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

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD 27 If the citizens of the United States are willing to try to live up to the ideals set for them by their forefathers, if they are willing to work faithfully and untiringly to perfect their schools and help their children, they will finally have not only a heritage of ideals but of realities, and ' they will see the result of their labors in a cleaner, nobler, and more intelligent cit¬ izenry. Parents, Friends, and Members of the Faculty:— Through four years you have helped .us to make ourselves good and worthy citizens. We appreciate your interest and kindness in making it possible for us to obtain an education. Undergraduates:— In behalf of the Class of 1926 I extend sincere thanks to you for your co-operation in all our undertakings. Classmates:— We meet together to-night for the last time as undergraduates, for to-morrow we shall have joined the Alumni. We have worked together and played together, and in spite of the difficulties w r e have had many happy moments which we will live over often in the future. Until now our course has been planned for us but from to-night we shall take di¬ verse pathways and will live the lives we make for ourselves. Let us keep ever in our lives to noble deeds rather than to mere our lives to noble deeds rather than mere words. Elizabeth Jackson, ’26. -(o)- GRADUATION PROGRAM. 1. Invocation Rev. F. K. Ellsworth 2. Music. “I Am the King of the Outlaws” High School Chorus 3. Salutatory. “Special Days.” Edna Mocklis 4. Music. “Boating Song.” Eighth Grade Class 5. Valedictory. “Our Educational Heri¬ tage.” Elizabeth Jackson 6. Music. “Silver Eyes.” Girls’ Glee Club 7. Address. Rev. James Gordon Gilkey 3. Class Song. 9. Presentation of Diplomas. 10. Benediction. Rev. Albert Jepson SCHOOL NOT.ES. On the 17th of March, Mrs. Leary, the commercial teacher of the High School, spoke to us on “My Trip to Florida.” She told of the places she visited and gave a very interesting account of the bui’ding of railroads in that state. April 13th Mrs. Kicthelt addressed the school on the subject of the World Court. She is the field agent of the Non-Partisan association for the Advancement of the League of Nations and is also a director of the Connecticut League of Women Voters. She told of the beginning of the W’orld Court and gave us some very helpful in¬ formation on the subject. The week of May 2 to May 9 was National Music Week and in remembrance of this week, a radio was set up in the main room on Friday and we enjoyed a concert from Yale University. Mr. Moran, treasurer of the Windsor Locks Safe and Trust Deposit Co., talked to us on May 12. He told us of the work which goes on in a bank and of the way in which a bank helps the community. It was a very interesting and helpful talk. On May 20, Mr. Hunt addressed us in as¬ sembly and reminded us that we had left but four weeks of school this year. He suggested that we make the most of the present opportunities. He told us of the folly of being a “has been” or “a going to be.” Mrs. Kathryn B. Leary attended the Eastern Commercial Teachers’ Association, held at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York city during the Easter vacation. Corrine Burwood, ’26 -(o)- SENIOR CLASS NOTES. The play “Am I Intruding” by Frederick G. Johnson, was presented by the girls of the Senior Class April 30. Six of the girls took boys’ parts and the other six, girls’ parts. The cast of characters was as follows:— Mrs. Hastings, the Housekeeped, Ruth Drake Blair Hoover, the Adventurer, Dorothy Phe’ps Ernest Rathburn, Jane’s Secretary, Elizabeth Jackson Marjory Vare, Elder Daughter, Sarah Compaine Dickie Waldron, a Romanticist, Edna Mocklis Mona, the Maid, Margaret Brett

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2G THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD been so well proved since. After the Civil War, great strides were made in developing pubuc schools. Vocational and trade schools came into existence and immedi¬ ately proved their worth. This period is remarkable for men who were devoted to education. Eminent among these are Horace Mann and Bronson Alcott, men whose foresight and conscientious work helped to bring about the great revolution in the public elementary schools and even in the institutions of higher learning. Horace Mann once wrote, “The common school is the greatest discovery ever made by man. It is supereminent in its univer¬ sality and in the timeliness of the aid it proffers The common school can train up children in the elements of ail good knowledge and virtue.” This remark, coming as it did from so influential an educator, shows that our schools have been striving to train chil¬ dren not only to acquire knowledge, but also to live more abundantly. It is well to consider the literature of this period, also, for literature always re¬ flects the scholastic backgrounds of an era. Such men and women as Abraham Lincoln, Edward Everett Hale, Louisa M. Alcott, Henry YVard Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe aid much to abolish class and racial prejudices and to advance American ideals. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” is a model of American prose, and it expresses better than volumes of books the ideals of liberty, freedom, brotherhood and peace which we wish to instil into American youth. Coming down to our own period great progress has been made in the elementary and secondary sshools. In most states education is compulsory between the ages of seven and fourteen, and in some states up to sixteen or eighteen. A child can start school at the age of five, obtain the best of training from well-educated teach¬ ers, advance into high school, and graduate without any, save ordinary expenses. Many states have large, splendidly equipped agricultural, normal, and vocational schools which their own pupils may attend without tuition. Thus an American boy of to-day can avail himself of a full professional training if he so desires and if he has the will to try to maintain a fair record. Children of tc-day are given every op¬ portunity money and experience can afford. Great thought and consideration are given to their comfort and well-being. In most places they have none of the countless difficulties to obtain education with which their parents were obliged to contend. As our forefathers were continually stressing the ideal of equality for all men, so to-day our educators are continually stressing the ideal of equality of educa¬ tional opportunity for all children. They want the rural child to have as good an opportunity in life as the urban child. They want the little East-side orphan to have as fair an educational advantage as the Fifth Avenue millionaire’s son. They say that all the youth of to-day and of the future must have an equal chance to devel¬ op and to use theiir individual talents. According to the Constitution they have an undeniable right to freedom and equal¬ ity. Only by the acquisition and wise use of this right may we ever hope to attain the goal of a true democratic nation. Edu¬ cation and democracy are very closely related. Herbert Hoover has said “And democracy is a basis of human relations far deeper than the form of government. It is not only a form of government and an ideal that all men are equal before the law; it is also an ideal of equal opportunity. Not only must we give each new genera¬ tion this spirit of democracy, but we must give to them a fundamental contribution, to an equality of opportunity through edu¬ cational equipment.” However, if we should be content with merely giving equal educational opportun¬ ity, wonderful as that would be in itself, we should fall short of our great duty and responsibility. To teach and learn solely for the purpose of acquiring a mass of facts is not the aim of modern education. We must build character and we must instil ideals. Since the beginning of the Great War, the school has had to take over much of the work which was formerly done by the parents in the home. Mothers who have entered business and professional life, have placed a heavy responsibility on the school and upon its faculties. To-day in¬ spirational and spiritual help must come, to a large extent, from the teacher. In order to be able to meet the still greater respon¬ sibility which the future is almost sure to bring, we must give our present school child the best instruction and training of which we are capable. We can do this only by untiring and un¬ selfish effort on the part of all. The great¬ est evil which threatens the school to-day is politics. We must keep factional feeling and discontent out of the classroom in order best to live up to our heritage. The lives of children are too valuable to ruin simply to satisfy the unwarranted hatred or selfish aspirations of a politician.

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28 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD Horace Vare, the father, Mary Poloski Violet Vare, Younger Daughter, Mary McHugh Peter Stone, devoted to Vi, Sophie Markman Dora Dean, a Friend of Vi’s, Agnes Connol.y Gerald Mays, Jerry, from Sage Creek, Florence Migliora Jane, Vare’s Niece, Corrine Burwood Place—The entire action of the p’ay oc¬ curs in the living room of the Vare home on Long Island at some distance from New York. Time—The Present. The play was directed by Miss Baker and Mrs. Eddy. The musical selections were as follows:— Piano Selections Battle of the Nations. E. T. Pauli Menuet a l’Antique. I. J. Paderewski Corrine Burwood Selections by Girls’ Glee Club. Dance of the Fairies. C. B. Ride Pit Pat. Eben II. Bailey Piano Selections Improvision of Wagner’s Prize Song. Edward Schutt En Courant. Benjamin Godard Miss Alva M. Parkin A class meeting was held May 7th in order to decide upon different matters for graduation. All business was not com¬ pleted so another class meeting was held May 13th. At the meeting May 17th the following motto was chosen: “Facta, non Verba,” or translated into English, “Deeds, not Words.” Six members of the Senior Class took part in the final debate which was held on Friday evening, May 21st, at the High School. Florence Migliora was judged the best debater and will have her name in¬ scribed on the silver cup. On Wednesday, May 26lh, several mem¬ bers of the class participated in a program given by the French Department. Marcus Lawson, ’26. -(o)- JUNIOR CLASS NOTES. On March 24 the commercial students of the Junior Class presented a typing pro¬ gram which was the first of its kind for a number of years. Everyone did his share and the program was a credit to them and to their teacher. Jean Cameron won the box of candy which was offered as a prize. Every member of the Junior Class re¬ membered John Pohorylo with a card of good wishes while he was in the Spring- field hospital. The Junior Class was one hun dred per cent, in supporting the H gh School Base¬ ball Team. On May 27 the class held a meeting for the purpose of making plans for their com¬ bined food sale and bazaar which is to be gicen on Wednesday, June 16; the proceeds of which will go towards the Washington trip. This, together with the monthly dues (50c) will increase our fund. By our close association with the mem¬ bers of the Class of ’26 we, the Junior C ass, realize that they have proved themselves worthy of receiving their well-earned diplomas. We congratulate them and ex¬ tend to them our best wishes for success. Lucille Knowles, ’27. - (o) - SOPHOMORE NOTES. In the first part of May the Sophomore c’ass held a meeting in Room 5 in order to select a class ring. After some discus¬ sion a ring was selected from W. H. Peters Company. We are glad to welcome back to our class¬ room John Pohorylo, who has just recovered from an operation for appendicitis. Joseph Raconne, ’28. -(o)- FRESHMEN CLASS NOTES. On Wednesday, May 5, a few members of the Freshman Class gave the following program in observance of Conservation Week:— Song, “America, the Beautiful.” School Proclamation by President Coolidge. Wesley Birge “What do we burn, when we burn’our trees.” William Karges Songs, “Gaudeamus Igitur.” “Lydia die per Omnes.” Freshman Chorus “A Story of Two Matches.” Walter White “The Va’ue of Trees.” Francis McHugh Piano Selections. “Minuet in G.” “Shepherd’s Morning.” Robert Pinney Song, “America.” School The Freshman Class regret that they have lost three members: Patrick Po ' oski, Chrys- tel George and William George. Virginia Shellington, ’29.