Suffolk High School - Peanut Yearbook (Suffolk, VA)

Page 14 text:

THE MASTER OF THE SHIP A ship imisl have it’s Captain. An aeroplane must needs he guided by its pilot. A nation must have its king, its emperor, its president, or even its Mussolini. Every organization must have a guiding influence, whether for good or bad. A school must have its principal. The ship with a careless captain in northern waters will crash into an iceburg; in southern waters it will not weather a typhoon. The aeroplane controlled by unskilled hands will make a faulty landing and crash into bits or burn into oblivion. The nation with a weak ruler will be led into wars, panics, and disaster. How good and comforting to be placed in.o strong, wise hands. What a priceless jewel to a school is a good principal! I ' nder his capable direction good is made better, and better is made best. The delinquent youth is given careful attention. All the students are brought together in their enthusiasm by his subtle supervision, and they cooperate in building a school, firmly founded. He deprives himself of personal pleasures and benefits to further the interests of the school. He places his very heart and soul in this work of moulding many young lives—this “Master of the Ship.” ON READING To be a friend of reading is an inexhaustible source of pleasure. Heading is one of those things that is everyone’s friend. It does not make the demands that some people think friendship gives them the privilege to. Always it is ready to entertain, to enlighten, and to comfort. The only trouble is that so few people have become acquainted with this friend. Most poeple read either too much or not enough. There are those people who never pick up a book unless forced to. They cannot imagine the pleasure they are missing; pleasure not only in the sense of being entertained but of having learned something that can be stored up in the mind as food for thought. From books is trained all that knowledge which has been accumulated through all of the ages of civilization ami without which every | erson is worse off for not having. Then there are the people who read incessantly. They read any and everything. This leads to a tendency to live too much in a world of dreams and make believe. Hut there is another abuse of this friend reading. Some people read all books of one kind. This will be noticed especially among people of high school age. Here three is a great tendency to reatl only the books that were to entertain for a moment and then to be forgotten. This is the reason for the requirements of the history, government and English classes. The English classes, especially, emphasize parallel reading. They attempt to cultivate a real love for rending by helping the pupil to become better acquainted with all types of literature, modern works, the classics, novels short stories, poems, biographies, and essays. (Reprinted from the editorial column of THE PEANUT PICKER by courtesy of the Manayinic {Editor!