Western Canada High School - Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

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BOOK Page 5 yEAC cccr CC VU4ITEE EXECUTIVE Sandy MacKenzie, Chairman Dorothy Hutton Connie Hickson Ruth Murray Dick Stapells Keith Gihson Drayton Spence Sidney Dyke EDITORIAL AND GENERAL CLASS 1—Ruth Murray Frances Cadzow Dick Stapells Howard Reeve Keith Gibson Sandy MacKenzie CLASS 2—Madge Cardell Dorothy Hutton Don Irving Bill Sheldon Joe Sirponton CLASS 3—Margaret Rhodes Marian Egleston Gwen Britton Mac Jones Gordon Langley CLASS 4—Merle Voss Audrey Bliss John Miller Jack Simmons Katherine Adolph CLASS 5—Jean Arthurs Bill Uren. John Davidson Roland Richardson CLASS 6—Jean Clark Bob Hahn CLASS 7—Emily Irving ' Alan Spence CLASS 8—Margaret Hayden. Leslie Matheson CLASS 9—Florence Lincoln , • Sidney Legg CLASS 10—Mary Bell Douglas Edmond CLASS 11—Helen Hoyt Ted Willis CLASS 12—Betty Jackson Joe Katzin CLASS 13—Flora MacDonald Bill McCondach CLASS 14—Patricia English Reginald Mawer CLASS 15—Dorothy Freeland Pat Richardson T. E. A. Stanley Frances Cadzow Robert Taylor John Miller Leslie Matheson Madge Cardell

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RUTH ttTON 3! )OKEJ FRA CAD20W —SE .— caroel WESTERN CANADA HIGH SCHOOL

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Page 6 YEAR THE HIGH SCHGGL AND THE GDADDATE M.K.H. Within a few weeks our Grade XII students will have completed the four year course of the high school. Now that school is finished one of the most perplexing problems for these young people is to decide upon the occupation or profession which they shall enter for their life work. Some students early decided this matter, but for many this decision remains to be made. In times like the present, with the future certainty of greatly changed economic and social conditions, the parents’ problem in advising becomes especially difficult. Two determining considerations for every parent should be, the occupation or profession the son or daughter is most deeply interested in, and those aptitudes which they know the young people to possess. Unfortunately, it too often happens that parents do not know with what special aptitudes their children may be endowed. The high schools have been, and continue to be, mainly schools of preparation for the University and for the Normal College, but during the four years of daily contact with students, teachers discover aptitudes, often other than Academic, that parents have never known their sons and daughters possessed. It is a matter for regret that this information is so little made use of, not only at this particular time but during all the years of the students high school course. Close co-operation between parents and teachers must increase the usefulness and efficiency of any school whether high or elementary. In the writer’s opinion there is an even greater need for it in the high than in the elementary school. The Home and School organizations are doing excellent work in helping to bridge this gap, and, although much remains to be done, the movement is along right lines and is assured of a future of increasing helpfulness. A common criticism of? our high schools is the excessive amount of home work demanded of students. The criticism is just, but the blame should fall in the right place and that is, on the Curriculum. For the heavy curriculum, however, the Department of Education is not entirely to blame. Just so long as the high school teacher specialists who assist in framing the curriculum are allowed to over-emphasize the importance of their special departments, just so long will the abuse of excessive home work remain. Important though the curriculum may be, yet it is not the major factor in sec¬ ondary education. The efficiency of a hiqh school staff, the earnest attitude of the student body and the close co-operation of community and school outweigh the curri¬ culum value. The high school has many problems which it cannot solve satisfactorily alone. One of the most serious of these is the failure of many students to accept responsibility for the preparation of work. Two of several reasons are responsible for this situation. One is the large amount of time devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, thus leaving little or no time for study; the other is inability or refusal to recognize the necessity for educational effort. In this school, fortunately, these students form a small minoriy. Nevertheless they are too many, constituting as they do an increased burden to the school and to the ratepayer. The main cause for concern, however, is the ultimate loss to these students themselves. This is a problem for the home as well as the school, and its solution will require their united efforts. At this time when high school graduating classes are about to say good-bye to school days, one is led to reflect upon what the high school has done or attempted to do for them. First of all it has provided security and a proper environment during the most critical years of adolescent life. The value of this contribution is perhaps not generally recognized.