Windsor Locks High School - Herald Yearbook (Windsor Locks, CT)

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. ACCEPTANCE OF CLASS GIFT. Members of the Class of 1918:— In presenting us this splendid picture of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, you have paid a valued honor to your Alma Mater, and a fitting tribute to the illustrious man whose messages have been read and commented upon in all our schools as being the most perfect charter of human rights I am indeed happy to have been chosen to express the sincere and deep gratitude of the Faculty and Undergraduates of the Windsor Locks High School for this gift which shall a lways serve as an inspiration to us that we may ever strive to emulate our President’s noble qualities. “He spake and into every heart his words carried new strength and courage.” May some of that strength and courage be ours in the coming years. May Nugent, ’19. VALEDICTORY AND ESSAY. The Liberal Education. Education has been a favorite topic with high school graduates for two rea¬ sons;—its close relation to the thought expressed in Commencement, and its vital¬ ity of interest. For these two reasons, and especially the latter, education is the theme of mv discussion to-night. Trulv it is a complex subject, manifest¬ ing itself in countless forms, the classical being the one which has had the longest neriod of sway. This has been the type which has moulded generations of thinkers from whose labor we have received tb privilege of living in a more rational world than that in which our grandfathers lived. This has been the tvpe which has made the men who have built up the world system of national intercourse and of trade, and the national systems of government. Following such a wide-soread advancement has come a natural broadening of educa¬ tional ideas—a gradual departure from established classic principles, and an ex¬ pansion into a freer field, called liberal. For those who would have an exact defini¬ tion of a liberal education, it is. concisely this—the study of subjects not directly re¬ lated to the pursuing of ones intended pro¬ fession. Thus, a future civil engineer is receiving a liberal education when he studies history and languages, and a future Latin teacher is receiving a liberal edu¬ cation when he studies stenography and bookkeeping. Under the present day motto of “Efficiency,” one is eager to con¬ demn the study of subjects for which there will b eno direct use. Should it be con¬ demned? Has the liberal education a real worth now, in June 1918? My answer is “Yes !” Is it not fitting that I should take an extreme position on this question, that I should urge universal adoption. The mid¬ dle course is most often the safest, and that is the one I purpose to follow, asking onlv for a fair considerat : on of the value cf a liberal education. Assuredly it is not the best course for everyone since we are not all made alike. A great many cannot afford to attend h : gh school or college, while oth¬ ers go merely because of the prestige to be gained thru graduation. For these, voca¬ tional training has been specially adapted. However, it is not my intention to discredit vocational training, but to show that the liberal education must not be abandoned as a relic of the past—both forms are needed in order to give a fine balance to the educa¬ tional system. The Tom Browns of Eng¬ land studied nothing but classics, and the Tom Browns of the United States threaten to study nothing but vocations. Now you ask. “Is not the earning of bread and butter the most important thing anyway?” To be sure it is the most im¬ portant thing ! Unhappy indeed is the man who cannot earn h’s own livelihood, yet I wonder how much less unhappy is he who cannot satisfv the inevitable longing for a life of mental activity. Because of this one-sidedness, vocational training is too narrow to become the educational standard. Consider with me now the four agents by which a liberal education brings about better social development. The first is a h x ad outlook cultivated thru the studv nf history. I do not contend that Ancient History is valuable in itself; it is not. There ' s pot a thing much more useless than a collection of facts memorized about Menes, Sennacherib. Khufu, Art- axerxes and other old worthies of equally unpronounceable names, bringing with them visions of mummies and tombstones. Still tne e is a benefit to be eained from history and that is the insight it gives into the civil and national problems which perplexed our ancestors We ourselves, if we studv his¬ tory intelligently, will have our paths to

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 23 everything he could to earn a living. Now we see him one of the most famous men in the world. How did he win success? By hard work and perseverance. Thomas Edison did not find a way, he made it. Let us turn from Edison and consider the humble road to remarkable success trod by a poor boy, bom about seventy years ago, on Cape Cod. He left his home to seek his fortune in Boston, with but four dollars in his pocket—all he had in the world. On reaching the citv he set out to find work. After a day’s fruitless search he was strongly tempted to return home, but his stout heart rose in rebellion against the thought. He said to himself, “If I can’t find a situation. I will make one.” And he did. He found a board which he converted into an oyster stand on the cor¬ ner of the street. He borrowed a wheel¬ barrow, went to an oyster smack some dis¬ tance away, purchased three bushels of the hivalves, and wheeled them to his stand. He was successful in his business, and soon had enough money to purchase a horse and a cart. He also removed his business into a convenient room, where the first day. he made seventeen dollars. From that time on he continued to enlarge his business ranidly, taking on other departments, and adding daily to his property. This is the story of the late Isaac Rich, Boston mil¬ lionaire. He made a situation that he could not find. I have given you two examples of men who have made a way in the world, made it in spite of obstacles and handicaps that might well have daunted a brave heart. History is full of just such examples, some well known, some obscure, but all worth considering. Would you have more of these examples? Then consider:— Sir Isaac Newton spent long years on an intricate calculation, and his papers having been destroyed by his dog. Diamond, he cheerfully began to replace them. Carlyle, after lending the manuscript of the “French Revolution” to a friend, whose servant carelessly used it to kindle a fire, calmly went to work and rewrote it. Richard Arkwright, founder of cotton manufacture in England, began life by shaving people in a cellar at a penny a shave. George Stephenson worked fifteen long years for his first successful locomotive. There are many more men whose names might well be given at this time—but I believe you have heard enough to see how true are the words of our motto: “I will either find a way, or make one.” What has been done by others we can do. Let us resolve to-night to put forth our very best effort to achieve success in the profession which we have chosen. Let us “either find a way or make one !” And so we may learn our lesson— “If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.” Irene Gourley, 18. PRESENTATION OF GIFT TO SCHOOL. We, the class of 1918. following the example of classes that have before us graduated from the Windsor Locks High School, have voted to present to our school a class gift. Just at this time when American spirits are in their highest pitch, we as a class have decided that it would be most fitting and patriotic, to present to our school, a portrait of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. This por¬ trait shall be hung in the Main Room of the High School. We desire it to be hung there that it may serve as an inspiration to you in coming days when war clouds are low¬ ering and all seems dark and gloomv. Then mav vou look at our President’s face, and find the help you need. We chose President Wilson’s picture as our class gift, because he, our President, is teaching the world a lesson, the lesson of “Justice.” and because he is a great man. well educated, strong in character, and calm in storm. He is an example to the Young Amer¬ ican to-day. He kept us out of the war as long as he honorably could, until all hones of peace were gone, then spoke those wo ds which set the American on fire. “The time has come to conouer or submit. For us there is but one choice, we have made it.” Aguinaldo C. Migliora, 18. A freeze is a highly ornamental border. Judge—You are accused of default in payment of that poultry bill. No sah. it wasn’t de fault of nobody but de chicken.

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 25 public-spirited and patriotic service made much easier for us because of a knowledge of the failures and the successes of those men, the accounts of whose lives go to make up that often wrongly despised subject of Ancient History. The second point is the importance of languages. What, may I ask, is the founda¬ tion of all education; science, history math¬ ematics? No! None of these! Of what use is science without language, or history without means of recording it? If then, language is the core of education, surely it deserves attention. Probably now there is objection on the ground that classic tongues, Latin and Greek, are dead and buried and consequently of no use, but Greek is still spoken to-day, and Latin, altho dead relatively speaking, is alive with uses. Doctors, lawyers, druggists, and ministers all use Latin. So do the people who speak Italian, Spanish, French. Portu¬ gese, and, to a smaller extent, English. Latin may be a dead language, but its ashes have been widely scattered, and. for my part, I prefer to become acquainted with it at the start rather than to be meet¬ ing unknown ghosts at every turn. These numerous related tongues can be learned separately, yet how much more easily they may be acquired if their common source has first been mastered. Then, for one who is not intending a study of foreign lan¬ guages. a working knowledge of I atin is invaluable because of its enlarging influence up English vocabulary. The third asset is the power of inde¬ pendent thihking, reflective thinking it is called. According to the advocates of New Methods of education, algebra and geometry are useless studies except to a verv few individuals. Possibly this is true. I seri¬ ously doubt if any bewildered housewife w’l ever have to struggle with the problem of selling half an egg more than half her eggs, then half an egg more than half the remainder, in order to have one left; or any enthusiastic dancer stop to consider that a straight line is the shortest path between two points; nevertheless such propositions as these develop the faculty of thinking, real thinking, tno whether x is equal to y plus z, but whether bookkeeping or printing is a more desirable occupation. Of all the mind stimulants, mathematics, and es¬ pecially geometry, holds first place. Three sides of the square of liberal education have been treated; what of the fourth ! It is that side which should be easily understood in war times for it is no other than discipline, the same sort of discipline that makes effective armies, only this time applied to the serried furrows of the brain instead of to the ranks of Kaiser Wilhelm. Indisputable is the need for men¬ tal discipline; but often misinterpreted the method of procuring it. It is, not a study of those subjects which are easy, or appeal¬ ing, or interesting, but a good, long, hard, continuous application to Latin prose, French verbs, geometry originals, and algebra problems. After a thoro drill in these studies, not possessing value in them¬ selves, but being only a means to an end, the mind will have been changed from an ordinarily sluggish hinderance into an ef¬ fective, active power. Those, briefly stated, are the four ad¬ vantages to be derived from a liberal education. Let us come back once more to the middle path and compare the two types of education as they are shown to ns this year, 1918. On the one side is Voca¬ tional Training, championed by Germany, the nation of absolute science and perfect efficiency, but a worldly, Godless existence. Her men are trained by vocation for war, and by vocation for peace; trained by vo¬ cation for making of everything from the pen to the sword. She has reached the very summit of vocational training; but to what end? On the other side stand England, France, the United States; lead by such men as Lloyd-George, Viviani, Woodrow Wilson, champions of the same principles as those for which the liberal education strives. Surely these nations, and these men. are not guded by narrow principles of business and gain ! This is where voca¬ tion training falls down in its attempt to drive out the liberal education. Where is the vocation that makes character? These two belong together, liberal and vocational, both essential, neither all- sufficient, the liberal being the great pro¬ ducer of mental power and moral character, the force which will bring about the time when nation shall no longer war against nation and peoples against peoples. Long be the life, and prosperous the career of the Cause of Liberal Education ! The formal ceremony of Valedictory has been established by custom as the final duty of a graduating class to the school it is leaving. Such a ceremony is but the symbol of leave-taking; a symbol which expresses good will and fellowship between teacher and pupil; pride at the attainment of the second step toward the goal of edu¬ cation; and readiness for beginning the harder task which is to follow. To-night