Stivers High School - Annual Yearbook (Dayton, OH)

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The Obligations of a High School Student NE’S life can be divided into three parts: education, achievement and service. This does not mean that these three are independent of each other. While one is being educated he should always be rendering service; but for the purpose of our discussion it is a little easier to make this artificial division. Roughly, education embraces the ages between five and twenty-one. For some, this period is longer and for others, considerably shorter. The average boy or girl who enters the kindergarten and graduates from college will find that his period of formal education will fall within these years. The educational period is expected to train one to live a more effective and efficient life. While it is entirely possible to be educated outside the public schools and colleges, experience has shown that it is very seldom that one achieves as good results as when he takes the usual course. Following the period of formal education comes the time of actual achievement. The boy or girl, having received his formal training, enters the active walks of life and has an opportunity to show what his training plus his native ability has done for him. After a few years of preliminary experience which might be classed as an apprenticeship in whatever vocation one chooses to follow, he then begins to make real headway. The most difficult thing for many young people, who have had a good education, to remember is, that no matter what line they enter, they must go through this apprenticeship period. Too many times a college education has become a temporary handicap because the graduate is unwilling to go though this preliminary but essential stage of his chosen vocation. As a man or woman progresses in his work he should actually achieve something worth while in it. If he is a lawyer, he will desire to stand at the head of his profession; if a doctor, he will want to be one of the best doctors in the community; if a business man, he will desire to have a successful business and a reputation for integrity. The third stage, the period of service, is not to be thought of as separated from the other two. As a man or woman becomes established in his profession, he will be called upon more and more frequently to render public service for which there is no pecuniary compensation. He may be asked to serve on the Board of Education or upon various improvement committees. Often the outstanding men and women in the community will not take upon themselves this additional burden and thus are not discharging the obligation which they owe to the community which has given them their opportunity. The community at its own expense has educated these young men and women and given them the opportunity to succeed. Certainly it is no more than right that they should repay the community with service. I am confident that every Stivers High School graduate has had a good education, will have a successful period of achievement in whatever field he or she may enter, and that each one will cultivate high ideals of public service. PAUL C. STETSON, Superintendent of Instruction. 8