Brookline High School - Murivian Yearbook (Brookline, MA)

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Miss Parker Miss Horn The art of application Miss Half. Art Department One of the biggest drawing cards in the field of electives , is the Art Department. Each year more and more students | from every curriculum elect this comprehensive course to augment their appreciation of the finer arts. For future com- mercial and home artists such courses as interior decorating, free-hand drawing, and household art are offered. Miss Parker, head of the department, Miss Hale and Miss Horn give all the instruction and keep every course interesting as well as fruitful. Outside the art rooms a long bulletin board, upon which are posted the products of our students’ hands. There are, as well, mounted pictures and art objects from other high schools on display so that the passer-by can get a view of the products of artistic talent each day. This year as a kind of group project, several of the best students have finished the last two of a series of six stained glass windows for our auditorium. To allow the students insight on their work, Miss Parker has conducted several visits to Mr. Connick’s studio in Boston. Here they were able to receive first-hand information on stained glass and to ob- serve how it is made. As usual many Brookline Students entered the S. P. C. A. poster contest and again fine teaching and natural talent brought top awards to many. Vernon Scott, Ann Converse, Catherine MacDonnell, Walter Szulc, Grace Germain, and Blossom Sisenwain received first prizes of bronze, blue- ” Abide by . . . ribboned medals. Second prizes of bronze, red-ribboned medals went to Matthew Young, Edith Sheldon, John Nor- ton, and Mary Schnare. Jean Loughran, Elizabeth Carolan, Helen Paine, and Dorothy Durno will be sent a year’s sub- scription to the organization’s magazine as honorable men- tion awards. As an innovation this year, the Art Department partici- pated in the radio program of B. H. S., conducting a whole broadcast as a body, with students and teachers speaking. Students who take art are important cogs in our school machinery working for Murivian, Sagamore, and dramatic presentations. Thus the school affords practice for boys and girls who wish it, while the Art Department provides excel- lent teaching and materials. About two hundred B. H. S. students take Art courses of every type each year, and the popularity of this cultural subject has increased almost daily as the boys and girls of the school through art work in activities and the prominent, pleasing displays on the art bulletin board, get a clear idea of the worth of such a course. Altogether, Brookline High School’s Art Department has a finger in the pie’’ of almost every school activity and in- stead of pulling out plums, this finger is pushing them in. Miss Parker and her two assistants present cultural courses enhanced by progressive teaching and a pleasing atmosphere with the result that real skill and talent are developed. . . . the Golden Rule” 23

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Miss Baths Miss Liden Mathematics Department The Mathematics department, under the direction of Mr. Ralph D. McLeary, who has come to this school rather recently, consists of eight teachers: Miss Madeline Anderson, Mr. Harold Bates, Miss Marion Bates, Miss Helen Collins, Mr. Harry Downes, Mr. Thomas Fitzgerald, Miss Anna R. Liden, and Miss Florence-Gertrude Perkins. Lender the direction of this experienced staff, a high standard of work is maintained, with much of the emphasis, however, on the accomplishments of each individual pupil. Progress in the Math, d epartment shows in a new system installed this year for the first time. The entire junior year is devoted to geometry where previously that subject was taught only half the year. However, on one day every week all year the time is spent on algebra to prepare the students for the College Board Examinations in June. The courses which are offered in the Mathematics depart- ment are: two years of algebra, a year of plane geometry, and a year of senior mathematics which includes work in solid geometry, trigonometry and elementary analysis. The department has been seeking to develop a program of activity that will prove beneficial to each individual pupil whether he is planning to take the College Board examina- tions in mathematics or not. This science of exact knowl- edge and precise thinking is of inestimable value to those who will end their formal education with their work here in this high school, for they will have acquired the habit of I thinking clearly and acting logically as well as correctly. Throughout the 1938-39 school year nearly a thousand I earnest pupils were engaged in the study of mathematics as a part of their preparation for entrance into various institu- 1 tions of higher learning. Linder the competent direction of the staff of the Mathematics department these pupils worked faithfully toward mastering the complexities of algebra, the concepts and reasoning of geometry, and the analytic tech- nique of trigonometry. One aim is to lead its students into paths of precise thinking, as it is very important that all should acquire the habit of clear thinking in these times of change and unrest. The study of the various forms of logic that are used in the establishment of mathematical principles and the requirement of rigid proof of each new truth that is accepted serve to give the pupil an appreciation of the neces- sity of clear thinking and careful reasoning. For one who plans to take an active part in the development of new struc- tures through the medium of specialized work in the appli- cation of scientific thought to industrial and economic life, the mastery of the wide fields of mathematics is a require- ment which cannot be waived. Applications of some branch of mathematics are found on all sides of us as we look about the universe and our own small world with its great engin- eering works. Miss Collins Mr. Fitzgerald Mr. Downes Mr. Bates Miss Anderson 22

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Mr. Atticks Mr. Blanchard Miss Berriman Miss Poland Mr. Ehnes Commercial Department One of the most practical departments in the School is the Commercial Department, which yearly sends out some trained office workers fully equipped with a working knowl- edge of modern business practice. Four years of shorthand, typing, bookkeeping, law and economics fit one directly for a position in the business world. Being one of the best equipped departments in the School, instruction in all manner of modern business machines is offered. Over one hundred typewriters provide an opportunity for practice to all typists, while more advanced work is done with Bur- roughs and Monroe Calculators, the ediphone, dictaphone, adding machine, bookkeeping machine and mimeographs. This work gives the basic skills needed in office work, while the theoretical part is provided by courses of Business law, simple economics, bookkeeping and allied subjects. Students are given several chances to apply their knowl- edge even while they are still learning, which is one of the best possible methods. One of these opportunities is the secretary work done for the teachers and the administrative department. Teachers who request help are assigned a stu- dent secretary who types manuscripts, transfers marks and performs many other offices of a similar nature. From these willing workers come the mimeographed sheets, used in many classes, which bear only the legend ' Cut by . . .” to indicate the large amount of time devoted by these students in helping make the School run efficiently and economically. The other signal service of this department to the general good is the Central Treasury System. This represents the pooled financial resources of all the Brookline High School activities. The money is banked in one account, part in a savings account drawing interest and the rest being available in a checking account. The job of keeping the accounts foi all the various clubs at the same time and keeping them from getting mixed is successfully handled by a student staff. Chief Bookkeeper for this year is Norma Freedman, assistee by typists Alice Alden and Glenna Easton. They work in close cooperation with the individual treasurers elected by the various organizations, and with various members of the Commercial Faculty, who act as advisers and supervisors. The Student Employment Bureau comes under the juris- diction of this department, helping graduates and students to locate jobs of all types. Up to May of this year about twenty-five pupils had been placed in offices, banks or stores. Sixty-seven girls were given after-school positions caring for children or doing various jobs about the house. During the holidays ten pupils secured temporary positions through the School office. This work is under the direction of Miss Emma Poland and of Mr. Ehnes. The entire organization is under the able leadership of Mr. Kelsey Atticks, to whom muci of the credit for building up this, the most practical of our departments, is due. Miss Greenshields Miss Maguire Miss Nickerson Miss Hamblin 24