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

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8 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. ideas. We all have ideas which we call our own, but for the most part they are merely ours by adoption, they come directly or in¬ directly from books. And this leads natural¬ ly to a sober reflection: “He who read-; little is apt to live a little life.” His range of information is so narrow, his stock of ideas is so meager, that he is poorly equipped to do things. He can hardly hope to keep pace with those who are “well read.” Pure, temporary pleasure; an abundant store of facts and ideas; the broadening and refining of lofty ideals and universal truths; power to think, power to appreciate, power to express; these are the benefits derived from reading, and it is with this idea in view that you may secure these benefits that we, the Class of 1920, present to the school this gift of subscriptions to two of our best mag¬ azines. We hope that you will make use of these and derive both pleasure and knowl¬ edge. Margaret Root, W. L. H. S., ’20. ACCEPTANCE OF CLASS GIFT Members of the Class of 1920: In presenting to us the subscription of two of our best magazines, you have again dis¬ played that characteristic which has been yours throughout your high school career, namely: Common Sense. You give us a privilege which has not been yours during your four years at High School, thus showing your unselfishness. We are indeed glad to possess a means whei’eby we, as students, may keep in touch with current happenings and may enjoy reading the best stories and articles of the day. • While your gift is not a large one, it is one that will be of great help to us all and should prove invaluable to the English De¬ partment of the school. We shall make the best use of your gift and hope to keep up what you have started and enlarge upon it whenever possible, thus putting your “Alma Mater” in a position to compete with any school when it comes to discussion of the live topics of the day. In behalf of the teachers and undergrad¬ uates of the W. L. H. S., we extend to you our heartfelt thanks and sincere apprecia¬ tion for your splendid gift, and hope that in coming years all your work will be crowned with success. Joseph Halloran. THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION We students of today take our present high school training as a matter of course and do not stop to think that it has taken over twenty-five centuries to build up the high schools we now enjoy, and that it is only a century ago that high schools were instituted. Real educational progress began with the Greeks. In their gradual development they achieved individuality, and their outlook seemed always to have been toward the fu¬ ture rather than the past. And as a result of their development the world has ever since turned to this source of learning for inspiration and counsel. Greek schools offered their youth a full rounded education. The boys were given rigid physical training and courses in mil¬ itary duty; they were taught reading, writ¬ ing mathematics, grammar and rhetoric, the study of literature and music. The un¬ derlying purpose of all Grecian education was the training of their boys to serve the state and become goood citizens. We must remember that this education was only for boys of the wealthy and leisure classes. It is said that Rome amalgamated the Greek civilization with her own. And we are inc lined to believe thi -. for until the Romans began to adopt the Greek ideas of life they were narrow and little adapted to national development. We find the Roman schools very much the same as those of the Greek, but perhaps a little more rigid. Both these nations through educational influence spread their intellectual culture through Macedonia and the Orient. During the Midd ' e Ages monasteries grew up to counteract the prevailing wilderness, and as a result the literary work of the monasteries soon led to the establishment of regular schools within their walls. The curriculum of these schools was at first ele¬ mentary and narrow, but finally initiated classical learning in the form of “seven lib¬ eral arts,” viz., grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Their greatest accomplishment for civiliza¬ tion was the preservation of history and literature. A very important effect upon education was made by the founding of medieval uni¬ versities, w r hich institutions grew out of the old monastic schools and offered only three branches of study—ministry, medicine, and law. The medieval student not only ac¬ quired a knowledge of his studies, but also debated upon them. However, from a mod-

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 7 Eleanor, however, to confine your acting to the stage and not the school room. There is another one of your sophomore girls who trips the light fantastic toe with graceful ability. It would not be a bad idea for some of you to follow Miss Lyons’ art and thereby gain grace and poise. Verdant Freshmen: Do you realize that you are now almost sophomores, and it will soon be your duty to show another class just how high school students should act? Since we as seniors have been this past year located in a separate room from the rest of the high school, we have very seldom seen you freshmen, and indeed when we have visited the main room on special occa¬ sions we at first thought the front seats were empty until we heard childish voices proceeding from their depths. On one occa¬ sion when the freshmen presented a rhetori¬ cal program, in the midst of it the piano suddenly started playing. We were dum- founded, for we had not heard of our piano being changed into a “player,” and indeed we would not have allowed our beautiful in¬ strument to be so used. But when the room was filled with vibrating chords and crash¬ ing crescendos we were awed beyond ex¬ pression. But lo and behold when the music ceased, up jumped a sprightly freshman girl, who had been entirely concealed by the piano. You also seem to be a very studious class as a whole and cover a broad field of lead¬ ing, especially the boys. I have been told that our freshman boys can be found nearly every day reading from our World’s Refer¬ ence Books, looking up, usually, such data as the evolution of the Blastophaga Nas- sorum and various other biological subjects. Just here I would like to deviate from the usual custom and give just a few woi’ds of advice to the School Board. We think it would be an excellent plan for the Board to provide a few cradles and perhaps a nurse¬ maid if need be for the incoming freshman class. So much for the lighter part of my ad¬ vice; now for the more serious part. Your high school years pass quickly. You who continue your high school career, and you all should continue, will soon be graduating as we are tonight. Work hard and you will find that you will gain due reward for your efforts. You have strong class spirit. Weld that into a strong school spirit and strive to keep the standard of your school higher than that of any other. Make W. L. H. S. a school that you, your parents and towns¬ people can well be proud of, and to each one of you, individually, I can give no better advice than that which Polonius gave to his son Laertes: “This above all, to thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Malcolm Macdonald, ’20. ACCEPTANCE OF ADVICE Members of the Class of 1920: In behalf of the undergraduates, I wish to sincerely thank you for those precious words of advice which you have imparted to us this evening. We have listened attentively to your words of wisdom, and we have taken them all to heart. At this moment we are, no doubt, think¬ ing of the time when we, too, shall be seniors, when we shall have to leave our classmates and teachers, and pass on to the business world. We have learned many lessons from you as upper classmates, but we have, no doubt, learned something which we would have fared well without—the matter of talk¬ ing to yourselves on occasions. But, Seniors, I must confess that you have been a quiet and respectable class, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you the best of luck. Herbert Poulter. PRESENTATION OF GIFT In selecting our gift this year we have aimed to leave the school something useful. The appropriate gifts of former classes have attractively decorated the walls of the vari¬ ous rooms and supplied many valuable refer-, ence books to assist the pupils in their work. There was a time, long centuries ago, when it was no uncommon thing for a person to go through life without ever learning to read. Times have changed since then and great benefits as well as pleasures are de¬ rived from books and current magazines. The most obvious of all benefits is pleas¬ ure—pure pleasure entirely free from any idea of improvement. We turn to books and magazines for much the same reason that we join a merry crowd, engage in sports, or a tramp through the woods. But there are higher benefits. How de¬ pendent we are upon books for facts and

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 9 ern point of view their course of study was meager, fixed and neglectful of the litera¬ ture of the classical ages. This period of the Dark Ages when all learning slept was followed by the Renais¬ sance or the Revival of Learning. During this era it was evident that the spirit of the Graeco Roman had returned and that an op¬ portunity was granted for the expression of individuality. Universities throughout Eu¬ rope began to adopt this new learning. They were awakened to the genuine vitality and innate beauty of the ancient writings. Even grammar schools began a systematic change in curricula. After the Renaissance came the period of Reformation. This opened the field for the training of teachers adn broadened the courses in philosophy and mathematics. The so-called grammar schools, so limited in their courses, were found inadequate in the preparation for the universities, and out of this need came the establishment of acad¬ emies in England and America. These acad¬ emies, we must remember, were far differ¬ ent in their scope from those of today. They taught only those branches prepara¬ tory for college, and only those went to college who were preparing for a profession. Then came the development of the modern systems. And with it free elementary edu¬ cation, compulsory attendance, the creation of a board of education, normal schools, vo¬ cational schools, and the placement of ele¬ mentary schools under public control. The growth of inventions and discoveries in the nineteenth century gave rise to the teaching of many natural science branches in technical schools. And even universities began to assimilate these courses with their own. Then, too, elementary schools began to realize the value of this practical training and so equipped themselves with labora¬ tories, lecture rooms, workshops, and in¬ creased their staff of instructors. And so with the dawn of the scientific movement, scientific and technological schools sprang up. Through the academic movement, high schools began to appear, giving special em¬ phasis to sciences. The first high school appeared at Boston in 1821. In the first year it offered in its schedule geography; navigation and surveying, in the second; and natural philosophy and astronomy in the third. In all cases instruction was given mainly through the text book, although ex-’ peri men ts were frequently demonstrated by the teachers, but there was no laboratory work for the student. At this time there was such a tendency to overload the cur¬ riculum with scientific courses that at the end of the century these courses were very numerous and of a rather superficial charac¬ ter. The scientific movement in the educa¬ tional system was marked in all the coun¬ tries during the past two centuries, which demanded entirely different methods of teaching from the traditional ones. So much for science. We have now come to the pre3ent-day tendencies in education. Perhaps one of the finest things of camparatively i ecent devel¬ opment is the evening high school, where students who are occupied during the day can attend in the evening, and also the even¬ ing school for the foreigners. Another fine institution is the industrial schools, estab¬ lished through the philanthropy in the larger cities. Let us stop and consider a moment the striking comparison between the college and the high school courses. Classics are beyond the question, for we all know that classics have always been the foundation of all sec¬ ondary schools. Corresponding to the applied science in the college;, we have the domestic science in the high schools; and in place of finance and economics, business and business law. In the colleges are offered thorough courses in agriculture, while in many high schools both the theoiy and the application are considered and even the grammar schools are beginning to adopt agriculture into their curricula. The commercial department of our schools has done more perhaps than any other insti¬ tution to place the majority of business workers in fine working environments with a chance for intellectual improvement. As a matter of fact, there are more commercial students than classical students in any com¬ munity. The commercial course is a quicker one, thougn its practicability is questioned. We have now come to the schools of the present day. What a short time has elapsed since I spoke of the ancient Greek and Roman education, but how many years it has taken to build up our excellent high schools and colleges upon that foundation. Twenty-five centuries of patient toil, now a lapse, now a revival of learning, but always a striving toward the same goal—a higher standard of education. How grateful we ought to be to those people and to those conditions which have made it possible for us to have the excellent opportunities of education which we now enjoy. Classmates: We have now come to the