Page Two
December 16, 1927
HIGH LIFE
Published Bi-Weekly by the Students of
The Greensboro High School
Greensboro, N. C.
Founded by the Ciass of ’21
Charter
Member
March
1925
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the
Post Office, Greensboro, N. C.
STAFF
Managing Editor . . . Dick Burroughs
Editor J. D. McNairy
Business Manager . . , Ed Davant
Ass’t Business Mgr Jack Kleemeir
Associate Editors
Henry Biggs Louis Brooks
Emma Griffin Clyde Norcom
Carlton Wilder John M. Brown
Assistant Editors
Elvie Hope Irene McFadyen
Margaret Britton Margaret Betts
Art Editor Ed Turner
Typists
Virginia Simmons Ruth Stinnett
Reporters
Virginia McKinney Helen Miles
Mary L. Benbow Mary H. Robinson
Prances Cartland M. Geogheghan
Margaret Kernodle Ernest White
Faculty Advisers
Mrs. Alma Garrett Coltrane
Miss Nell Chilton
Miss Mary Harrell
TIDBITS
After all, Greensboro missed the
championship by only one foot.
The person who went to Chapel
Hill to the game certainly had the
‘^Old Spirit” all right. Inciden
tally he had a high disregard for
his health.
We have never seen anyone en
joy anything so much as Mr. Stan
ley Johnson does seeing other peo
ple get a slight electrical shock.
He gets as much real/‘kick” out
of it as the recipient of the shock
receives.
Mr. J. H. says he has no faith in
little girls any longer. One inno
cent-looking creature asked him to
raise a steel screen for her. When
he grabbed it he received a strong
shock which made him unable to
turn loose.
As the Tar Heel remarks, ‘‘Now
that the seniors have had their pic
tures taken, at least the question
of Christmas presents is settled.”
Arguments of all sorts are evi
dent nowadays. For instance, Mr.
Blair and Miss Martin can’t settle
the question of which has the bet
ter ear. Mv. Blair avers that some
thing got wrong with his and when
he opened up the exhaust pipe he
found two or three Pontiacs lodg
ing there.
The Country Club is entertain
ing the football boys. There’s
another reason for playing the
great game.
Last issue of Sky High, Ashe
ville’s newspaper, came to our at
tention. This issue featured the
Greensboro game. We have never
seen a finer spirit shown than was
manifest by the whole tone of the
paper.
The Christmas Spirit
The Christmas holidays are near.
To the majority of persons this
means a period of joy and festiv
ity. With us Christmas is a time
for gaiety and pleasure, an occa
sion for the giving and receiving
of presents, a season of gay colors,
and social activities; all of which
is as it should be. Nevertheless, in
the midst of our festivities it is a
wise policy not. to overlook the fact
that Christmas is a tribute to the
precepts of the young teacher of
Galilee.
There is an ever-present danger,
in our hurry and scramble of life,
to permit dhristmas to become a
mere traditional institution, a
something which is because-it-is;
and to lose sight of the true mean
ing of the occasion. A time of
joy? Very good. In the applica
tion of the principles of Jesus of
Nazareth there is an increased joy.
Just what do these principles
incorporate? First they mean a
spirit of fellowship, a love for man
kind. More specifically, one might
say that they imply a desire to aid
one’s fellowmen, to be a beneficient
force in a civilization where much
is harsh and brutally indifferent, a
passion to make the world a better
and more pleasant place in which
to live.
Christmas, of all times, should
diffuse an atmosphere of altruism
and good will. The true Christ
mas spirit is pervaded by a feel
ing which may be a guiding star
for the other three hundred and
sixty-four days. At least during
this season let individualism be re
placed by communism in its broad
est meaning.
After all, Christmas should re
flect first those humanitarian prin
ciples which were inculcated by
Him in whom it has its origin,
Jesus of Nazareth.
Our Community Chest
We welcome into our school a
new institution, that of the school
community chest. The community
chest idea is an old one; it is new
in its application to our school.
The need of money has long been
felt by many of our sehool organi
zations which do not have a suit
able means of raising it. This need
has been met in various ways; it
has been a source of worry and
trouble to many; it has dimmed
the joy of doing things; it has held
up the work of many activities.
That this matter has been suitably
settled so early in the school year
is an accomplishment we should
all take pride in; it was done by
the wholehearted, sincere co-opera
tion of every person in G. H. S.
We hope that this community
chest will carry on; we also hope
that it may be enlarged from year
to year so that eventually the pub
lications may be allowed to achieve
their goal of sending delegates to
New York to the Columbia Inter
scholastic Press Assoeiation.
Snow, the harbinger of Christmas
time, has come for the first time. The
Christmas spirit first seemed in evi
dence on the morning of a white land
scape. We could imagine we heard the
jingle of sleigh bells and the shouts
of Christmas joy as we silently plodded
through the snow. It was only a
fancy; but a pleasant one, we believe,
when only a cold remains to remind
us of the first snowball.
The Team
There is no longer any need to
dwell on the excellence of this sea
son’s Purple and Gold eleven. And
though there is still ample occasion
to praise there is little need for
a poorly-expressed tribute when
the more perfect expression is man
ifest throughout the whole student
body. We know the team fought;
we saw it fight at Asheville and at
Chapel Hill. Because of the spirit
of those energetic athletes that bat
tled against the opponent team, we
are proud, and all of us feel a
strong desire to share their glory.
That game for the state cham
pionship has been played and won
by an eleven of championship cal
ibre. The coaches have worked,
the men have struggled to perfect
themselves, the cheer-leaders have
given their best, and the student
body has responded nobly in ap
preciation of these efforts. The
season has been a great success—
regrets, of course—but no bitter
ness.
We now look forward to the next
season with great expectancy and
high hopes for another “great”
season.
On Opinions
It is an inalienable right of all
men to express their opinions. Nev
ertheless, with this privilege they
assume the responsibility of avoid
ing the destruction of harmless in
stitutions for the mere purpose of
gratifying a desire to put them
selves before the public. The icon
oclast who feels that it is his duty
to challenge the soundness of every
principle regardless of its ethical
importance, is little more than a
nuisance, and is undeniable abus
ing the sacred privileges of self-
expression. To hold opinions is
splendid; to challenge the justifi
cation of doubtful institutions is
necessary; but to inveigh every
petty phase of the status quo is
uncalled for and certainly uncom-
mendable.
Opinions should be formed
slowly, carefully, and with a great
deal of open-minded investigation.
Every subject should be approach
ed broadly and at the same time
sifted thoroughly. We have too
many half-baked theories on the
part of inexperienced philosophers
who burden the public with ex
pressions on subjects in regard to
which they are absolutely unquali
fied to judge. It is, as we have
said, well for everyone to form
opinions on all subjects with
which he has contact but it is not
well for him to attempt to incul
cate all these.
There is an obvious need today
for opinions—but opinions of a
constructive nature. Opinions that
will set free the masses from the
bondage of ignorance and credul
ity; opinions that will lead men
into untouched fields in the strug
gle against injustice; opinions that
will give new hope and courage to
a disillusioned world. For such
opinions the world looks to the
rising generation. To meet this
expectancy it must qualify itself.
The circus revealed many things.
Besides observing many teachers
playing the ill-famed game. Bingo,
we saw several coaches outbid boys
on the box suppers. Of course, the
only reason was the fact that the
teachers possessed more money
than the boys.
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
EDUCATING THE EDITOR
Our public schools are becoming so
diversified in their activities that it
seems to one observer that they are
rather superficial in many respects.
There are many activities with the
same people taking part in them. Many
students are attempting to do more
things than a genius could ever hope
to accomplish. There is a lack of con
centration. As one person expressed
it, “our school is going to seed. Many
things are attempted, but none done
well.”
A public school supported by taxa
tion is supposed to please persons of
all tastes and likes. It is supposed to
satisfy the genius and the backward
student alike; it is supposed to satisfy
the athlete and the scholar, the writer
and the musician. One school at
tempting to do this cannot do it all
well; it is too much to be undertaken
by a single organization. Hence there
is a conglomeration of activities; a
melting pot of all talents, all likes, all
abilities. The person of real ability
often becomes discouraged; the strag
glers hang on because they have to.
The student who attempts to become
“well-rounded” and take part in every
activity often becomes superficial and
unskilled.
I have an ideal for a school; it is
different from any others because it
is my own. I would have scholarship
stressed above all other achievements
in school; I would have everything
subordinated to it; I would have it
the ideal and vision of every student
attending to become a real scholar, a
man of learning. To me a school exists
only in the studies which it offers its
students; it exists only in the learning
which it attempts to impart to its
charges. When I say scholarship would
be the ideal for the students I do not
mean that grades would be worked for.
In fact, I would have grades eliminat
ed except for a pass or failure mark.
It u ould be a school where everyone
was interested in learning, in under
standing the great complexities of life
m so far as man is able, in knowing of
the past history of man and its signifi
cance to the world of today. It would
be a place where the curiosity was
stimulated so as to make us want to
study, want to learn of things with a
zeal and a zest. Our joy, our spirit
our success, our ideal, would be our
work. By it we would raise our stan
dard of life and prepare to fight for a
right to live.
Of course such a school could not
have a winning football team or neces
sarily a winning debating team or a
prize newspaper. Certainly there would
be athletics, but only in so far as
athletics achieve their purpose—that of
increasing the health and developing
the body of the individual. Certainly
there would be some form of literary
work; it would grow out of the class
room work and the classroom attitude.
Such a school would not be for mu
sicians ; those who wished to study
music would have to go to a conserva
tory. There would be no place for the
person interested in learning an indus
trial or mechanical trade; he would
have to go to the proper place. The
cultivation and growth of the mind
would be supreme; everything else
would be subordinate to this one aim.
They tell me that there is a college
somewhat similar to this somewhere in
Ohio; that is a place where scholar
ship and learning are stressed above
athletic achievement and popularity.
If there be such a college, may it pro
gress and spread its doctrine to the
world.
By proposing such a school as this
I do not mean to belittle the athlete; I
do not mean to say that those who do
not have scholarship as their ideal do
not have a place in a school. I only
mean that such a diversified atmo
sphere, such a conglomerated program
as is typical of the modern public
school is not very conducive to thought
or very incentive to the scholar. Some
where in the bustle and scurry of
things we seem to have lost sight of
learning; we seem to have forgotten
that there may be some in the world
who desire to know above all other
things.
It seems to me that there might be
various types of public schools. There
might be established, I believe, such a
school as I have described. At the
same time there could be manual art
schools, music schools, and any which
seemed to fill a real need. Our system
of departments is supposed to take
care of this matter, I suppose. But it
seems to me that all these departments
working under one head cannot accom
plish their respective aims as well as
if allied departments were allowed to
work together in a school designed for
one common purpose, that of produc
ing a learned, well-informed, educated
student—educated, I mean, in the
sense that he had a desire to continue
his studies and learn greater things.
.15'
We can still hear them vibrating in
our ears; the cries of the ballyhoo
men; the barkers; the ringing of cow
bells ; the tramping of feet; the bingo
man shouting numbers; cries of the
ticket man; the pleadings of the auc
tioneer ; the noise and shouting of a
mob. The circus is history now; the
memory of the good time enjoyed at it
still lingers.