Stoneham High School - Wildlife Yearbook (Stoneham, MA)

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18 THE STONEHAM HIGH SCHOOL AUTHENTIC PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS We, the Class of ’35, welcome you to our gradu- ation day exercises. This day marks the climax of twelve years of fond school memories. We hope, parents and teachers, that this event will linger as long in your memories as it will in ours. Having arrived at this important occasion with the help of your combined efforts and sacrifices, we deem it fitting to extend to you our sincere apprecia- tion and thanks. We realize the obstacles which have confronted our parents in guiding us through school. Although unseen by others, their sacrifices are recognized and appreciated by us. The patience and co-operation of all those teach- ers with whom we have been associated for so many years will always be foremost in our memory. We are gathered here as a class for the last time. Our high school education has thus far led us along the right road. From the many paths of opportun- ity open to us each must now choose the one for which he is best fitted. Inspired by your fine example, may we go forth to what lies ahead with a determination to repay the sacrifi ces of our parents, and to put into our daily lives the lessons of truth which our teachers have in- stilled in us. We now invite you to share and enjoy with us our graduation day exercises. John Buckley. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL Inasmuch as the 300th anniversary of the found- ing of the Boston Latin School is being celebrated throughout the nation this year, it is fitting and proper that we briefly survey the history of the high school. The growth of the high school has been closely re- lated to all of the social, economic, and religious advances in our country’s development. It has to a large degree moulded the character of the American people and in turn the needs of the time have had a profound influence upon the curricula offered by our schools. The development of the high school may be divid- ed into three different stages. First, the Latin school, beginning with the Boston Latin School in 1635, which dominated our educational system until the American Revolution. Second, the academy, which held sway from the Revolution to the Civil War. Third, the high school, which has held a dom- inating position since the Civil War. Let us analyze the aims and accomplishments of each of these institutions. The immediate aim of the Boston Latin School was to prepare boys for Harvard College, which in turn was founded to prepare men for the ministry. Thus our whole early educational system had for its aim religious education. This is definitely stated in the law establishing the Latin School. It reads as follows: “It being one chief product of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scrip- tures, by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so that the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded by the false glosses of saint-seem- ing deceivers, it is therefore ordered that any town of 100 families set up a Latin school to instruct youths for university.” This law, which is called the “old deluder law,” clearly indicates that the people felt that men must be enlightened to fight that “old deluder, Satan”. It is easy to imagine one of these ministers, trained under this theory, preaching a three hour sermon each Sunday afternoon to a group of devout but bored parishioners. The curriculum of the Latin school was made up entirely of the study of Latin. Picture the poor Latin school boys! At the very start they plung- ed into the black wilderness of Lilley’s Grammar with its twenty-five kinds of nouns, seven genders, fifteen solid pages of rules for gender, and also the exceptions, with a topoff of twenty-two pages of noun declensions, and every word must be commit- ted to memory. The narrowness of the curriculum of the Latin school was no doubt the cause of its decline, but this school established the principle of public education which probably would never have gained the head- way it has in America had it not been for the acute- ness of the early settlers. Although it was the primary purpose of the Latin school to prepare men to ward off the wiles of Satan, it did not suppress the mischievousness of the boys. The school usually had a floor of dirt which could be ground into a dry dust two or three inches thick. Here was a way of vengeance for an unannounced test in gerundives. With great zeal and perse- verance the pupils would grind and pound with their feet until slowly there would rise a cloud of dust sufficiently thick to warrant a recess of fifteen or twenty minutes. It may be imagined that if the master was inconvenienced for the time being, the pupils were not spared the ferule at the next oppor- tunity. For obvious reasons the Latin school was not pop- ular among the students. As early as 1711 the se- lectmen of Boston decided that there were many boys who received little benefit from the four years spent there, and they suggested that a less tedious and burdensome method of instruction be put into

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PUBLISHED STONEHAM BY THE SENIOR CLASS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, STONEHAM, MASS. VOLUME 52 JUNE 1935 NUMBER 4 EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief John Bergman Dorothy Amo Assistant Editors Maryalice Conley Rose Madison ’36 Associate Editors David Dewhurst ’36 Advertising Manager William Garside Business Manager Thomas Carroll Assistant Advertising Manager Helen Barnes Athletic Editors Dorothy Oppen Philip Riley Circulation Manager George Van Etten Alumni Editor Joyce Clark Art Editor Lucille Isabelle Asst. Circulation Manager Albert Dyson Exchange Editor David Kirkpatrick Humor-Gossip Leslie French Virginia Adams Dorothy Hynes Clerical Committee Dorothy Cleveland Dorothy Amo Kathryn Meehan Margaret Landers Cttmitenta President’s Address 18 The Development of the High School 18 History of Class of 1935 20 Class Prophecy 22 Prophecy of Prophet 26 Class Will and Testament 28 Graduation Honors 30 Senior Hop 32 The Senior Play 32 The Dramatic Club 32 Commercial Club ! 32 Traffic Squad 34 Class Statistics 34 Football 36 Cross Country 36 Field Hockey 36 Hockey 38 Basketball 38 Baseball 38

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THE STONEHAM HIGH SCHOOL AUTHENTIC 19 practice. Benjamin Franklin studied at the Boston Latin School for eight months, but left because he could not learn the classics. Later in life he made severe attacks on the school and drew up the plans for the first school in America which was devoted to other types of education. These plans developed into Franklin Academy in Philadelphia, the first academy in the United States. The first academy in Massachusetts was Dummer Academy founded by Governor Dummer at South Byfield in 1763. The principal aim of the academy was to provide broad education which would enable the graduate either to continue his education in col- lege or to be able to enter some vocation without further instruction. Here, although Latin was still a major requirement, the student received the bene- fit of other important studies such as mathematics, English, navigation, geography, physics, etc. Hence the academy did make four distinct contributions to our present form of education. First, it broadened the course of study. Second, it introduced co-educa- tion. Third, it provided a secondary education for those pupils who did not want to go to college. Fourth, it introduced privately fostered education in this country. The average size of these schools was small. There were usually about two teachers and forty to fifty pupils. Popular as the academy was it had several major disadvantages. The cost was prohib- itive to many of the poorer students, they were very inaccessible to many students in rural communities, and they failed to meet any uniform requirements for a college because no two academies had similar- ly prescribed courses of study or used the same teaching methods. This condition was not corrected until a state-wide system of high schools was organ- ized with the college curriculum under the direction of the college board. When the general public came to realize that these disadvantages were making the education of Ameri- ca’s youth more and more difficult, it took steps to remedy them by substituting the high school for the academy. The first of these schools was the Boston Classical School, later the Boston English High School, established in Boston in 1821. It was a pub- lic school sustained by taxes, but for boys only. Five years later the first girls’ high school was open- ed also in Boston. Though at first retarded by the popularity of the academy, the high school soon be- gan to grow in public estimation. After the Civil war the number of academies dropped sharply and the number of high schools rose proportionately, until by 1890 they had almost completely taken over secondary education in America. One difficulty the academy experienced remained with the early high school. The curriculum of high schools and colleges were not properly co-ordinated so that college preparatory students might have uniform preparation in any high school as they do today. However, as high schools have developed, it has become more and more evident that they should not consider only students who aspire to at- tend college, as this group comprises only about 50% of the total, but should offer practical courses of study for the other 50%. The first group can be divided into two classes, those seeking professions and those interested in trades. The second 50% are those who usually take their places in the indus- trial life of the country filling what is commonly spoken of as jobs. This group needs a general edu- cation to fit them for a wide variety of positions and to build the knowledge and character which make of them the backbone of the nation. This grouping necessitates several major principles in the adminis- tration of the courses offered. Instead of ferule and birch branch, the honor and scholastic demerit sys- tem are used to control, discipline and promote initiative in the school. This new system of discipline is a part of the new guide for educators set up by the national board of education in 1918. The board decided that all schools should have a definite and identical set of cardinal principles by which they would all accomplish the same purpose. These principles were: health, worthy home memberships, vocation, comrade of the funda- mental processes, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character. Health is first because the progress and the main- tenance of the nation’s industry and standard of liv- ing depend upon the health of its people. Many schools give free dental clinics and most high schools offer instruction in physiology and hygiene as well as giving physical training on the playground and in the gymnasium: worthy home membership is impor- tant because the children of today are the parents of tomorrow and the responsibilities of parenthood necessitates careful training. Courses in budget, dressmaking and correct diet give the pupils a foundation in this field. Vocation is included because the most necessary thing to the success and happiness of a person is a good job. The Latin School and the academy gave little thought to this question but the high school has adopted itself to modern needs with courses in mechanics, manual training, and business training. The command of the fundamental processes, the three R’s, reading, ’riting, and ’rithemetic, are neces- sary and indispensable tools for further learning and participation in the life of the community. Citizenship is a natural necessity. Without the interested support of the people, the government would not function. Civic courses are offered to in- struct future voters in management and responsi-