Academy of Mount Saint Vincent - Chastellux Yearbook (Tuxedo Park, NY)

Page 28 text:

Sister Rita’s double role was challenging We have referred above to the fact that SISTER RITA was playing a difficult double role this year. To be Director of an Academy during its final year and to teach Chemistry. Biology and Math 12 would be impossible — and not a dream — for most educators, even if. like SIS- TER RITA, they had had experience in admin- istration and teaching. At times Presidents of Universities have arranged to teach so that through their contacts they would be able to know, reach and influence their students SR. RITA GUSHUE MRS. VALERIE CLEARY SISTER RITA works with a group of Seniors in the Laboratory and their students would know them as people and not just as names or titles. Perhaps this was one reason that led SISTER RITA to con- sider teaching these three courses. Another practical explanation is the difficulty of at- tracting a qualified teacher willing to teach all three courses for just one year. Whatever the causes, the effects have been gratifying for both SISTER RITA and the students whom she taught. 24

Page 27 text:

SR. MARIA TURIBIUS SR. MARGARET O BRIEN SISTER TURIBIUS with some of her Sophomore English students Left to Right, CHRIS LAMBERT. SR MARGARET O'BRIEN MARY E GOETZ. CINDY BOLTZ. JILL HARTMANN. JEANMARIE MANEY and VALERIE CLEARY teaching Spanish IV SISTER MARIA TURIBIUS was Sophomore Class Advisor again this year. Because there were only three English classes. SISTER was alone in the English Department. In her cours- es she included both classical and modern perspectives. Among the classical works stud- ied were Oedipus Rex and Prometheus Bound. A new text was used for the course in Modern Literature — Insights: English Literature. Stu- dents in English 11 studied Recent American Literature. In all grades special focus was put on creative and journalistic writing. As a result The Courier of which Sister was again Advisor was better than ever this year. Pleasureful and profitable involvement was the aim of all Eng- lish courses. A newcomer to the Mount last fall, SISTER MARGARET O BRIEN replaced SISTER EUCHARIA as Librarian. She was also named Moderator of the Glee Club and soon realized that this involved much more than being on hand each Monday afternoon for Glee Club Rehearsals. The first program presented was AMAHL and the NIGHT VISITORS at Christmas and SISTER shared with SISTER MARIAN FRANCIS the time consuming task of provid- ing costumes for those who were in the play as well as those in the chorus. Before coming to us SISTER MARGARET had taught Spanish, and she was asked to assist MRS. KELLEHER and teach SPANISH IV. since MRS. KELLEHER was including Italian as well as French and Spanish in her program. 23

Page 29 text:

Geometry took a front seat When MRS. VALERIE CLEARY, who has taught Math at the Academy for the last three years, said that ’This year at the Mount was a teach- er’s dream,’ she was referring to classes so sized that everyone had a front seat' and indi- vidual attention made it possible for difficul- ties to be clarified and problems solved almost as soon as they came to a student's mind. Be- sides this, small classes meant that students worked at the blackboard more frequently and used the Overhead Projectorto present home- work assignments. Again this year MRS. CLEARY taught an elec- tive ’Preparation for Marriage’ which included Home-making. Social Usage and Domestic Arts. Those who chose the course were well prepared for the Betty Crocker Homemaker- of-the-Year Competitive Examination as well as for the more remote future when they would have homes of their own. The warmth of Student-Faculty rapport is il- lustrated by the picture above left showing MRS. CLEARY. CHRIS CAWLEY and PAT KRAMER at the Hallowe en Basketball Game. One distinction MRS. CLEARY shared with no other member of the Faculty: her daughter, another VALERIE, was a Sophomore at the Mount, and a student in her Mother’s Math classes. 25