West High School - Senior Occident Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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-Scholarship of Class of June 1913 Another year has been added to West High’s history and another class, that of June 1913, is about to pass into the alumni of the school. Nothing very extraordinary about that class more than any other, is there? Let us look over the records of the previous classes and compare their relative percent- ages in scholarship. We find that of the members of the class of June 1906, 27.4 per cent, was eligible for commencement honors; of 1907, 13 per cent.£ 1908, 22; 1909, 19; 1910, 12; 1911, 14; 1912, 18.5, and of the class of June 1913, 26.7 per cent. We are proud to think that we belong to a class that excels in scholarship. The various sports are fine, so are debating, dramatics; and music, and to excel in any of these is a good thing, but to excel in scholar- ship is the topmost rung of the ladder. Important as school activities may be, they must give place to scholarship. The primary reason of establishing high schools is education, and it is that reason that prompts many to go there. The students who realize why they are going to high school are likely to be the ones who will excel in scholar- ship, but they are too few; too many belong to the other class. So, have we not reason to be proud of having so many students in our class, that have been faithful workers throughout the four years and can now present records above all reproach not only when examined with the naked] eye, but also with the microscope ? Activities may 1 come, Activities may go, But scholarship goes on forever. Honor Roll Faith Adams Earl C. Karker Myra Seymour Barbour Lieschen Langenbahn Marie Brewster Ethel Rose Lannin Leon H. Buckler Marian E. Leary Margaret Louise Coleman Louis C. Lovegrove Giles L. Courtney Paul Robert Meinhard Marguerite J. Eastman Agnes C. Miller Mabel Evarts Adele Oberst Glenn Henry Ewell John W. Remington Cornelia Farrington Ruth Hazel Roworth Marion V. Gunson Jane King Salter Mabel Hager Irene Walsh Viola M. Hall Mildred D. Wilcox Donald Hershey George Willis »

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Shortly before Christmas of last year, there occurred one of the most interesting and most unique events of the year. It was in the form of a Ger- man Christmas Festival and was given by the higher classes in'German, under the direction of the teachers of that department. The girls’ gymnasium, in which the party was held, was appropriately decorated with reproductions of the escutcheons of the German States, and set with a number pf small tables about which the students sat in true German fashion while they enjoyed the program which was rendered. This included a folk-dance, several quartettes and solos, a sketch and a talk by Mr. Miller, all in German. This program was followed by refresh- ments which included, among other things, real German Christmas cakes. The party was very well attended, the gymnasium l eing crowded with students and parents, and indeed a number had to be turned away owing to the limited capacity of the hall. It is planned to hold the next celebration in the Assembly Hall so that all those who are interested may be accommodated. It must be said that the affair was a marked success, especially when it is taken into consideration that it was the first time that anything of the kind was attempted at West High. Next Christmas, it will be more pretentious and probably even more successful and it should in time come to be one of the most important and most eagerly-awaited events of the year. This Spiing has seen the development of a new musical organization, the West High School Choral Union. It was organized in January simultaneously with a similar movement at East High. The idea was first proposed by Mrs. Elizabeth Casterton, our supervisor of music, who wished to offer to the pub- lic a capable rendition of favorite operatic selections. About four hundred students joined the new organization and at one of its early meetings officers were elected and an advisory lx)ard chosen. Then work was commenced in earnest and when the time came to show the results of that work, the public was given a rare treat. Two programs were given in conjunction with the East High Union, the first on April 5, and the second on April 10, during the Child’s Welfare Exhibit and the Convention of Music Supervisors. Both programs were very well received and showed the results that can be achieved by steady practice. All those who sang in the Choral Union enjoyed it and probably feel that they have been l enefited by it. It is to be hoped that if this worthy activity is revived next year, it will be as well or even better supported than it has been this year. 19

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Letitia Eloise Young AN APPRECIATION My acquaintance with Miss Young began in the fall of 190O when I assumed my duties as principal of the Rochester High School on South Fitz- hugh Street. The principal's office in that building was on the second floor and it happened that Miss Young’s room was next to the office. As the prob- lems of the year presented themselves, I turned to her for advice; first because she was so near, and later because I came to find her suggestions so helpful. We continued as neighbors for three years in the old building and I en- joyed unusual opportunities for seeing her work. During those years her program consisted entirely of first year classes in Latin and Algebra. I found that she was anxious to take the same pupils in these two subjects, which are naturally hardest for first year pupils, because she felt that by meeting them twice a day and along two lines she was enabled to understand them better and so to teach them more sucessfully. This undertaking involved double preparation on her part, but from this she never seemed to shrink. Her patience and tact in dealing with her pupils at this most trying time in their school lives; her absolute devotion to her work; her marked success in starting pupils on their way through the school was so evident that it was no unusual thing for me to receive urgent requests from parents whose boys and girls were entering the school that Miss Young might have charge of their children. Again when we began' to plan for the new East High School I recall how frequently her suggestions were helpful and how keen was her interest in the whole problem of the school. We worked together at East High until the opening of West High deprived me of her services. But the final verdict as to her life work does not rest in the words which I may write here; it rests in the grateful memory of those boys and girls, former pupils of hers, now become men and women. As I meet these men and women and hear so often their sincere expressions of gratitude for what Miss Young did for them, I am again assured-that the verdict on her life’s work is: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 21 Albert H. Wilcox.