Birmingham High School - Piper Yearbook (Birmingham, MI)

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39069, Anniversary of the High School Ellen Ford '35 A little over three hundred years ago,to be exact on February 13, 1635, the 'PublidsLatin School of Boston' was founded. This school was the forerunner of the modern American high school, but how different from the schools we know! As its name implies, the school based its curriculum on Latin with Greek as a close second. Boys, and boys only, entered this nhigh schooln around seven years of age and were ready for college at about Yourteen. Usually only the sons tithed for the ministry attended school, and the colleges prepared almost exclusively for this vocation. However, during the eighteenth century the changing economic and political conditions greatly affected the schools. They began to offer, besides Latin and Greek, mathematics,English, physics,writing, geography, and gradually other sub- jects.These courses were in answer to demands that the schools provide education for boys entering the business world as well as the ministry.So as early as 1750 both business and college preparatory courses were offered in American high schools. These early schools were considered very well attended if there were as many as twenty students. Today a high school with less than one hundred attend- ants is considered too small to have a well-rounded curriculum. The teachers in these early schools were everything from unschooled,indentured servants to grad- uates cf theological seminaries waiting for openings in some parish. However, nowadays, all high school teachers are college graduates, many with advanced de- grees, who have been prepared for the sole purpose of teaching. Also eighteenth century teachers were called on to teach anything from writing to physics, re- gardless of their knowledge of the subject, while modern instructors have had special training in the subjects they teach, and are seldom called upon toinach more than two unrelated subjects. Although the liberality of the high schools increased steadily from the seventeenth century, it was not until well on in the nineteenth that high school education was open to girls. Some communities finally established separated schools for girls,while others offered separate courses to girls and boys in the same school. From these practices the coeducation of today rapidly evolved. From Boston's WPublick Latin Schooln, the first American school financed at public expense, the twenty-eight thousand high schools can and do adapt them- selves to local conditionsg depending on the characteristics of the community, one can find commercial,agricultural,scientific,technical, and many other types of schools and courses mixed in with the standard college preparatory ones. In- deed, after three hundred years of struggle, the modern American high school can prepare its students for every field of lif9.Even so,all leading educators point to the promising future of secondary education,when the high school will seek to be of greater service than ever before. Every kind of preparation for life will be offered, and educational opportunities will be adapted to the individual stu- dent according to his needs, his interests, and his ability. u e s e e e e e e e 1 The whole countryside was transformed into a fairyland of white and silver. Lady Moon was the queen if it all, and the twinkling stars her subjects. The desk was a battle-scarred catalogue of names. 6

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But where was their guardian angel now? Did he hover above their heads at this moment, like the bats and spirits of the wrinkled old man? They were slowly ascending the stairs. From the first few steps of the a- scent they could not see the door of the old man's study. when it did appear a- round the edge of the banister, they stopped, frozen with horror. Usually the door stood wide openg sometimes fbut not often, they found it shut. Today, be- cause the door stood half-open,because within it they could see the deep shadows of the bed and the weird amber-green light from the flaring,rainy sunset and the green hills without--they were overcome with a surpassing terror. A closed door would have been strange to them, frightened as they were. A half-open door was unearthly. It meant that they could not see the old man where he should have been at his desk: he was just concealed from their eyes by that door! He was waiting!--waiting for them in that dropping silence--motionless--patient--silent, with his knotted fingers extended before him, his terrible eyes glaring .... Tears burst silently from the little girl's eyes, and rushing from her cheeks in two streams, fell and sank into the carpet. Had their nurse in that terrible mo- ment crept they could taken them alone they up the staircase behind them and whispered in their ears,uTurn backln have done so. Had their mother followed them,and seeing their terror, gently by the arm and led them down, they would have gone gladly. But could not. A will many times more cunning than their own seemed draw- ing them on. was it the old man, the terrible old man, with his wild eyes, wait- ing for them within that room? O, where was their guardian angel now?---their sweet nurse--their gentle mother? . with a gasp and a little scream,Alice broke from her brother and flung back I the door. The old man, writing at his desk, started at the sound. Then he turned and saw them. 'How you startled ed his deep rich laugh WHow late you are we have tea, my dears? Yesterday I was a hoarse administrations meln he cried as he rose and kissed them each. He laugh- and removed his spectacles. today!W he said. It was the rain, I suppose. Well, shall EXPERIENCE studentg discontented with teachers and books,pencils and of vocal discipline from session room teachersg dissat- isfied with the tyranny of daily requirements in classes. But necessity placed a barrier between us, and today I am a cog in the ma- chinery of labor,sweating and eking out an existence in competition with fellow- men who are little more than marionettes,answering to the tugs of Giant Industry and grudgingly dancing with hypocritical alertness at the blast of the factory whistle. On every hand are guardians of the Company's welfare watching that none wastes time which must be paid for by the Company. But the working day is fin- ally terminated and wearily the worker nhomeward plods his weary way,n as pro- duction ceases to grind the lines of mortals down,slowly but relent1essly.Trudg- ing home in the dusk I am conscious of a yearning for the carefree and priceless days of the classroom and teachers, even with their verbal criticism heaped on the heads of erring students. ---Hugh McHugh, former Baldwin High School student. - 5

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l 'sn i9oc:o be mobo f A Little of Everything D Muriel Sturt: It is always the unusual that attracts one's interest. And there is much about Mexico that is unusualg the c1imate,the scenery,the people,their customs-d in fact, so much that it seems completely'!oreignN. Our first sight of Mexico City was from the window of the train, and I felt as if I were seeing it from an airplane. The city rests in the bottom of what looks like a huge volcanic crater.The valley is over 7,500 feet above sea level, an altitude to which it is difficult to are two snow-capped volcanoes. nPopon great land mark of the Valley of Mexico. It rises to a height of 17,888 feet and ed deposits of sulphur are stored in its great crater. Cortez let a man down into the crater The other snow-clad mountain,Ixtaccihuatl, usually known because of its odd configuration, is linked to Popo by which Cortez led his little band to attack the Valley of When they heard of our plans to spend the summer in accustom oneself. Overlooking the valley as the Mexicans call Popocatepetl is the In Aztec the name meansnSmoky Mountainn. has suffered several eruptions.Unfathom- A story is told of how sulphur for gunpowder. as the nSleeping Wbmann a curving Nsaddlen over Mexico. on a rope to get Mexico,friends exclaim- ed, Nwhat makes you choose such a hot place? Isn't it hot enough for you here?N Even after we returned from Mexico, it was difficult to convince them that the linen suits and the other summer clothes which we had taken with us had hung in the closet all summer and that we had suffered from the cold almost every day. The cool climate is due to the high altitude. The daily rains help to cool off the air, too. Without fail the rain descends in torrents each afternoon. Until a few years ago the rain came with such regularity at four o'clock that the na- tives were in the habit of setting their watches by it. The strange thing about the rains in Mexico is that one learns not to mind them in the leastg they are accepted as just part of the daily schedule. There is the assurance that the sun will be shining brightly the next morning, and there is no place in the world where mornings are brighter or more beautiful than in Mexico. we spent most of the first days we were in the city wandering about the streets. we tried to avoid Madero Street, Mexico's Fifth Avenue, because of the many Americans. American tourists are obnoxiousg they talk in loud voices and ask senseless questions. So we wandered onto the out-of-the-way streets, and it was there we happened onto many strange sights. we saw the public-letter writers plying their pens, helping many love-sick Indians to Wwoo by mailn. bk visited many beautiful flower markets where a gardenia could be bought for a cent and a half. There is the Thieves' Market. Whenever anything is stolen from you in Mex- ico City,they say, nYou go to the Thieves' Market and look for ltn. We heard of one man who bought back his own fountain pen and umbrella there. IEven more strange than the Thieves' Market is the Monte de Piedad,a most unusual pawnshop. This busy establishment was founded as a form of public charity by a Mexican muleteer who grew rich from a silver mine. On pledged articles it will lend any amount from a few cents to several thousand dollars. It works like a bank, ex- cept that collateral on loans may be anything from a blanket or sewing machine ' 7