VOL. XV, NO. 13
MAY 17, 1974
Bench Beat
By BROCK AKERS
It was almost four years ago that many of us first walked through the hallowed halls of Maine West. We were led to the auditorium and promptly taught the Maine Way, the school song, the Alma Mater, and a few selected cheers.
We were the new additions to Maine West, but the process was not unfamiliar. Our activities that day were almost exactly the same as the group before us had and the group before that and most likely the same as the incoming group this fall. The procedure is a school tradition, the first in a long series of traditions that the student is hit with throughout his four glorious years in high school.
Athletics has been and will always be a long-standing tradition in this school. Homecoming, the Center Meet, Christmas tournaments, any Maine South confrontation - all are activities firmly enmeshed in that which is high school in Maine Township.
Likewise, coverage of athletics has traditionally followed the same guidelines. Banners, announcements over the P.A., and page 4 of the Westerner have stayed so similar that one must check dates and hairstyles to distinguish between a 1972 and a 1962 edition of the newspaper.
It was almost four years ago that many of us first walked through the hallowed halls of Maine West. We were led to the auditorium and promptly taught the Maine Way, the school song, the Alma Mater, and a few selected cheers.
We were the new additions to Maine West, but the process was not unfamiliar. Our activities that day were almost exactly the same as the group before us had and the group before that and most likely the same as the incoming group this fall. The procedure is a school tradition, the first in a long series of traditions that the student is hit with throughout his four glorious years in high school.
Athletics has been and will always be a long-standing tradition in this school. Homecoming, the Center Meet, Christmas tournaments, any Maine South confrontation - all are activities firmly enmeshed in that which is high school in Maine Township.
Likewise, coverage of athletics has traditionally followed the same guidelines. Banners, announcements over the P.A., and page 4 of the Westerner have stayed so similar that one must check dates and hairstyles to distinguish between a 1972 and a 1962 edition of the newspaper.
But, come 1973 and tradition has been challenged. The new editorial policy of the Westerner calling for more of a "featured" approach to sports reporting plus the emergence of this column present the reader with new alternatives.
He can stand fast by tradition, react violently, and throw his 10 copy in the circular file. He could take it as a personal slight and write demeaning and demented letters to the editor. He could consider the source and just forget about it. Or, heaven forbid, he could agree, (but not admit it to anyone).
Alternatives such as these have dealt tradition a crushing blow. Not that there's anything wrong with tradition - heaven only knows where we'd all be without a copy of the Maine Way in every classroom. But tradition seems to have placed us all in a rut, making us complacent and apathetic. The "we'll do it this way because it's always been done this way" attitude is too often taken and accepted. These alternatives have forced questions, challenged the tradition, and made the reader think. That incidentally is the whole purpose behind a by-lined editorial opinion, not to solicit allies but to make the reader think, to form opinions of his own.
This is the last time Bench Beat will be seen in the Westerner, so individual opinions about it won't really matter much after this issue. Remember what Thomas Jefferson once said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll fight to the end to guard your right to say it."
He can stand fast by tradition, react violently, and throw his 10 copy in the circular file. He could take it as a personal slight and write demeaning and demented letters to the editor. He could consider the source and just forget about it. Or, heaven forbid, he could agree, (but not admit it to anyone).
Alternatives such as these have dealt tradition a crushing blow. Not that there's anything wrong with tradition - heaven only knows where we'd all be without a copy of the Maine Way in every classroom. But tradition seems to have placed us all in a rut, making us complacent and apathetic. The "we'll do it this way because it's always been done this way" attitude is too often taken and accepted. These alternatives have forced questions, challenged the tradition, and made the reader think. That incidentally is the whole purpose behind a by-lined editorial opinion, not to solicit allies but to make the reader think, to form opinions of his own.
This is the last time Bench Beat will be seen in the Westerner, so individual opinions about it won't really matter much after this issue. Remember what Thomas Jefferson once said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll fight to the end to guard your right to say it."