Waltham High School - Mirror Yearbook (Waltham, MA)

Page 19 text:

,wg CLASS OF 1912

Page 21 text:

Valedictor ATHERTQN MQNRQE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :- mo-dern high schools are equipping young people with all the knowledge that books contain, still they are not equipping enough with that important ab- straction which books also contain, culture. There is, therefore, an evident lack of refine- ment in the deportment of many high school pupils. This deficiency has two chief sources, one, inside, the other outside of the school. The damming of these springs is not, of course, wholly within the power of the school, but it is in its power to lay a firm foundation upon which the pupil may construct his retaining walls. The causes of the lack of culture which issue from the internal source are these: the strong tendency of the pupil to master merely the text of his assignments, the practical courses, and lastly, the too great scarcity of teachers who are innately polished 'and who are interested in teaching gentility as well as X plus Y equals 3. The difficulty on the part of the pupil lies here: he does not see the interesting or the educational points. He goes about his work with the sole idea of satisfying the teacher, rather than with the design of instructing himself. He does not realize that the school is for his good, not for the teacher's, and that if he does not make the best use of it, he is doing himself an injury. This is a fundamental principle, which, when thoroughly understood, will make school life much pleasanter. In the practical courses, culture is present, although more deeply hidden, just enough so that the average student fails to get it, and, therefore, has only bones when he should have meat. Because of this fact, the pupil is likely to go through life but poorly nourished, unless he helps himself to the best. The most efficient rem- edy is, then, to mix the practical and the cul- tural evenly, that the pupil may be furnished with both meat and bone in their most beneficial combination. Now let us consider the teacher's part. It is easy to imagine the time when the teaching forces of our schools will be recruited largely from the first generation of the educated, unless something is done to make the profession worth while to the second generation. If we cease to have families of teachers, if the sons and daughters of professional men, the cultured, the refined, no longer find teaching to their liking, it would be well to look into the causes, remedy them, and so save much inherited and acquired culture for the schoo-l. If this 1'Cl:111C1'1'161'llI could be thus saved, the evident need of it, as men- tioned above, would be partly obviated. The external causes of the lack of culture are the street, and extreme athleticism. By the street, we mean its associations. For instance, when a person spends his spare time on the street, lounging up and down,