Archbold High School - Blue Streak Yearbook (Archbold, OH)

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of the great climatic changes in prehistoric times and their landmarks which we see today, the study of the “reliefs” of each continent and of the many physical forces existant form the most important features of the course. Botany is taken up in the second semester of the Freshman year. Here the student takes up in detail the study of plant life as it really is on the physical earth he has builded during the previous four and one- half months. No subject in the high school is more charming and yield- ing in nobler conceptions than is Botany. The last six weeks are spent in plant analysis and a complete herbarium of thirty mounted flowers is necessary for graduation. Agriculture is given an entire year in our course. It naturally and logically falls in the Sophomore year. The previous year’s work in Physical Geography and Botany furnishes the student with sufficient working ideas, vernacular, material and ground-work upon which Agri- culture depends. The laws and conditions governing the successful propa- gation of our most important food plants, the study and analysis of the soils, the testing out of the soil to determine the kind of elements lacking and the relative values of nitrogen, phosphorus and lime for different farm crops, the study of successful breeding, the study of weeds, insects and economical conservations make this study both charming and fruitful in results. PHYSICS. The work in Physics is taken up in the fourth year of the High School course. An effort is made to so arrange the work that it will be of equal value to the student whose education ends with the High School course and the prospective college student as well. The work is taken up under the heads of Mechanics, Sound, Heat, Magnetism, Electricity and Light. The subjects of Mechanics, Sound and part of Heat are cov- ered the first semester, and the work is completed in the second semester. This has become one of the most interesting subjects in the curricu- lum since all experiments can be explained with our additional labora- tory apparatus. The course consists of class room work four days per week, accompanied by illustrative lecture experiments, and one day is de- voted to individual laboratory work. The application of some of the fun- damental laws of nature are studied and pointed out in their relations to everyday life. Special work in actually producing electricity by different methods and the explanation of these phenomena, forms the most interesting feature of the course. Millikan and Gale’s text book is used. Students are required to keep laboratory note books and must record all work done. At least thirty authentic and recorded experiments are required for graduation.

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In the second year Collar’s Rysenbach and Thomas’ Practical Ger- man Grammar are used as reference books. The work aims to pre- pare the pupil for college entrance requirements. In order to converse in German in the class-room, a Pamphlet called “Class-Room German, designed to facilitate the pupil in the use of a large vocabulary and of idiomatic expressions, is used. In addition to the translation of several German classics, stories and essays are written in German, and German poems and songs are learned. Following is an outline of the reading: Gliick Auf, Finer Musz Heiraten, Eigensinn, Das Edle Blut, L’ Arrabbiata, Hoehen Als Die Kirchc, Immensee, Germelshausen, Der Lindenbaum, W ilhelm Tell. HISTORY There is perhaps no study in the High School curriculum which can be made mose interesting to the average boy and girl than history. It has been said that “history repeats itself. If this is true, it is only by a careful study of the rise and fall of the earlier powers that we can predict with any degree of intelligence the future of our own country. The work in history is begun in the Junior year, when Myer's Gen- eral History is studied. The pupil is taken back to the earliest periods of which we have even the slightest knowledge, and from that vague be- ginning he traces the rise of the human race through its varied fortunes up to the present time. Current events are also called for frequently and at the close of the year the conditions existing at the present day are dis- cussed at some length. Three complete sets of encyclopaedias and various single volumes in the school library are a valuable aid throughout the course. During the first half of the Senior year United States History and Civics are studied intensively, while in the grades the pupils have learned the main facts of these subjects, and the object of the Senior course is to classify this knowledge. The different periods of our history are worked out as units then combined to make a connected whole. In addi- tion to the general class work, especial topics are assigned from time to time. Debates, often extemporaneous, are sometimes held. Here again the library affords excellent opportunity for reference work. Passages taken from historical and political novels add great interest to the class when time permits. SCIENCES. We have three years of Science in our High School Course. We feel as though it is the happy medium between the two and four year courses offered by so many schools. There is no one other study in the high school curriculum that brings the student face to face with nature, her laws, with life and its broader and more beautiful conceptions as does the study of science. Physical Geography is studied in the first semester of the Freshman year. The relation of climate to plant and animal distribution, the study

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ENGLISH. Even progressive person today realizes that one of the essentials in every walk of life in the ability to write and speak the English lan- guage correctly. The purpose of the English Course, which extends through the four years, is to gain a knowledge of the essentials of grammar and of the practical application of its rules and principles, and to lay great stress upon the importance of reading the works of best authors as a means to enable the pupil to appreciate good literature and discriminate it from the inferior. The aim of English I. is to develop the pupil's power to express his thought clearly and interestingly. Constant practice in composition is gained by daily and weekly themes; and frequent consultations are held for individual criticism and instruction. Besides the drill in the elements of punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure, classics are read and discussed in class. The work in Composition and Rhetoric is based on Lockwood and Emerson's Text and covers the first two years of the course. The English work for the second year, in addition to the text-book- work. consists of class-room reading and discussion of choice classics, which furnish abundant material for narrative and descriptive themes, character sketches, and book reviews. Attention is also given the col- lateral reading for special examination. The work of English III. and IV. is combined and the course is alternated. The history of English and American literature is studied, and representative classics are read and discussed in the class-room. A note book with the work done in outline form is required. Emphasis is placed upon short themes of literary appreciation on subjects drawn from the classics. A survey of the work of other representative writers is ob- tained by extensive collateral reading, and the thoroughness of the work- done is tested bv special examination in the form of questions, book re- views and critical papers. The outline of the course is as follows: Freshman Year:—Composition and Rhetoric. Scott's Lady of the Lake. Shakspere’s Merchant of Venice. Irving's Sketch Book. Goldsmith's Deserted Village. Sophomore Year:—Composition and Rhetoric. Eliot's Silas Marner. Franklin's Autobiography. Shakspere's Julius Caesar. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Scott's Ivanhoe. Collateral Reading: Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Lowell’s Vision of Sir Launfal. Goldsmith's Vicar of W akefield. Stevenson's Treasure Island.