Abilene High School - Orange and Brown Yearbook (Abilene, KS)

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Courses of Stud in High School Heretofore We have offered three courses in High School. One, the College Preparatory, was intended for students preparing for this work. Another, the Nor- mal Training, led to a teacher's certificate, and was chosen by those looking toward this work. The- third, the General course, was intended for students who were to enter active life on completion of the High School period. These courses, while good, do not serve as they should the pupils who come to us. Too many have aims that are not served by these lines of work. For this as well as for other reasons the en- tire curriculum of the High School has been reorganized. Four courses now exist where before there were only three. A new course has been added and the char- acter of the other courses changed. The College Preparatory course becomes the Classical course. It offers three years of English, four of Latin, three of German, three of Mathemntii-s, four of His- tory and Economics, and three of Science. It is the course to be followed by those who are preparing for the Bachelor of Arts course in any college or university. lt constitutes a broad basis of general culture on which to build subsequent courses of education. It looks especially toward the scholarly professions. The Normal Training course remains practically as it was, since this course is outlined by the State Board of Education. It is taken by students wl1o desire to teach. It offers three years of English, two of Mathematics, three of History and Government, four of Science, one of Music, one and a half of Normal Reviews, and one of Psychology and Methods. The student who completes this course in proper form receives a certificate valid for two years and renewable at expiration. The Industrial course is a new one. While Manual Training and Domestic Science tcookingj and Art tsewingl have been offered in the school before, the work has not been systematized into a four-year course. This work offers three years of English, two years of American History and Economics, four years of Science and three years of Mathematics for boys and two for girls. The girls in this course take two years each of Domestic Science and of Domestic Art, while the boys have four years of Manual Training and Mechanical Drawing. This is preeminently the course for all students Who expect to deal with things rather than ideas. The school will earnestly endeavor to make this course one of the richest in content in the school. The Commercial course is also a new one. The time has come in our estima- tion when any boy or girl looking forward to a business life has a right to ask for adequate preparation for such a life at the hands of the home community. The course will be especially thorough. It offers four years of English, including one of Journalism and Business English: two years of High School Mathematics and one of Commercial Arithmeticg three of History and Economics, one year of Ele- mentary and Advanced Bookkeeping, and one of Business Methods and Commercial Law: one year of Spelling and Word Study, and two of Typewriting and Steno- graphy. No effort will be spared to make this course effective in preparing young people for business life. It offers a thorough High School education combined with the special training necessary for commercial work. A special instructor will be in supervision of this course. THIRTEEN

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he bilene High School HE Abilene High School consists of 240 young people and their eleven in- structors. These young people are here in the most formative, active and impressionable period of their lives. They are here for the purpose of be- ing trained for the years to comeg of being helped to see clearly what they wish to do, and how to do it. They are here in larger numbers than ever before in response to a rapidly growing conviction that the High School has something to of- fer them that will be valuable. This faith in the High School is everywhere in the country. We are not alone in it. Everywhere the High Schools of the state and the nation are full. The rapidly mounting enrollment evidences both a need and a faith-a recognized need of young people for training, and a faith that the High Schools can give it. This faith of the people in the High Schools throws on the teachers and supervisors in these schools a heavy responsibility. These teachers and supervisors must rise to the faith of the people. This feeling is characteristic of tl1e best schools of today. The dominant idea in the policy of the Abilene High School is the service, aid- ing and guidance, of the students as individuals. We believe that schools exist as institutions of service, that they are designed to aid individuals, not to benefit classes. The following quotation from a report by the teachers of Washington Irving High School for Girls of New York City, entitled, What We Are For, approximates the point of view in question: The community sends its children to us expecting them to be educated. lt raises money and pays us in order that the city may be up- lifted. The parents who support us do not subscribe to theory that a High School is an institution for preserving a course of study, or maintaining a system of usages, or keeping up a high standard, or training some youngsters to be leaders, or for supporting us. The people who are supporting us care little for these things. They do care for children. They pay for having the young people trained, not for main- taining a given grade of education. They send us bright, stupid, industrious, lazy, well-behaved, and impudent children, not with the idea that we shall teach those that are able and willing to work, not for a decision that such a child is unfit for High School, but for having each child improved. This is not chiefly a place for those who can succeed without help. Such need us less than the others do. A pub- lic High School differs from an elementary school chiefly in the age of its children. We are not elected, we are not paid, chiefly to train leaders. Everyone, rich or poor, is entitled to our services. Training the children we receive, and securing more to train is our business. We hope to break away from the traditional type of a study-centered lligh School. We are a person-centered High School. The per- son is the one we are teaching. ln a sense, we are responsible for the success of the student. That is chiefly what we are put here for. While the above is open to the criticism of extravagant statement, and needs limitation when put into practice, it comes close to the underlying and animating spirit of our school. And the truth of this statement is attested by the close and friendly companionship existing between our instructors and their pupils. A spirit of this sort testifies in the strongest way to the effectiveness of school organization and to the healthfulness of community educational conditions. The personality and influence of teachers act directly and without hindrance or lessening on the minds of students. This is the best possible of all conditions. It is to a school characterized by the above spirit and by the above conditions that we welcome all students ready to enter. To the parents of such students We are only too glad to offer our services in suggestion or advice as to lines of Work pupils should follow in school. We firmly believe that the time has come when every boy and every girl should receive the good the High School has to offer. The field of the school has become so wide, the training it offers covers so many forms of activity, that every one can be helpedg can be set further on the road to successful and happy living, and to this end we pledge our utmost efforts. TWELVE

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Outline oi Courses CLASSICAL COURSE 9 'I FIRST YEAR SECOND YEAR 1. English I 1. English II -. Algebra I 2. Geometry I 3. Latin I or German I 3. Latin II or German II 4. Ancient History ' 4. Botany THIRD YEAR FOURTH YEAR 1. English III 1. Latin IV 2. Algebra II and Geometry II Z. Physics I U. Latin III or German III 3. American History 4 . Chemistry NOIIMAII THAI 4.' Economics and Contemporary Life NING COURSE 9 FIRST YEAR SECOND YEAR 1. English I 1. English II 2. Algebra I 2. Geometry I TI. Physiography and General Science 3. Agriculture 4. Spelling and Word Study 4. Ancient History TIIIRD YEAR FOURTH YEAR 1. English III 1. Normal Reviews 2. English Ilistory and Civics -. Physics II. Physiology and Psychology 3. lllethods and Arithmetic 4. Music 4. American Ilistory INIIYSTRIA L COURSE ' FIRST YEAR 1. English I 9. Algebra I 3, Physiography and General Science 4. Domestic Art l ffor girlsl 5. Manual Training I ffor boysl THIRD YEAR 1. English III 2. Algebra II and Geolnetry II fboysl 3. Chemistry frequired for girlsl 4. Domestic Art Il fgirlsl 5. Manual Training III fboysl SECOND YEAR English II Geometry I Botany or Agriculture 4. Domestic Science I Cgirlsl Manual Training II fboysl 1. 0 9 -1. 5. FOVRTII YEAR 1. American History 2. Economics and Contemporary Life 3. Physics -1. Domestic Science II 5 Mechanical Drawing fboysl Cl INIBIICIICIAII C0 URSE FIRST YEAR 1. English I 2. Algebral 3 4 . Spelling and IVord Study . Elem. Accts. and Business Methods THIRD YEAR 1. English III 2. English History and Civics fl. ,Commercial Arithmetic 4. Typewriting and Stenography I FOURTEEN SECOND YEAR l 'P . English II . Geometry I . Ancient History . Adv, Bookkeeping and Com. Law 3 4 FOURTH YEAR Journalism and Business English 1. 2. American History . Economics and Contemporary Life 5. Typewriting and Stenography II 9 Q1