Walnut Hill School - Annual Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

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Annasss or wstcoms y By Jerry Freedman ..,. .......... ....Valedictorian . ,. ,1 v , . Mrs. Carpenter, teachers, parents and friends, I feel truly honored'to have been chosen to welcome you to Our promotion assembly this afternoon. - Probably every other class has felt that a day such is ,A this is one of the most important,and so do we, fo? we have looked forward to it for nine years.1 Now that it is here, if the first thought that enters our minds is that we are finally leaving elementary school, but another intercepts that one-- - ... Wwill we make good in high school with so many new faces and being practically on our own all of the time? What will our future be like? p 4 Our future can easily be compared with incidents in our nation's history.,' In 1918 when the League of Nations was formed, President Wilson prayed that his dream of peace would come true. He didn't know the hardships or dangers which confronted this,, organization, He set out to make a new world of peace and freedom.. we know his chief assets in the undertaking were faith and courage, for he had set out to accomplish this with no idea of the skills required to make it successful. p We now-start out climb to success too, with little idea of what will be necessary to get us to the top of the ladder. President W1lson's idea for peace was not too successful, but he started an idea and when the world sees fit to develop his courage and faith, it may yet come tPU64 Our own success should be many times easier than his but it will require faith, courage and effort. e, , These grade school years have prepared us gradually,for our high school future, but probably the eighth grade year whas,given us more direct training and Dreparation for it t ' than in the past. here we.have the opportunities to accept . real responsibilities and help plan our own activities. Through them we have been both successful and unsuccessful, but we have learned to face them both with courage and humility. . We are grateful to Mrs. Carpenter, our principal p and friend,for her understanding and guidance which helped us so greatly. Neither could we be promoted today withoutc here expressing appreciation to the teachers and to Mr. Danhauer who have helped us in so many ways. Under th5 a?15 direction of Miss Spring we have learned that'mathematics can be 5 profitable and enjoyableg Mr. Giles, whom we have enjoyed very much has helped us a great deal in science and readingg Miss Ehlers, our practice teacher, worked hard to give us an understanding of history and helped us in our spelling. The pictures and sculpturing we did under Mrs. Kelly's skillful guidance is not worthy of the great masters, we did enjoy doing it, Under the able instruction of our gym teaacher, MisS'4 Roncka, we learned to put our minds and bodies to good use and Mrs. Reap has taught us much in the appreciation of ' music as well as helped in improving our singing, r . Most important and devoted of these is Mrs. Step? 'Q our home room teacher, who not only taught us valuable subject matter, but also was a good friend and adviser to everyone . V .31-. '

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FAREWELL ADDRESS I By George Thomazin ...4.,. .... ........ ....Salutatorian and Organization President Like all of the presidents before me, I have to say that this is one of the most important days of our lives and one to which we have looked forward for nine years. I have to say it because it is so very true. The past nine years have been enjoyable onesg in fact they may be compared to a voyage in which the ship first puts into harbor at kindergarten to pick up knowledge to be used in other harbors along the way.. V As our ship discovers new islands we discover that the each one prepares us for something bigger. Soon the pages of a book have greater meaning than just knowing words. Reading writing and arithmetic become useful and help us to enjoy the next stage of our journey. Sometimes our ship sails on clear,quiet waters and sometimes they become rough and difficult to sail, but our work aboard ship has not been tediousg each of us has had our work to do, but it has been enjoyable and we have made many new friends on the voyage. as the ship has moved along we have been putting into bigger harbors where new and more important things were learned. We looked forward to those harbors, not knowing what each would have for us. We have grown up socially and academically and accepted new responsibilities along the way. Now we shall board our ship for another voyage to sail on a larger and rougher sea, for this new stage of our travel places us farther from the guiding voice of the captain -' where we must make more and bigger decisions for ourselves and be responsible for our own ability to get our tasks done. This ship is new and larger, there will be new officers aboard her who will have different ways, and we must learn to obey their commands when their given, and operate on our own initiative when that is necessary. Our ship will sail fast and straight, and before many months seem to have passed we shall be in that port where the great ship takes us out on the sea of life. Our success there will depend on how well we have served on those on which we have sailed before. So we have come this far on our voyage, and we are all on deck, but without our loyal commanders here at Walnut Hill who have carefully kept us aboard and perhaps pushed us up the gangplank a few times, we would not all be here. While we are all gathered here on deck it seems a good time to thank those commanders for the many hours of hard work and patience in preparing us for our next venture. Our hats are off to Mrs. Stepp for the final push, and a special thanks goes to our Mrs. Carpenter, the Captain of our ship, who has piloted us from the first day to the grand finale today. Without them we never could have ridden the ... 5.. L9

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in the class. Again I welconeyou and I hope that you will enjoy th1S,0UF last presentation, before we leave Walnut Hill. Thank you. -FHL -236' 4? -J?-if it-3623? IN THESE THINGS WE DID PARTICIFATE, By Mary Hamilton.............,......Spotlight Literary Editor HFbr what reason does the delegate from Room 13 wish recognition from the Gna1r?' ..... ,ana the delegate rose to make a nomination. That event, the Nominating Convention, was only the beginning of many activities. There the students had the opportunity to present their candidates' good qualities before the student bodyg at the same time they learned Robert's Rules of Order, as well as how to speak smoothly before a group. Both failure and success had to be met and each person learned to take both in his stride. An exciting two weeks of campaigning followed the Nominating Convention, then came the Campaign Speakers' Assembly at which every candidate had the opportunity to explain his beliefs and plans for the group , During the next few days the olassmembers had time to think over the candidates and were prepared to vote when the polls opened,.... it was the real thing.... previously registered voters arrived and voted in closed booths by Australian ballot, and the election board checked them off as, nvotedu. The results showed that real thought had been given to the qualifications of the candidates, and that popularity had carried no weight at these polls. ' At the Inaugural Assembly the goals and standards were set up and announced and the officers took their student Written oathJ.:... there a government was put into operationt T A government was not to be all, for it was later decided to organize hobby clubs which met once a week during W the first semester. Through these clubs the students learned to have fun together and put their talents to use at the same time, Panel discussions and debates came to be almost a part ' 'of each day's work. fPages would not really tell hpw-muchfwas learned from these activities, but each one learned tof nthink on his feetn and oourteously express his opinions, as well as see two sides of an issue, 'g if W Editing the Spotlight was a lot of fun as well as a lot of work, but it taught the students to accept responsibility and to give and take along the way. The staff felt that they:'Q had accomplished a lot for they actually did the preparation and typing of the dummy copy themselves,as well as some stenpils, The few court sessions which it has been neceigaPN.fPQQgld .i'1l taught much about courtroom procedure as well as taught the ' students to practice honesty and to accept deserved punishment, In working together to win every paper salepthis year,Q the students have learned school loyalty, and developed moge ability to pull together. V S These activities and others in which the class partiadpated I have been very profitable to the students as they leave Walnut Hill and take up their responsibilities in high sshoolz Where we have served, we have profited! ' Q i . . .1