Many thanks to all our faithful readers for the quantity and the quality of the letters this staff has been receiving. Remember, even if your complaint or compliment, as the case may be, is not printed, it is read, digested, and if possible acted upon! This column is designed to be the Voice of the Students - let's hear from you!

The WESTERNER Staff


Dear Editor:
Among my many pet peeves, one seems to pop up more frequently than the others, and it irritates me more every time. Student Council has been criticized, torn apart, antagonized, and, in general, used as a whipping post for every Tom, Dick, and Harry that has a gripe.

The majority of the students in this school are going about with the sad conception that Student Council is one big clique that never accomplishes anything worthwhile. Wild rumors are sadistically thought up everyday and spread around the school starting a chain reaction of many mixed emotions.

I believe it has gone far enough. Could some permanent column be put in this paper informing the students of an up to date account of the important issues discussed in Council?

Let's stop all of these questions asking what we are doing, and what's going on in Council! Show-em!!

Andy Adolfson
(A frustrated Council member)

Dear Editor:
I firmly believe that there should be some way of teaching  the pupils of Maine Township High School West to apply themselves to their studies.

How many students with the ability to hold a good grade average fail their courses because it is so much easier to say, "Oh, heck with it" than to sit down and study the day's lesson thoroughly?

With a little application and a little work, think how much can be accomplished. Students always make better marks in subjects they like, simply because it is easier to study something which is interesting to them than something which is distasteful. The interesting homework is always done first and most thoroughly, for it requires little application.

Teachers, adults, and educators may harp continually on the value of an education, but it still takes realization on the student's part before this value is understood. Yet, even when students want to learn more, they have difficulty in applying themselves.

I don't know the answer; I wish I did. I have difficulty studying because there are many things I would rather do. Still, I cannot help feeling that if grade school hadn't been so easy, it would now be simple for everyone to apply themselves for they would have already had ample practice.

I am hopeful that the teachers realize that this is the problem, or at least part of it, and may be they can pool their experiences and ideas to come up with something like an answer.

Unapplied, but hopeful.