Capistrano Valley High School - El Gato Yearbook (Mission Viejo, CA)

Page 108 text:

► STICKING HIS FINGER IN ZAIRE — Sopho- more Scott Newell points out Zaire on the map of Africa. Oral reports were a big part of the world history course. ▲ DEVON ' S SURE — Sophomore Devon Beach works on classwork in world history, the social science requirement for sopho- mores. 106 Social Science

Page 107 text:

ONE PIECE OR TWO? — Seniors Maha Najm and Lori Qu inton slice pies for fellow French club members. All participated in games, field trips, and extensive learning of French. ▼ WHAT ' S MISSING HERE? — Construction proves to be challenging as junior Julie Rausch builds her gingerbread house in German. Stu- dents expanded their creativity with Christ- mas projects. Foreign Language 105

Page 109 text:

£ ' ' What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learnt anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. ' ' —Georg Wilhelm Hegel j» ore often than not on regis- l t tration day, students can be i ' t heard either groaning with dreadful anticipation or breathing a quick sigh of relief as they receive their class schedules and see which teachers they will have for the up- coming semester. These students know that it ' s easier to pass in some teachers ' classes than in others. This is recognized by the administration, which decided that a new curricu- lum specialist program would help unify the departments and promote the idea of every class being equally as challenging. Bill Hoffman, who teaches psy- chology and E IR, was chosen to be the curriculum specialist for social science this year. My chief respon- sibility is to make sure that the cur- riculum is taught consistently. Every teacher has their own style of teach- ing, but the information presented should be basically the same, said Mr. Hoffman. Of course there is no way to make every teacher use the same grading policy and insure that an A in one class doesn ' t equal a B in another. Senior Erin Pipes, who took Ameri- can government in summer school with Mr. White said, (Mr. White ' s class) is a lot easier. It would have been harder if I had Pfleuger but ful- ly easy if I had Frost. But senior Chris Sorensen, who had Colonel Frost for Government, disagrees with Erin. Frost fails more people than Pfleuger. A lot of peo- ple think you can just breeze in (Frost ' s) class and not do the work, he said. Despite the new curriculum spe- cialist, Paul Pfleuger, who has the reputation, of being one of Capo ' s hardest teachers, stated, ! really don ' t see the department as being more coordinated or brought to- gether. Students need to be held ac- countable at the same level. The same test may be worth 90% of a grade in one class but only 40% of a grade in another. But even though most people agree that the same amount of effort produces different grades in differ- ent classes, at least an effort is being made to correct the situation. And who knows? Maybe someday a plan will be devised which will make stu- dents equally relieved (or worried) on registration day. • WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORK- ING? — Sophomore Jason Class kicks back and ponders the enigma of the Egyptian pyra- mids in World History. Social Science 107