Westmount School - Review Yearbook (Edmonton, Alberta Canada)

Page 37 text:

Hopes for the Future I was in another land. It surely must have been Utopia, so wonderful was it. I was going to school and actually loving it. Everyone at this centre of education was blissfully happy for there was, strangely enough, no cause for discontent. The school was run in an ideal manner. At the head was a popu¬ lar, business-like president voted into office wisely by the whole school. Under him were the capable room reps., who had been elected jointly by the boys and girls in each class. The Students’ Union meetings were open to the students, all of whom behaved properly during the meetings. The finances were con¬ trolled by the union and a teacher, who acted only as a tactful supervisor. Financial reports were posted on the notice boards announcing exactly what became of our athletic fees. There was a good school orchestra that played at all the after-four Lits. The school paper was ever so popular because the stu¬ dents co-operated with the editor. All the big dances were open to the public, which gave the treasury a big boost every time a dance was held. And finally the teachers and the students always worked happily together to make their school the leader among all the others in the city. What a wonderful dream that was. I hated to wake up, but as soon as I began thinking it over I wondered why we at Westmount couldn’t adopt some of those Utopian ideals. Finally I came to the bright conclusion that West- mount could be just as happy and contented a school as that of which I had dreamed. We already have a president elected by the whole school. The only trouble with our union is that we don’t always vote for the most capable room repre¬ sentatives. We blindly vote for the most popular persons hoping that they have the most ability. Both the boys and girls together should elect the most capable boy and both should elect the most capable girl. Thus we would have the strongest union possible. The students’ union meetings could easily be made public by holding them in the assembly hall. Unruly students could be ousted by those in command of such matters. If a student had a suggestion to make he could speak to his rep¬ resentative before or after the meeting and the rep. could bring it up for dis¬ cussion. These public meetings would keep all the members up on their toes. Surely the union could manage the finances as long as a teacher super¬ vised quietly to guard against rashness or extravagance. Also there is no rea¬ son why a report should not be made on how every cent of our athletic fees are spent. Our treasury could certainly be boosted if we had bigger and better dances open to the public. Puzzle over this the way I did and I think you’ll come to the same con¬ clusion, that we could make Westmount famous in Edmonton for its Utopian happiness. Agreed, fellow students? Page thirty-li '