Waukesha High School - Megaphone Yearbook (Waukesha, WI)

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..., ,-i - N 1.1. -.lf LR ig 'l A OME of the best minds of Europe and America, disturbed by the present disorganized and undetermined aspect of our economic chaos, are striving for a new society based upon a new philosophy of education. The opinions of Everett Dean Martin and James Truslow Adams, American critics, were printed in the 1932 Year Book. With the same purpose of facing the problem confronting our civilization and our school, we are printing a selection from an English critic as an introduction to the concluding chapter of this book. So much for education as it is now and as it is likely to become in the im- mediate future-for its defects are so manifest that it will almost certainly not be allowed to persist in its present form for many years more. In the light of what is, we may imagine what ought to be. In a world like ours-and one must as- sume that the psychological facts will remain what they are and have been for the last few thousands years-the ideal educational system is one which accurately measures the capacities of each individual and fits him, by means of specially adapted training, to perform those functions which he is naturally adapted to perform. Aperfect education is one which trains up every human being to fit into the place he or she is to occupy in the social hierarchy, but without, in the process, destroying his or her individuality, How far it is possible for any one in a modern, highly organized society of specialists to be, in Rousseau's phrase, both a man and a citizen is doubtful. Present-day education and present-day social arrangements put a premium on the citizen and iinmolate the man. In modern conditions human beings come to be identified with their socially valuable abilities. The existence of the rest of the personality is either ignored or, if admitted, ad- mitted only to be deplored, repressed, or, if repression fails, surreptitiously pandered to. On all those human tendencies which do not make for good citizen- ship, morality and social tradition pronounce a sentence of banishment. Three- quarters of the man is outlawed. The outlaw lives rebelliously and takes strange revenges. When men are brought up to be citizens and nothing else, they become, first imperfect men and then unsatisfactory citizens. The insistence on the so- cially valuable qualities of the personality, to the exclusion of all the others, final- ly defeats its own ends. The contemporary restlessness, dissatisfaction, and un- certainty of purpose bear witness to the truth of this. We have tried to make men good citizens of highly organized industrial states: we have only succeeded in pro- ducing a crop of specialists, whose dissatisfaction at not being allowed to be com- plete men makes them extremely bad citizens. There is every reason to suppose that the world will become even more completely technicized even more elaborate- ly regimented than it is at present: that even higher and higher degrees of special- ization will be required from individual men and women. The problem of rec- Puge One Hundred Twenty-one

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onciling the claims of the man and the citizen will become increasingly acute. The solution of that problem will be one of the principal tasks of future education. NVhether it will succeed, whether success is even possible, only the event can decide. From cssuu on Ediicution in the book. Proper Studies, bu Aldous Huxleu. English Critic. 4 A Q Q lt is a very great pleasure for me to greet the l933 Megaphone and to ex- press my appreciation of the efforts of all who have had any part in its making. lt is especially pleasing to note the continued endeavor from year to year to make our l-ligh School Annual distinctive in form and content by the introduction of a central and unifying theme, worthy of study and development. No one connected with the Waukesha High School can have failed to note, during the past year, the time and effort expended by the managers and editors to make the current number a unique and outstanding contribution. The Work upon it was not. as is the custom so frequently in undertakings of this kind, behind closed doors but was made the center of a year-long activity in which a great number of students took part and in which there was awakened a real interest in Indian life and tradition. Dr, G. O. Banting. Superintendent of XVaukcsha Schools. nfl-he Megaphone of is then valuable not only for itself as the product of earnest study, originality of thought, and careful planning but be- cause it is the symbol of an en- terprise that contributed so much that gave color, vigor, and direction to the work of the year. I very sincerely and earn- estly congratulate the Mega- phone staff on their initiative to inaugurate and their Zeal and determination to complete such a big, line piece of work. G. O. BANTING. in 4? N Page One Hundred Twenty-two