St Albans School - Albanian Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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The Academic Year in Review HERE,S NOTHING quite like the first day back at School. Floors polished to a slippery sheen, blackboards blacker than they ever were or will be all year, a pungent odor of wax and furniture polish, screeching bells bringing one back from the laziness of summer. Handshakes and greet- ings for old friends and new ones, stiff, shiny new textbooks, desks that are always too small. These are all part of the first day at St. Albans. Things will be easy for the first few days and everybody knows it and everybody wonders how long it will take the teacher to wise up.', The teacher wants to be a nice guy, and he won- ders how long it will be before he gives his first zero or kicks the obnoxious back-row student out of class. The mood is one of anticipation, and an air of good will pervades the community. Without anyoneis really noticing it, the grind sets in. For some, it starts almost immediately -they are the dull, studious types who ask plenty of questions and turn in their homework neatly on standard paper and sweat. For others, the grind doesn't start until much later, if it ever starts at all. This second group is comprised of varied elements-the athletes, who give themselves fully on the football field and have little left to give in the classroom, the men about campus, who are so eternally busy with the newspaper or the Drama Club or the Student Council that they just Cum Laude Left to Right: A. Day, Kreuttner, Steele, Muller, Wilcox, Bible, Kitzinger, Whitehead 68 ACADEMICS 1963

Page 73 text:

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Page 75 text:

One of Cannon Martinfs visits to Study Hall. can't seem to spare the time, the party set, who recover from their collective hangover sometime around mid-afternoon, and the dumb guys, who have long since realized that work brings nothing but failure, and effort nothing but despair, and who are content to sit back and view the world from the study hall window. The members of the uno-sweaty set are playing a dangerous game, and every one of them knows it. The faculty is ever on the alert, waiting to snare an unsuspecting loafer and cast him into the study hall, or fworse fatel into the Canon's office. One of the most effective weapons to this end is the surprise quiz, which almost every master has resorted to at one time or another. The strategy is simple, the teacher chooses the most unlikely day possible, hoping to catch as many students as he can offguard and unprepared, the students, on the other hand, try to fore- cast quiz days so they can read the lesson. All factors are weighed and considered carefully: length and difficulty of the lesson, date of the last quiz, amount of back work to be discussed, and psychological attitude of the teacher. Finally, each boy reaches his decision. The lesson is either read or ignored, and the student awaits the next dayfs encounter. Depending upon the success of the studentfs quiz predictions, and a few other things, he may or may not have the distinction of appearing on one of two lists that are compiled every four weeks. Those on the Headmaster's List are asked to stand and receive tumultous applause as the list is read at lunch, those on the other list are not embarrassed by being identified. The lists are posted in the Study Hall, where eager gradehounds pore over them at leisure. The appearance of the Headmaster's List always comes as a rather rude awakening, despite its regularity and the not infrequent warnings of the Form Masters, heralding the arrival of its less auspicious companion-the failure list. Before long, the first report cards are out, along with those dreaded comment sheets that can make or break a man. A hint of indolence will send George's parents into a frenzy of concern, a word of encouragement assures him that his future, at least for the next four weeks, is reasonably secure. THE ALBANIAN 69