- There seems to be a general recognition of the fact that
the Janesville High School building is an
- outstanding building among High Schools of Wisconsin, possibly
the outstanding one of the State. The people of Janesville and
the students of the Janesville High School are justified in the
pride they take in the truth of this fact.
- For one and one-half years the students who attend the Janesville
High School have had some
- opportunity of realizing what the tax payers of Janesville
have so unselfishly provided in the way of building and equipment.
It is unquestionably true that should we at this time pause and
take stock, the students have shown real appreciation of that
which the tax payers have so generously provided. Not only is
the building therefore to be admired, but the spirit of the student
body should be recognized as a very creditable one.
- The question that looms to those interested in the future
of the Janesville High School is with
- reference to the possibility of making the Janesville High
School of the future more outstanding among the school of the
State, not as a building or as equipment, but from a point of
view of scholastic attainment, of fine type of school spirit,
of a real product in its training of men and women. A fine school
building and equipment does not necessarily mean a fine school.
Even a strong faculty of devoted teachers working in a splendid
building may not necessarily mean an outstanding school. The
Janesville High School of today is most largely what the students
who attend are making it, and the Janesville High School of the
future will very largely be determined by what the students of
the Janesville High School of today are establishing as precedents
for the students of the future to follow.
- Personally, I should like to see Janesville High School typify
an attitude of mind. An attitude of mind
- where every student in the Janesville High School indicates
his or her appreciation of the fact that in an organization every
individual plays an important part; that the school is a better
school or a poorer school because that individual pupil is among
the student body. I should like to have every student realize
that there is no such thing as a neutral pupil in the school;
that every pupil either detracts from or contributes something
to the institution. I should like to have every group of students
know that as far as the standard of the school is concerned,
there is no such thing as standing still; that the school is
either going backwards or moving forward, and the problem of
the student body is to so constructively contribute to the school's
welfare that it shall never go backward, but ever forward.
- Service has become rather the ideal in the world at large
today. The value of a man to his community
- or to his business is most largely determined by the desire
which he exhibits to do something for the welfare of the larger
number. The successful man today is measured not by what he accomplishes
for his own individual betterment or remuneration, but by what
he contributes in making his group or community a better and
a stronger group or community. That is the type of school citizenship
that I hope for the future of the Janesville High School. It
is a citizenship where every individual boy or girl in the school
appreciates the school as a community. It is a realization that
the individual pupil's obligation in his own case is to make
such contribution by his attitude and his effort as will enable
him conscientiously to feel that he is playing his part in making
the Janesville High School a better school than it would have
been, had he not been a member of the student body. when each
one of us is imbued with this ideal the Janesville High School
will be noted not so much for its building and equipment as for
the more worth while phase of a school, that is, the morale with
regard to finer things in life which the student body exhibits.
My hope is that with respect to this particular interpretations
of a school, the Janesville High School of the future may be
increasingly outstanding among the High Schools of Wisconsin.
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