ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS
PUBLISHED AS A SUPPLEMENT TO HIGH LIFE BY THE CITY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
SCHOOL GOVERNMENT.
Much has been said in recent days
ibout various forms of student gov
ernment. Some go so far as to
;laim that actual student government
)f the type followed in the best
lolleges of our land can be success-
uylly operated by high school stu-
lents. With this position I take
ssue for I doubt the development
if high school students to a point
fhere the regulative, executive, and
udicial functions of government
an be turned over to them. There
5 no question, however, about the
act that our schools should begin
0 train boys and girls for the du-
ies of citizenship which they are
0 assume very soon.
The spirit of co-operation is fun-
amental in all the relationships of
ife, and consequently it is a logical
ne to tie up with the basic prin-
iple of law. With this foundation
le Student Co-operative System has
een developed for the Greensboro
ligh School. The constitution has
Iready appeared in High Life and
o mention need be made here re-
arding it.
It is well, however, for the stu-
ents and patrons to realize that
very progressive step has been
iken. The success of the plan will
e watched closely by other schools
f the Stale.
Greensboro parents are to be con-
ratulated upon having boys and
iris capable of developing such a
^stem, because it really is the
ork of their hands directed by
lembers of the faculty.
The plan has my full endorsement
tid I am confident of its successful
peration.
—G. B. Philips, Principal.
COUNTRY OF BOOKS
From John O’London’s Weekly)
his work-a-day world is trying at
times.
Folks chatter and squabble like
rooks!
D the wise flee away to the best of
all climes,
^hich you enter through History,
Memoirs, or Rhymes,
That'.wonderful Country of Books.
nd griefs are forgotten. You go
on a tour
More wondrous than any of
■“Cook's”;
costs you but little—your welcome
is sure—
our spirits revive in the atmos
phere pure
Of the wonderful Country of
Books.
our friends rally round you. You
shake by the hand
Philiosophers, soldiers, and
spooks!
dventurers, heroes, and all the
bright band
f poets and sages are yours to
command
In that wonderful Country of
Books.
few heighths are explored; and
new banners unfurled;
New joys found in all sorts of
nooks—
rom the work-weary brain misgiv
ings are hurled—
bu come back refreshed to this
work-a-day world
From that wonderful Country of
Books.
What Is Efficiency?
Dr. Frank Crane
What is efficiency?
It is doing things, not wishing you could do them, dreaming about them,
or wondering if you can do them.
It is the power to learn how to do things by doing them, as learning to walk
by walking, or learning to sell goods by selling them.
It is knowing how to apply theory to practice.
It is the trick of turning defeat into experience and using it to achieve
success.
It is the ability to mass one’s personality at any given time or place; it is
skill in quick mobilization of one’s resources.
It is making everything that is past minister to the future.
It is the elimination of the three microbes of weakness—regret, worry,
and fear.
It is self-reliance clothed with modesty.
It is persistence plus politeness.
It is the hand of steel in the velvet glove.
It is the alertness, presence of mind, readiness to adjust one’s self to the
unexpected.
It is sacrificing jjersonal feelings to the will to win.
It is impinging the ego against the combination of events—luck, fate, custom
and prejudice—until they give way.
It is massing the me against the universe.
It is the sum of the three quantities— purpose, practice and patience.
It is the measure of a man, the real size of his soul.
It is the ability to use one’s passions, likes, dislikes, habits, experience, ed
ucation, mind, body and heart—and not to be used by these things.
It is self-mastery, concentration, vision and common sense.
It is the sum total of all that’s in a man.
NOTES FROM WEST LEE
STREET SCHOOL
WEST LEE ENTERTAINS
A.
SCHOOL TRAINING
In a letter received recently from
Mr. McAlister he stated that the
success of the boy depends upon
his personal efforts. His company
has never employed a drinker or a
cigarette smoker because inefficiency
and failure accompany these hab
its. In concluding he writes as
follov/s:
“It is for this reason that I con
sider the high school course the
most important part of boy’s edu
cation. When he has that he is
independent, for he has the founda
tion, which will sustain whatever
structure of education he has the
grit and the ambition to build..
The high school years therefore
are the most important years of a
boy’s career and are pretty apt to
determine the success or failure of
his future.
“My advice in brief is this. Wheth
er in high school or college,
learn a little thoroughly, rather
than to try to learn much super
ficially. Flunk a subject if you do
not understand it, rather than pass
it by a process of cramming without
understanding. Build solidly in
high school and your euducational
future will take care of itself. To
throw away your high school op
portunities may mean to throw away
your life.”
Thank You
Lindsay Street School, the staff
appreciates the promptness with
which you send in material for the
Administrative Page of High Life.
It is quite a boon to the editors who
have to get a paper out on a cer
tain date. We have learned to de
pend upon you. We thank you. '
Fred Burroughs: “Why weren’t
you promoted?”
Penn McIntosh: “The teachers en
cored me.”
A MAN
A man is the part he plays among
his fellows. He is not isolated;
he cannot be. His life is made
up of the relations he bears to
others—is made or marred by those
relations, guided by them, judged
by them, expressed in them. There
is nothing else upon which he caji
spend his spirit—nothing else that
we can see. It is by these he gets
his spiritual growth; it is by these
we see his character revealed, his
purpose, and his gifts. Some play
with a certain natural passion, an
unsteadied directness, without grace,
without modulation, with no study
of the masters or consciousness of
the pervading spirit of the plot;
others give all their thought to
their costume and think only of
the audience; a few act as those
w’ho have mastered the secrets of
a serious art, with deliberate subor
dination of themselves to the great
end and motive of the play, spend
ing themselves like good servants,
indulging no wilfulness, obtruding
no eccentricity, lending heart and
tone and gesture to the perfect prog
ress of the action. These have
“found themselves,” and have all
the ease of a perfect adjustment.—
From Woodrow Wilson’s When a
Man Comes to Himself.
The Study of English
This issue of “High Life” is not
only a “Junior” edition but an
“English” edition as well. For
many people the study of Eng
lish seems a useless waste of time
which, might well be applied to
something more needful. They no
practical reason for the minute study
of forms or rules of language; the
appreciation of prose style or- the
shimmering beauty of poetry.
English is a language at once
alive and mobile, beautiful and ex
pressive. English language and lit
erature is the priceless heritage of
the English speaking people. It is
our duty to uphold it in a torch
light to the world; not as a dim
lantern of slang which can not
pierce the fog.
MR. LATHAM PRAISES
ABILITY TO ADD
“I have been away from Greens
boro since the middle of December
and therefore your letter of Decem
ber 12th has just had time for con
sideration.
“Genius has been described as ‘an
infinite capacity for taking pains.’
Very few boys know how to take
pains. How to do some one thing
and do that some one thing well
is very necessary in the life of
eevery boy or man. Most boys
can at least learn how to add ac
curately and rapidly, but very few
of them ever do. My own experi
ence is that not one in fifty ever
does accomplish this. My own no
tion is that schools have never given
addition the place it ought to have.
Perhaps it has never occurred to
our educators how greatly important
it is. ‘
“You have seen a great many fields
in different crops and the crops
were poor because the land was
badly prepared. I don’t know of
any single preparation that is better
for the boy, no matter what he ex
pects to make of him in later
life, than to really learn how to
add.
“I note that you wish a message
for your 350 boys. I am wonder
ing how many of them can really
add.
Yours truly,
J. E. Latham,”
The Spring Street News
The pupils and teachers of Spring
Street school are to be congratulated
upon the new effort of theirs which
already has been pronounced a
success—the publication of the
Spring Street News. It is a worthy
undertaking. We of the High Life
staff are watching it with interest,
if not with a bit of jealousy, for
we shall miss their splendid con
tributions to our paper. Neverthe
less, we send our congratulations
and best wishes for the continued
success of this publication.
—Marie Clegg.
The Picture-study given at West
Lee School Friday afternoon was
very much enjoyed by both friends
and pupils. The program opened
with a violin selection rendered
by West Lee’s promising young or*
chestra, and the songs by the Glee
Club, Worship of the Sun-god, and
Almateur, furnished a fitting atmos
phere for the speakers of the occa
sion. Mr. Hartsell discussed the
paintings of Flemish, Dutch, and
Spanish Schools; Miss Pannill those
of the French and American artists;
and Mrs. Weatherspoon those of the
British. After these discussions
those present were given an oppor
tunity to view the pictures more
closely.
* • *
Josiah Reynolds
Josiah Reynolds was born in a
little English village. His father,
being a minister, wanted him to
become one, too. Josiah’s opinion
differed from his father’s, for he
wished to become an artist. He was
never allowed to paint anything.
One day a visiting minister was
preaching at the church where Jo*
siah’s father preached. Josiah’s fa
ther could not prevent him, so Jo
siah drew a picture of the visiting
minister on his finger nail. The
next day Josiah found some crude
oil paints that some sailors had left.
He drew from memory a picture
of the visiting minister. His father
was then convinced that Josiah could
paint. He had the best teacher to
teach his son. Josiah Reynolds soon
became a great portrait painter. He
painted “The Age of Innocence,”
“The Strawberry Girl,” and many
other beautiful pictures. He is re
membered today as one of the great
est portrait painters the world has
ever produced.
—Irene McFadyen, Grade 7A.
« » *
The Age of Innocence
“The Age of Innocence” is a
beautiful painting by Josiah Rey
nolds. It is the picture of a little
girl of about seven years of age
sitting with her hands folded across
her breast. She is wearing a white
full dress which has short sleeves
and a low neck. Her dark hair
is bound up with a white ribbon and
her feet, which are covered with
her dress, are bare. The painter
has caught a very sweet, innocent
expression on the child’s face.
—Hilda Morrissett.
* * *
The Life of Edwin Landseer
When Edwin Landseer was a boy
of four he started drawing little
pictures. He would stay at home
and beg his mother to tell him what
to draw, while his older brothers
went out in the field to work.
One day when Edwin was about
five years old he was standing in
the kitchen begging his mother to
tell him something to draw. She
told him to wait until she put the
bread in the stove but he kept on
begging. At last she told him to
draw the bread. After he had fin
ished, it was well drawn and she
was proud of him.
When he was about thirteen he
would go to the field with his