours is, or was. Bob tries out for the basketball team and makes it. As a member of the school team, he spends many long and full hours practicing and perfec- ting the fundamentals of the game. The coach also shows him some new and finer points in the game. He learns how to combine the fundamen- tals into a much smoother, faster, more complicated game of skill. Here he recognizes that ability is not the only attribute, there is training and conditioning as well. On graduating from high school Bob was offered a position- on a local basketball team. The salary was in- viting, but so few move up to big time ball through this channel that he turned down the offer. In the same way there are many jobs open to high school graduates offering attractive salaries but all too often are not followed by good chances of advancement. Many of these jobs would not support a family, however. In the fall Bob entered college and continued his pursuit of knowledge and basketball playing. At college he met a great number of people whose later influence upon his life was bene- ficial. At the end of his college basket- ball career he signed a contract with one of the best professional teams in the world and is now quite able to support, very comfortably, a wife and family. Then it is apparent that in college basketball, Bob had greatly improved his game by becoming increasingly familiar with it. He gained a distinc- fConti7med on Page 312

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THE RED AND WHITE VOL. XXXVIII. MARCH, 1952 NO. 2 The Value of cz High School Education STEPHANIE SIPLAINE, '53 Every boy and girl should have at least a high school education. What other chance would he have that would help him obtain a Worthwhile position in life with good pay? What is there for him to offer life if he does not have an education? Many boys and girls think that When they reach the age of sixteen they should leave school. They think that it is time for them to start Work- ing, but they think mostly of having their ovvn spending money. This is fallacious reasoning. They should look ahead and think of what they will have to offer to the World 5 they should look ahead to What they are going to live on when they can no longer Work. What is the answer to this? It is surely a dubious and uncertain future that they must face under such cir- cumstances. Far safer would our young people be if they decided to Wait a few years and at least gradu- ate from high school. Employers now- adays want people with an education and some experience instead of young boys and girls Without one. In fact, it is even difficult for young people with a high school diploma to compete with college graduates. I-low can a boy Who has only a slight education ever expect to support a family on a small in- come? With today's high cost of liv- ing it is nearly impossible. One may see many such cases, but it is gener- ally their poor children who suffer for it. After a boy or girl has left school he may be found Wasting his time hanging around on the streets and meeting, not the better class of peo- ple, but those with undesirable quali- ties. He may get into trouble, first starting with petty thefts which seem like a lark at the time, then proceed to the bigger thefts. Lastly, he be- comes the full-fledged gangster who may meet an untimely end either by a violent death or prison. Sometimes a school boy or girl be- comes discouraged and loses all hope of finishing school. Perhaps it is the question of money. But, instead of quitting school completely, vvouldn't it be far better for him to take a part- time job and continue going to school? Such a course of action would really pay dividends in the end, not only in the attainment of education but in the provision of experience that

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Unguard ed BRUCE SIVIITH, '54 He paused in the center of the dim- ly lit vault. A shudder of fear prick- led momentarily down his spine. On all sides of him stood the waxen figures standing so grotesquely, silent and motionless, that he choked back his own breath for fear of disturbing these bloodless creatures who had never known life. It was a sight to make you hold your breath all right. These voodoo mad Haitians certainly had the most pecu- liar method of commemorating their dead ancestorsg a dark .room full of figures made to look exactly like the departed relatives. They were dressed in the richest fabrics, adorned with priceless gems and precious metals. Superstition certainly went a long way here on the strange island of Haite, and he was lucky that it had such a tight grip on these people, for if they didn't feel that their posses- sions here in the tombs were protected by these ridiculous zombies Cthey had such blind faithlh a smart operator wouldn't have a chance to barge in this way and make off with a fortune. Zombies! He snickered to himself as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness and he moved toward the nearest of the wax figures. From the moment he arrived at Port au Price he had been hearing about the fantas- tic creatures who, according to tra- dition as old as the island itself, were brought back to life from the grave. Some of the whispered stories were so gruesome that at first they had actu- ally thrown a pall of fear over him, but now they provoked only contempt as far as he was concerned. Imagine fools who believed in bloodless crea- tures capable of committing the most ghastly murders. Imagine, supersti- tious half-wits who entrusted their fortunes to creatures existing only in their own tortured brains. Let them put faith in these zombies they talked of, leaving their treasures totally un- guarded! His hands moved over the first of the grotesque figures, dragging the gems free. The cold, waxy surface sent a shudder through his body but he forced himself to continue. Soon he was feeling no fear at all. It was just another robbery as far as he was concerned. Let the Haitians be con- sumed with fear of the avenging zombies reputed to guard these tombs. To him the tomb was an unguarded and beckoning bank vault. He turned as if hypnotized by some strange force and for a moment his breath almost stopped in his throat. He tried to force a scream of fright through his paralyzed lips but no sound issued from them. Moving to- ward him slowly, irresistibly like a ghastly creature rising from the grave, was one of the wax figures which had been standing, just a mo- ment before, at the opposite side of the vault! What he was seeing was impossible. How could a thing made of wax manage to move, unless what the Haitians said about the zombies was true?