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

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the teacher of American History to impress the pupils with the benefits, needs and dangers of our government is unlimited and neglect to do so is unpardonable in the teacher. Nowhere else, except in the teaching of Civics, is this opportunity so great and nowhere else is the opportunity for impressing the younger generation with the duties and privileges of citizenship more pronounced. With these ideas in mind the purpose of American History in this High School is obvious. It is not to be a matter of fact or memory study. It is not to learn of the past that the pupils ought to study American History, but rather to learn of the present and future. A knowledge of past experience of a nation is the only safe basis for future action in that nation, and without a study of American History with this fact always in mind the High School pupils of America go into life without a single conscious effort having been made to give them a firm basis for future social activity. Department of Home Economics DOMESTIC ART The object of this course is to teach economy and suitability in the purchase and making of clothing, and to give one an understanding of the principles of hand and machine sewing with practice to enable one to make and keep in repair one's own clothing. The first semester recitation work is studying fully the production of the dif- ferent subjects as: needles, pins, scissors and shears, machines, einery, thimbles, buttons, hooks and eyes, cotton, linen, silk and wool. The practice work consists of making simple stitches, as running, basting, over- casting, overhaulingghemming, backstitching, seams, as, French, felled, hemmed and overhandg hems, as plain, French, faced and extensiong repairing ill by patch- ing as hemmed, overhand and darned patch, C25 by darning, as on iinen, cotton or stocking darn: fastenings, buttonholes, hooks and eyes, eyelets, tape and blind loop, simple embroidery stitches as chainstitch, feather stitch, hemstitch and blanket- stitch. Sewing bags, lau.ndry bags, boudoir caps, handkerchief cases and pillow cases were made the latter part of the semester to illustrate stitches, seams and hems made the former part of the semester. The second semester lecture work takes up in detail the production of cotton and linen goods, also embroideries and laces as used in trimming garments, the comparing home-made and ready-made underwear as to durability and condition under which it is made. The practice work consists of the drafting of individual patterns for under- wear and the making of it. DOMESTIC SCIENCE The purpose of this course is to teach the application of the principles of cook- ery in the preparation of foodg to teach the general principles in accordance with which food materials are combined in the foundation dishes, so that the student need not be dependent upon a recipe book, to illustrate methods by which heat is applied to foodg to show by experiment the effect of heat upon food materialsg to illustrate various ways of serving foods prepared: to familiarize the student with cost of food by the calculation of actual cost of recipes used: and that work well and skillfully done is not a drudgery. The first semester recitation or lecture work consists of a study of the differ- ent classes of foods and these combined to make more complex foods. The laboratory work consists of a study of the food materials as follows: Water as in beverages and water iceg fruits, fresh and driedg sugar, illustrating different stages as in cookery of candy: starch, experiments especially show effect of dry and moist heat, then applied to cookery of starchy foodsg fats, as in deep fat ffryingj THIRTY

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the nature, preparation and digestion of food. Along with the study of the various elements and compounds, the use of these substances in the manufacture of some of our great commodities is shown as, for example, explosives, mortar and cement, soap, crude oil and coal tar products, sugar, paint and steel. Department of History and Government ANCIENT HISTORY The aim of this course is to give a real background for the student's knowledge of present social, political, industrial, religious and economic conditions. A reason for each of these conditions is to be found some where in ancient or modern Euro- pean history. The object is to lead the pupil to see that civilization is not a product of chance but a slow and gradual development. Emphasis throughout the year is on the present and its relation to the past rather than on the past and its relation to the present. The point of view is from the present back to the past. Questions asking explanation of present institutions in the light of past history are a daily part of the course. lt is hoped that in this way the interdependence of past and present may be partly shown, although it is recognized that a year course in Modern European History should be added to the history work of the High School before the work can be thoroughly done. ECONOMICS Many of the well-known principles of economics are encountered by the average High School student before he reaches the last of his High School work, but without a study of these economic laws and conditions he fails to get an adequate concep- tion of their operation and effect. The knowledge gained by experience often is not organized and related consciously and this is best done in the class room. Ap- plication of the law to outside conditions is asked for frequently and examples of the practical working of economic law are called into discussion daily. A correla- tion between the theory of economis- and current history is also attempted and this phase of the work will be more fully developed next year with the hope the more vital live issues may be introduced and discussed from their economic standpoint. ENGLISH HISTORY This course is given with a two-fold purpose. One is to trace the development of the Anglo-Saxon race as a matter of world history, and the other is to provide a proper foundation for the study of American History in the Senior year. The lat- ter point of view colors the work quite largely. All the great landmarks in the strug- gle for freedom by Englishmen from the granting of Magna Charta in 1215 to the Revolution of 1911 are emphasized. Students are led to see their own history in the field covered prior to American colonial settlement. Those events that brought about the migration of the Puritans from England in the Stuart reign. and later the revolt of the colonies so formed and their consequent independence receive especial attention. CIVICS A systematic study of the structure and development of the American Govern- ment, national, state, and local, with emphasis upon actual workings. Current events as well as historical in executive, legislative and judicial departments of national and state governments are used to illustrate the various provisions in the constitution. AMERICAN HISTORY The place of American History in the American High School is undisputed and no justification for the time spent in its study is needed. The opportunity offered to TWENTY-NINE

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DOMESTIC SCIENCE ROOM THIRTY-ONE