Elwood Community High School - Crescent Yearbook (Elwood, IN)

Page 18 text:

TIIK M AN CHKSCENT MYSTERIOUS CHANNELS In the Elwood High School we have three distinct courses in the study of science. For our freshmen we have a course in biology. This study of the things about us is directed by Mr. Waymire, who has done work in Ball State college and Michigan university. This is a most instructive as well as enjoyable study. When watching the shy colleens draw back in terror at the sight of mounted spiders, or hearing them gasp and close their eyes in horror at the prospect of dissecting animals, frequently bring smiles to the boys of the class. Not only do we study the birds and bees, the flowers and trees, but we have also a study of physiology. Chemistry is considered a more advanced study and is usually taken in the junior year. Under the watchful eye of Mr. Kratli, and to further subdue the newcomers, the mystery of chemicals soon is a thing of the past as we unveil the texts and manuals to look again upon the results of centuries of research and experimentation by scientists from all over the world. During our study of chemistry, it is Mr. Kratli who forms our guiding star. Left for our senior year, although frequently mastered by members of the junior class, is physics, the study of mechanics of all kinds. The working of levers and the source of energy in storage batteries constitute one portion of the study. Again it is Mr. Kratli who guides our wandering footsteps along the pathway of experimentation. Mr. Kratli, a grave, quiet, and dependable man, has been a student of Indiana university and Wisconsin university. He also is a member of our high school band, playing a slide trombone, which, of course, we should not hold against him. Instructors: Left, Mr. William F. Kratli; Right, Mr. Ray Waymire. Classes: Upper, Mr. Kratli's class; Center, Mr. Way-mire's class. I’tge Fourteen

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Till; NEW CRESCENT SPEED and ACCURACY The commercial department consists of bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand. Bookkeeping, which is usually the first part of the commercial course taken, is very interesting and is really quite beneficial to the prospective young business man or woman. Especially valuable is this course to those who plan to take clerical work. Transactions such as might be found in the business of a large department store are worked out and thus the forms and the system used becomes familiar to the student. It affords ample opportunity for the student to brush up on his addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This mathematical exercise is sure to bring to the student a lasting accuracy in figuring. Click, click, click, goes the typewriter as the students try for exactness and speed in depressing the blank keys of the practice machines in the commercial room. This noise is in the future to be of value to the person who causes it. Typing is not only a great help in all kinds of work but it is a pleasant pastime as well. One can type letters and other material, and find pleasure in it. In shorthand they learn to make all those odd little marks, and curliques that so stump those who have never taken the course in this strange and unbecoming manner of writing. To lay all jokes aside, however, we will admit that this way of writing is much faster than the old style, and recommend that it be taught in the grades; not that it is so free of complications, but that it would be of great help in the taking of notes and assignments. Practically all stenographers are required to take letters and other dictation in shorthand. This commercial course itself results in the acquisition of skill for personal use in high school and as a basis for work in business. The teachers are Miss Dorothy Kantner, a graduate of Ball State college at Muncie with an A.B. degree, and Miss Virginia McDermitt, a graduate of the same college with a B.S. degree. Just look at them; is it any wonder, with two such attractive young teachers, that so many of the boys are taking up commercial work ? Instructors: Upper, Miss Dorothy Kantner; Lower, Miss Virginia McDermitt. CLASSES: upper, Miss Kantner’s class; Lower, Miss McDcrmitt's class. P-tge Thirteen

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mi: M.W ( KUSCIvYI LET’S BE PRACTICAL Instructors: Upper, Harry House, Vern Shinn ; Lower. Palmer Davis, Helen Benedict. Classes: Upper, Shop (Mr. House); Mechanical Drawing (Mr. Shinn). Lower, Voc. Agriculture (Mr. Davis); Art (Miss Benedict). In obscure corners of our school are four profitable courses to any student and especially to the one adopting one of these as a life vocation. The first is our art department under the supervision of Miss Helen Benedict, who received her B.S. at Ball State Normal in Muncie. She is striving to teach art students true appreciation of art and how to apply it to everyday life. The next department is Mechanical Drawing taught by Mr. Vern Shinn, who received his B.S. at Ball State Normal in Muncie and took graduate work at Butler. In the eyes of the instructor there are four objectives. The first, to develop the power of visualization; second, to strengthen the constructive imagination; third, to train in exactness of thought; and fourth, to give modern commercial practice in making drawings. The third department is partial to boys, under the instruction of Mr. Harry House, who obtained his B.S. at Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria, Illinois. Elwood’s shop courses are designed to give the boy a general knowledge of the manipulation of hand tools and of machine operation. He is given an opportunity to discover his abilities, his likes and dislikes of some of the more common trade operations. The fourth and last is Mr. Palmer Davis’ Vocational Agriculture department. Mr. Davis was a student at Purdue, where he was awarded his B.S.A. This course gives an intelligent appreciation of and sympathetic attitude toward the social and economic problems of the farm and farm home; it shows the possibilities of farming as a vocation and furnishes a scientific knowledge of the best farm practices.