Vermontville High School - Verhian Yearbook (Vermontville, MI)

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SALUTATORY ---Barbara Cotton Parents, Teachers, Members of the School Board, and Friends: Just as Uncle Remus had a laughing place, we have a learning place, which is our school. It is a place where we get together with many other students and learn toco-operateand to share. We learn to get along and take part in the hayrides, dances, the Initiation Party, and many other activities that all schools enjoy. We were first taught toco-operate when we entered Kindergarten where we had to eat and play together. A little later when we all ran out at recess and yelled first base, second base, pitcher, and catcher, if we didn’t get the position we wanted we had to accept what was left. Some of us wouldn’t accept it and then there was a fight. This led to choosing up sides against one another and a mass riot would form on the playground. The world is just such a playground where these kind of fights start, only it doesn’t end with writing, “I shall not fight again” one hundred times on the black- board, but it does end in war. The later part of the year, the Service and Citizenship Committees of the Student Council formed a Clean-Up Week. A time set aside to clean the school, the desks, halls, rooms, lockers, and just a general cleaning for everyone to participate in. This is just one example of the many ways in which Vermontville gives their students the opportunity to le nn the importance ofco-operationand responsibility. Our success in life will depend on our determination to do right, to respect the rights of others and to be a good citizen. As I have tried to illustrate throughout my speech, Vermontville High School has these things and in every way gives its students the best opportunity to secure these ideals. But what degree of success we attain will cfepend on the amount of will power we put forth. Some of us will go farther in life than others because we have put forth a greater effort, but whatever rung we reach on the ladder of success, ”Our Will is our Fate.” GIFTATORY --Rachel Cole --Helen Shipman BARBARA COTTON we have this book of house plans for Barb so she won’t have to draw the plans for her and Ronnie’s house. BURDETTE MYERS for Burdette we have this bottle of hair tonic so he can always keep his hair combed. BARBARA NORTHRUP as long as we can remember Barb has got all A’s on her report cards so we have this report card with all E's on it so she can't say she never got one. WAYNE WALTER we give Wayqe this car hoping he won't reck this one. BARBARA BEYSTRUM we are going to give Barb this spy glass so she can see farther. KEN BEARDSLEE we have for Ken this baseball bat so he will be sure to make a hit.

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VALEDICTORY -Barbara Northrup Parents, Teachers, and Friends: The student lives in three tenses. Behind him and about him is the world which his fellow-men have learned to harness more or less successfully to their needs. About him and in front of him is the world which he must harness more successfully than they did. For he must not merely repeat their achievements of the day before; in him the race must grow in grace to meet the ever new demands of a living universe. Thus education throughout is a doing on the part of the learner. But what he learns to do as an apprentice is different from what he will do later as a master workman-- different, but yet recognizable and functionally the same, for while both the sensory content and the motor response of his action will change, the new action will be only a readaptation of the old content and response which he learned to make when a similar sensory content presented itself. It is a taking of the most useful tools in the race's workshop by the student into his own hands and by his own trial and effort learning to use them, but in such a way that he will go on perfecting his skill in their use as long as he lives. When we started school and were given instructions in breathing, it was plain that the only object which they had was not to give us a knowledge about breathing, but to get each one of us to use our own lungs in a health giving fashion. And when a teacher teaches exercises to dance, to run, to swim or to box, it is a doing on the part of the student that they seek. It is difficult to think of a knowledge of physical training which could have any other functions than to direct physical doing. If he gives instruction in painting, singing, or the playing of an instrument, it is plain that our instructor must guide, but the student must perform; that no matter how much the teacher may know about the theory of the art, that knowledge will have meaning for the student and can be imparted to him only in connection with his own doing; that all formal lessons such as learning to read the score, finger exercises, the necessary parts of a larger process and without significance by themselves. The skill which is sought is a habit. One's knowledge grows in proportion to one’s doing. It is “experience” which makes the days of men to proceed according to art and inexperience according to chance, and different persons in different ways are proficient in different arts. Theory or thinking grew out of practice, problems came out of doing. Knowledge is not an adventitious thing. It had no being for itself. Even sensations do not come to us of themselves, but are internally aroused by bodily defects which we suffer. I can walk on the ground and hardly know that I am walking, but when I am in a high building and look down a thousand sensations that I never noticed before make themselves felt. Sensation is due to the break-down of habit. Discovery of facts is not due to their presence nor to the possession of a mind capable of grasping them, but rather to the using of mind in the direction in which the facts lie. Inventions and discoveries are remarkable simple after they have been made, but it is only the person who is hunting for something of that sort who makes them. One who would learn anything must put himself in the way of learning it. He must do that which will make him feel the problem. There is a definite something to be done by the pupil when he learns to read, write, or to number. Merely to get good marks and to get through school, we have seen, cannot be the object of his striving. Lets look at the things we have had in school. Science is a craft, language is a tool pure and simple. Mathematics are special forms of thinking. Geography is each one’s simple picture of the world. Our school career then has been to train our minds. To teach us to take responsibility, cooperation, to prepare us for security by helping us to find the type of work we are suited for. To prepare us for family living by teaching us to get along with the world. Learning to give and take. We feel we have learned these things and we hope now to go out in the world and prove to our parents and teachers that our twelve years have not been wasted. 12

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AL jviIX for A1 we have this Sax so he won't wear his out. GRETCHEN COLLIER as long as we can remember Gretchen has always worn levies to school so for her we have this pair and hope they will never wear out. RICHARD SOUTHERN for Dick we have this dictionary so he can learn to pronounce his words correctly. DEVFRE COOK we are going to give DeVere this tractor to farm his farm. RACHEL COLE has been in love with a certain Sophomore Basketball player so we will give her this basketball as a rememberance. NEIL PARKER has always got a pipe in his mouth so we will give him this one so he won’t be without one. VENCIL TOMPKINS likes horses so well, we thought we would give him this horse shoe so his poor little horse won’t have to go barefooted. HELEN SHIPMAN would like to conduct her own orchestra so we give her this baton for a good start. CLASS PROPHECY --Barbara Beystrum --Burdette Myers Don Baker In five years we can see Don as president of the Clarke Bar Company Ken Beardslee In five years Kenny will be busy autographing baseballs for his fans in the major leagues. Barbara Beystrum In the next five years we can expect to find Barb slaving over a hot stove with a pair of twins by her side while Charlie looks on. Rachel Cole Rachel’s handwriting was analyzed and she’s supposed to make a good teacher. She should be; she sure knows all the answers. Gretchen Collier In years to come, if you go out five miles North of Vermontville, you’ll see a neon sign reading, “Gretchen’s Dude Ranch. DeVere Cook In the next few years DeVere will be busy improving his farm after his four years course in Agriculture. Barbara Cotton In the near future we can see Barbara as co-owner of a Cotton firm selling Best Grade Cotton. Albert Mix When A1 learns to ride the horse instead of letting the horse ride him, he'll probably put on a ten gallon hat and join a rodeo. Burdette Myers Burdette will have an office and a secretary of his own so he won’t have to have all the girls around. Barbara Walters In the near future Barb and Wayne will own the Walter’s junk car lot. Neil Parker Neil will be preparing to teach Agriculture Class in the next five years. Helen Shipman In five years we can see Helen taking James Petrillo s place in the Music world. Richard Southern In a few years Dick will be brave enough to ask a girl to do the cooking for him and live on his one hundred and forty acre farm. Vencil Tompkins It has been said Vencil blazed a trail to Texas. Maybe he picked out the land for his fifteen hundred acre horse ranch. So we expect to find him Way down thar in T exas. 14