Who would’ve thought that in a dusty corner of IHS, a small room with pink walls holds four cabinets with bundles of old Tattler issues? As the Tattler Archivist, I am able to explore the tales and stories that once lived in the halls of IHS. Whether you enjoy history a lot or not as much, I’m sure you’ll find something you’ll enjoy in this section. Without further ado, here’s just a handful of these pieces, dating all the way back to 1892!
VALENTINE NUMBER 1929
WHY?
There is that eternal question, “Why?” and the equally eternal answer, “I can’t.” The funny part of it is that it is the able-bodied that are asking this question and answering it with the most ambitionless, despairing, characterless answer in the universe, “I can’t.”
While they are saying, “There is no chance for me,” and “I can’t,” thousands of boys and girls in this country with no opportunities like these are tearing the words “Impossible” and “I can’t” out of their dictionaries. While many are saying, “If I only had the money I would surely go to college,” others much less favored by fortunes are annihilating these obstacles and forging ahead.
What sight is more superb than a stalwart man made irresistible by the things which have tried to down him; one who stands without wavering, head erect and heart undaunted, defying any cruelties of fate and laughing at obstacles, because he has learned in his fight with them that the satisfaction gained in overcoming them was pleasure? The words “I can’t” were never uttered by him, and if we would have the admiration and respect that he is commanding, let us never ask that weak question “WHY?” or be satisfied by the insipid answer, “I can’t.”
Y.O. Ming
March 1915
THE DIARY OF A LOVE-SICK SENIOR
Jan. 1. Met Jimmie Cortlandt’s sister. Bored
Jan. 15. Danced with Miss Cortlandt at X. Y. Z. dance. So-so.
Feb. 1. Called on Lillian C. She’d pass in a crowd.
Feb 5. Called on Lillian. Interested.
Feb 9. Took Lil out in the bus. Good work.
Mar. 1. Met Ralph W. at Lil’s. Surprised.
Mar. 3. Asked Lil to Senior dance. Scared.
Mar. 4. Accepted. Oh joy!
Mar. 9. Scrap over Ralph. Hasn’t a chance with yours truly.
April 1. Hope springs eternal but W. is always at Lil’s. Jealous.
April 9. Miss Cortlandt cut me. Frozen.
April 9. (P. M.). Cut again. Don’t care.
May 1. Jimmie’s sister married. Darn.
January 2003
Around the World: The Year in Education
By ABE HALPERT ’05
January 2002: A study comparing students at high schools in top industrial countries upsets Germans when the study finds that Germany ranks in the bottom third of these schools in reading, math and science. This comes as a shock to Germany, which prides itself on education.
April 2002: The World Bank hatches a plan to ensure that by 2015, all children in poor countries will be able to obtain a minimum of a primary-school education. It is hoped that this strategy will indirectly fight poverty.
May 2002: The Bush Administration encourages single-sex public education reversing a 30-year federal policy of discouraging such schools. School districts are given much wider latitude to create single-sex public schools under new rules written by the Education Department.
May 2002: The economic boom of the 1990s in China has created a new level of urban rich who are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money for their children’s education at schools that emphasize the English language, employ Western teaching techniques, and maintain little politics or propaganda. One such school is the “21st Century School” in western Beijing. One of the aims of the school is to teach children to think for themselves instead of having them learn by rote.
June 2002: The number of autistic children has been rising steadily in the past decade, especially for children with the mildest cases of the condition, due to better diagnosing of learning and communication problems. Early diagnosis means that better methods to educate autistic children need to be found.
June 2002: A federal appellate court ruled the “Pledge of Allegiance” in public schools is unconstitutional, because the phrase “under God” is an endorsement of religion.
September 2002: Because of Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” policy, schools this year will be required to show how well or how poorly they’re doing the job of teaching students the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) by the test scores their students receive on Federally-mandated tests. The scores will influence the federal aid received by schools. They will also indicate better schools so that students at schools that continually perform poorly will be allowed to transfer to ‘better’ public schools.
November 2002: The United Nations (UN) estimates that 25 percent of Iraqi children, mostly girls, no longer attend schools. Iraq, which once had the highest literacy rate in the Middle East, has suffered greatly because of UN sanctions and its educational system has greatly deteriorated. Literacy rates in 1985 were up to 87 percent. Today, only 45 percent of girls can read.
November 2002: Bush signs legislation supporting the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” as the national Motto, after Congress approved such a measure.
December 2002: States in the US are struggling to come up with enough money for public education. They are trying to balance education needs with a lack of support for taxes.
December 2002: The Hindu nationalist-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India rewrites school textbooks, leaving out the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic. Textbooks are also said to have a more Hindu flavor. The books gloss over the repressive nature of India’s Hindu caste system.
December 11, 2002: Human rights activists question China’s “re-education” camps. The “Re-Education Through Labor” camps are not affiliated with the judicial system, and any Chinese citizen can be detained in a camp for up to three years with no charges and no trial. Some say the camps are used for suppressing political dissent.
January 1915
WHAT’S LEFT IS ALL RIGHT
Ofttimes when I put on my gloves
I wonder if I’m sane.
For when I put the right one on,
The right seems to remain
To be put on—that is ’tis left ;
Yet if the left I don,
The other is left and then
I have the right one on.
But still I have the left on right ;
The right one though, is left
To go right on the left right hand
All right, if I am deft.
February 1929
A Friend
I could sail the waters of all this world,
Bitter and mild and blue ;
And never I’d find a friend to love
As the friend I’ve found in you.
I could walk down all the roads in this world,
And knock on doors forever ;
But never I’d find a friend like you
Never never, never.
Eloise Corgel