Armstrong High School - Resume Yearbook (Armstrong, IL)

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B n u u n Q glgurpjg mhggulg, 9 u u u n lu AN EXPOSITION OF THE COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT By A. F. Nelion There are many people who think that the commercial subjects which are taught in the high school, namely, Bookkeeping, Shorthand and Type' writing are relatively new subjects. I mean by that, that they were just discovered about a half a century ago. I shall in writing this article at tempt to give briefly a history of the three subjects mentioned above and the value that they contain for our future men and women. It was nearly two hundred years before Christ, when people began to live in communities, and industries were developed, it was found that the people needed some means to keep a record of accounts. I To the Romans the credit is given as having the first system of ac- counts more scientifically developed than any other people. Books have been found containing dates of 1406 to 1430. These books are re- markable for their neatness, but do not show that any scientific principles were followed. The first American text on double entry bookkeeping was published by William Mitchell in 1796. He is also given credit for recommending special columns for the cash book. Many books sets have since been published but the Twentieth Century text and set used in the Armstrong High School is one of the most. thorough and comprehensive text books in the market for the high school student. The invention of a calculating machine in 1890 by William Burrougn a bank clerk has aided the development of bookkeeping because it tends to lessen the work of the bookkeeper. QA Brief History of Shorthandj When Cicero the greatest of Roman orators rang for his stenographer in the year 63 B. C., it was not a dainty maid who came tripping to this desk with notebook and pencil but instead, however, a scholarly man came forward with waxen tablets and styli, the writing tools of that time, and sat at the feet of the great man and took his dictation. The shorthax d writers of those days were Without paper, pen or pencil and only a crude method of shorthand. A stylus was used for writing While the writing was done on tablets that were covered with a layer of Wax, IF ll u u -ul-31:0 1924 G n n n ll- n 'T

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W-wr-t u+-u cn -'uc-Q 1 9 2 4 Qgnign F I'- 1l u LMT purple anhgnlh flfllll 'll in , genuinely democratic and the most thoroughly representative of the insti- tutions yet devised and established by American genius. Our ideals are shifting from the vague, general, externally imposed standards of mental discipline and college preparatory to those translatable into twentieth cen- tury individual and sicial requirements, sound healthg the ability to use the intellect upon the problems of ordinary social, civic, and commercial life, taste and the observance of the demand for the beautiful in both per- sonal and community concerns 5 a civic and moral consciousness which up- holds, and contributes to the community ethics upon which social progress depends, and a religious sense which assures loyalty to a permanent system of values. If our one and a half million adolescents now in our high schools acquire these things our nation's future is assured. If they do not, it is doomed to decay and fall. The realization of the above-mentioned values will necessitate constant, patient labor and possibly some changes in our educational regime. The supervisory programme ahead requires that we work out and put in opera- tion a system of general principles of adolescent pedagogy which is clearly based on the problem araising out of the age of the hibh school student and his likely participation in the activities of his community. The best teachers possible to secure are none too good to teach our boys and girls Men and women who are in this work because they are really interested in it-not because it offers a small salary, or can be used as a stepping stone to othcr professions. Personally, I will welcome the day when require- ments nor teachers are so high and exacting that such teachers for para- sites? will be crowded out of our good work. The officers of our public school system should be men and- women who hold these offices, not be-- cause of the popularity, frestige, and power that may be theirs, but be- cause they are true exponents of education. They should visit the schools, talk wth the teachers and supervisors, read current literature by the lead- ers of the educational wor'd today on :choo's and the problems thereof. If such were done, these persons cou'd possess hrst hand informat'on on some of the rrobfems with which they must reckon, instead of guessing, or mere- ly cuoting what they have heard. People who haven't time to do these things to some cxtfnt at least. havcn't time to till the office as it should hc Flccl, rcr lava they the right to expect the continued support of the tax-- paycrs of the community. Fy ALL working together the boys and girls will have better schools and the status of our community will he raised. So let us see to it that we are doing crr drtv first lsefore we cr'ticize another Ever remembering the meaningful phrase, A House divided against itself cannot stand. ll ll ll rl

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Ti.. B II Il H U Q Qlpurple zmh CEUID Q -9' N H H In Some people may be surprised to learn that shorthand was used in the time of the Caesars. Quintus Enniius the Roman poet in 200 B. C. was the first to invent an abbreviated system of writing. He devised about 1100 signs which he used for the purpose of writing more swiftly than by the ordinary a phabet. The chief use of shorthand in Roman times was made by the leaders in the church and by the officials of the government. The onfy definite information that we have of the use of shorthand is recorded by Piutarch who mentions that the famous oration given by Cicero in the Roman Senate in 63 B. C. was taken in shorthand. Tiro a highly educated man who received his freedom from Cicero invented the method of shorthand used at that time. He later became the confi- dential clerk of his master. We are much indebted to Tiro and his fol- lowers for their ability to write and read shorthand. There is evidence tiizt shorthand was used in this country within ten years after the landing of the pilgrims. The shorthand notebooks of Major John Pinchoni containing sermons which were preached by Rev. John Moxon between 1637 and 1639 are found in the library at Spring- field, Massachusetts. A Weil known shorthand writer at this time was John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Massachusetts in the year of 1633. Many of his letters written in shorthand were sent to his wife Martha Winthrop who is the first female shorthand American writer of Whom there is a record. Charles Dickens, of whose works we American people are proud, was a Ll.o1-thand writer, using the old-fashioned Guerney system and many a time hls wife became provoked because he would write his Ltorlcz in snort hand. A great many systems were published by different msn beginning in the year 1588 until the time that a system cailed Stenographic Sound Hand , was published by Isaac Pitman in 1837, and in 1840 published his system of Phonography. Pitman's system was used to a large extent and became somewhat popular but was soon supplanted by a better sys- tem. The system of shorthand invented by John Robert Gregg was Hrs: published in Liverpool, England, in 1888, under the title, Light Line Pho- nographyf' The system was introduced in America in 1893 in the city IL-ll lIlll ll IF'-Q 1 9 2 4 Q'Fll A'7:Jll g If 1 IF II 'F ,...1-e.a..x..... .i