Principal's Message
Polonius is an awkward character. His speeches in Hamlet, taken by themselves, are models of reasonable and judicious advice. Who can argue with such phrases as "Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar ... give ever man thy ear, but few thy voice ... neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend ... this above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Yet i've never seen Polonius played as anything but a sententious old fool! My best buess is that there's an enormous gap between the advice Polonius gives and the life he leads. In that respect, Polonius becomes a sort of Everyman --- for are we not all to often prone to live by the "do as I say, not as I do" precept"?
The seniors are always kind enough to ask me for a preface to their annual yearbook, And, despite the all-too-familiar example of Polonius, I always have the temerity to speak out.
My words for the Class of '67 have special pertinence, at least in my mind. After all, we both arrived as "freshmen" in the fall of 1963, and we're both leaving South Kortright Central School in the spring of 1967. My memories of this school will coincide exactly with yours, and I only hope you'll recall these past four years with the same affection I anticipate.
You know, there is much reason to be affectionate about this school and these communities. Initially there is always the sheer physical beauty of these Catskill Mountains. Fields and streams and rocks and hills and trees all combine to remind us daily of just how beautiful this earth really can be.
And we are bound by equally memorable human beings. Here you each had the pleasures of growing to maturity in an atmosphere of indivuduality. You knew who you were, you kjnew who lived next door, and probably you were on speaking terms with most of your particular community. This has great importance, I believe, in this age of increasing cybernation.
This yearbook is your own personal record of the formative years spent at the South Kortright Central School. Each of us on the staff of this school termbles when he realizes how important his taks is in making these years worthwhile. And yet, year after year, we are reassured as our new adults leave the regimen of the school for the puzzling vagaries of life. We see them marry, work, learn, begin raising their own families, taking active roles in this and other communities - and almost always in a posittive and worthwhile fashion which, quite frankly, brings a flush of pride for the job we have done.
Actually, I'll not be a Polonius in this essay. I'll simply note that each of you is graduating with the capacity for accomplishment and success and happiness, and the strength to overcome adversity. Past experience indicates that you will achieve all of these, and I am sure we will look upon the Class '67 with as much or more pride than the many classes who have proceeded you.
I count myself privileged to be the one who, on behalf of the entire staff of the South Kortright Central School, wishes you a happy life, and congratulates you on achievements past and these yet to come.
With Affection,
Mr. Roy Dexheimer
Supervising Principal
1967•2
The 1967 Almedian - South Kortright Central School Yearbooks - SKCS 1967 Almedian
