The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1917-02-02

organized on Friday, January LotH, III
the assembly hall of the Westminster
High School, and the teachers enjoy
ed one of the most interesting pro-
grams ever rendered at one of these
meetings. The order of business was
as follows:
1. Organization by election of Off
GERS. Mr.. F. r. Young was elected
president, and Mr.. J. F. Reese was
elected secrtary.
2. Music by Westminster High
School Orchestra.
These boys are deserving Of much
praise for the amount Of time and
hard work they have put in their
music. They are under the direction
of Miss Ida F. Lockard.
3. Superintendent Unger then in
troduced Prof w. F. Clifford, Of Gou-
cher College, whose work is part1cu-
larly concerned with the training of
high school teachers in Goucher. Prof
Clifford said in part:
Il think that every one of us must
first of all have in the background Of
his thought all the time the general
situation as regards high school. It's
present status is one that has come
upon us with marvellous force. AS
you are doubtless aware, it has only
been ninety-siX years since the first
high school was established in this
country A number of families are
sending children to high schools and
this means great changes of high
! school functioning, as there is quite
variety of children, some foreign,
some otherwise. What the high
school should do about its problems
or how it should go about solving
them is a very grave question with us.
| High schools five, certainly ten years
ago, in most of the states in this
Union were principally preparatory
schools for high school teachers.
| Nothing of that sort is true now eX-
cept here and there in certain states :;
there has come a new demand, a new
requirement, and I think this meeting
| is an indication of it. | am going to
bring before you three questions:
First, What is the nature of the
psychological problem? Second, What
are the goals which social life de-
mands must be met by the yOungster
who comes out of high school? Third,
What are some of the recOnstruCtiOns
that seem to be demanded in the mod
ern high school?
What impresses me most about the
adolescent child, is the fact of his in
dividual ability, the fact that no two
children at that age seem at all alike.
Often children are very much alike
because they are members of the
same family. Of course you have
studied Kings High School Age" In
going further into individualiZing the
high school one must be impressed
seriously with the fact that at the
present time it must be done in a
sympathetic way. Then again it is
necessary, it seems to me, to make up
our minds that adolescence is not a
synonym for eXceSsiVeness, or a
synonym for a period of life that is
really abstinent. We cannot go to the
extreme, and | think that one can see
| that brought out in much of the early
! literature. There are also the physi-
! cal changes. We know the adoles-
cent child develops in growth de-
velOps in weight, ETC.; his voice
changes over night. We are recog-
nizing on the other hand that there
is a distinctive development that is
comparatively novel in high school
children. From my own experience
| recall those high moods and low
moods, that feeling Of being able to
tear the world upside down, or to
get out of sight from extreme bash
fulness. These are the basis for the
civic ideals that guide and direct the
social life, and they are more prevail
ent in the high school age than in the
adult. The most interesting changes
are the changes Of independence and
activity. 7 find it very clearly in my
youngest boy of eleven, because he
has had variety of experience in the
city, country and town. The desire
for intellectual independence and for
actual activity are characteristics
which you and I find make good
teachers in some of our high schools.
We are disappointed with the results
we get out of some of our College
students just as you teachers are dis
appointed with the students OF the
high school. The children have not
been trained to do the things for
themselves, have had this large de-
gree of energy not directed, but sub
dued them. These are among the
many things that will have to be ad-
justed in our supervised systems. We
ligence, instinct, ETC., and until we do
we are not solving our high school
situation nearly as fast as we might
Probably we have not gone about the
thing in the way we should. What
are the aims? What are the goals?
Compare our problem with that of the
farmer who goes out to plant his
grain in the spring; it seems to me
he has comparatively definite aims.
He thinks he is going to have the best
crop possible. His outline of aims is
definite. The merchant who sets up
a corner grocery store, the man who
is building houses, the real estate
problems are simpler .
than ours. We are dealing with life
which is more diversified, much more
than these matters of ma
terial life and that makes a very diff
ferent problem for us.
What does modern social life de-
mand of the product we turn out of
high school. We have not consider
ed this question as fully as we ought
to. We have not always had the ath-
letics that We ought to have had, and
yet this is the sort of thing that So
ciety wants does it not? We must
keep in mind that the child must have
a sound body and if we fail in that, if
we do as | have known many high
schools to do, neglect that part, we
a ra NOT onttinp the hest ont of our