Belleville Township West High School - Bellevinois Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

Page 30 text:

Communication: the first step in understanding Communication leads to understanding. Academically, students learn about others through English, speech, and dramatics classes. Listening to and reading ideas ol others helps to bring alx ut new ones. Students in the communi¬ cation arts study the life ol man and the ways in which he lives with others. These courses help the individual to later function as a member of society with an insight to understanding. I hey help him to identify to the world around him. The study of foreign languages is not only a study ol the language itsell hut a research ol the people who speak it. Students learn of the ways of life, the customs, and the surroundings ol these people. I hey delve into the history of the language. Relationships between the structures of foreign and English words suggest that many of our words today have been derived from other language patterns. Joanna Andresen of Portugal and Pam Gregory of the United States loam of each others ' countries through direct communication. Marilyn Dammerman ond Val Puntney take off on another debate excursion. 26

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Self-expression is the release of the mind “But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” This famous quote is one that almost every student recognizes from Romeo und Juliet. Shakespeare is one of the eternally popular playwrights, well-known to the youth of today. English classes of every year have analyzed the plots of such plays as Julius Caesar , Macbeth, and Othello, as well as Romeo and Juliet. Book reports, themes, plays, poetry, short stories, es¬ says, authors . . . all play a part in making up an English class. Yet those are the technical aspects. I he real key to English is understanding others through writing. The creation of a play or a theme or a book is a written at¬ tempt to express an idea, a feeling. Writing is a means for the individual to communicate with others. “Everything has been said before — the trouble is to say it again.” — Anonymous “The roven himself it hoorse Thot crooks the fatal entrance of Dunccn Under my battlements. Author, unknown, strives to make her literory mork in America. 25

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Students of French find that the language lob is on entertaining place to study. Gestures ore very important in the delivery of Linda Berkel s speech. Unilerstanding leads to inner peace In speech and dramatics classes, students learn to ex¬ press their own ideas and to communicate with others. Speech class offers a diversity of opportunities to do this. Students are exposed to the pressures of impromptu speeches, the quick-witted tactics of debate, and the long tedious hours of planning and rehearsing orations and demonstration speeches. One quickly becomes aware of clammy palms, the momentary paralysis of the mem¬ ory, and other terrors ol the podium. Every student strives to overcome these general fears. Once this is ac¬ complished, the speaker can then concentrate on his suc¬ cessful delivery to get his point across. Many students take the art of speaking for granted and do not fully real¬ ize the importance of effective communication. 27