Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 11 September '85 25

From The Principal i By Stanley Kotzen ■ Principal, Lower Cape May Regional High School

Not even the heat and humidity of those first few days of school could dampen the enthusiasm that is always there as we open another academic year. Beginning with the teacher orientation on the day before the students report and ending with that return from school after completing the first full day, it is just as exciting now as it was 25 years ago. Every one of us in education feels that electricity, that spark, that serenaded Dolly Levi on Broadway for so many years with the lyric-' '...it's so nice to have you back where you belong." THERE WAS no better proof of that last week when despite an uncomfortable dormant Bermuda high our students and staff were reunited for the purpose of learning. So much of those first few days appear to be social that it is easy to overlook the main reason that we are all together again. There are new clothes to display (this year they were still of the summer variety) and new body shapes to marvel at for both students and staff who proudly gained or lost weight. THERE WAS a wide range of summer adventures to discuss, both real and imagined, and there was the obligatory commitment to refer to the summer as having been too short. But once you get by the reminiscences, the conversations turn to goals for this year and expectations of success. For teachers there is always something special about new books, new clas6 lists, and a new schedule. That something special has variously been called "motivation" or "incentive", but it is always a challenge to make one's students more knowledgeable and better individuals after 180 school days. THERE IS also the private challenge that must be present if a teacher is to improve his or her instructional skills each year. Unfortunately the challenge comes so rapidly and the changeover from "summer hours" is so dramatic that after a 10-week hiatus, that first day is invariably exhausting. If you have never faced that first-day trial you can't know how pressurepacked it is. if you have, you already know that it never gets any easier. FOR OUR students as for all other high school students there are few more exciting days than the first one each year. Socially, it is always the swapping of tales and looking over the new kids. Academically it is an early psychological testing period as each student sits in that first class and silently assess his or her determination as matched

against the teacher's demands. We are all bound together in our common quest to find out just how we will measure up to the challenges of the new school year. If our first few days are any indication this should be a banner year for all of us at LCMR - students, teachers, staff and administration. We have all begun again.

Ends His Basic WHITESBORO - Pvt Anthony Singletary, son of Clara M. Singletary of this community, and Leroy Singletary of New York. N.Y., has completed basic training at Fort McCIellan, Ala.

Pvt. Albrecht Out of Basic

1 OCEAN VIEW - Pvt. i Edwin B. Albrecht, son of ' Ruth M. Albrecht of San - Diego and Edwin C. ' Albrecht of Rural Route 9, ' here, has completed basic s training at Fort McCIellan, r Ala. Albrecht is a 1978 f graduate of Middle Towns ship High School, Court House.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS LIST MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS PAPERBACK BOOKS CHILDREN'S BOOKS HARDCOVER BOOKS DUNGEON A DRAGON ITEMS NOW CARRYING CLIFF NOTES WfDEAU/AY boo 16 £tor£ 21st STREET & DUNE DRIVE, AVALON A "NOVEL* ' PLACE TO GO! 9t,7 S020 OPEN 8 AM EVERYDAY THRU SEPT.

— I OUR PHENOMENAL FALL 25Zo|fy|? fflqeynomf || Village Shoppes of Kio Grande • Toms River Shopping Center - / • ^ C- ,^31 Elmf /" Wmgm Manahawkin Plaza - Somerset Shopping Center - Hackettstown Mall • ^ -O