Buchanan High School - Pines Yearbook (Buchanan, MI)

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books, and Who's Who's, are found in the study hall, put there in order that they may be more convenient for the student. At the head of the library department is a qualified teacher librarian, Miss Cernahang and under her are thirteen students who spend one year as apprentices. During their apprenticeship the work alternates each six weeks' period-keeping overdues and fines, the circulation record, and reading the shelves. Librarians that are in their second year become student librarians and have the management of the library during a regu- lar school hour. One half credit is earned for two years' library service. The library serves grades seven to twelve inclusive and is also open to any grade teacher wishing to use it. This year a continuous reorganization is being carried on. The non- fiction books are being added to, especially in the science, useful arts, and biography sections. Bookstands, a display rack, new chairs were added this year, and the filing cabinet is being enlarged. The underlying principle of the language department isn't just an- other credit for the student. Latin and French are taught in Buchanan High School for the sole purpose of forming a better foundation for future living. There is hardly a book published, or a radio program heard, that does not make use of a few French words. Goethe once said, He who is ignorant of foreign languages knows not his own. This is even more true today than it was when our parents struggled through Latin and French. A great part of our modern English words is directly founded on Latin words. Although Latin is no longer a spoken language, it has formed the basis for the romance languages: French, Italian, and Spanish. A know- ledge of old Roman civilization will enable us to better understand many of our own laws, politics, engineering, and architectural skills and cus- toms. From the department of so- cial sciences emanates the study and applied knowledge of all that relates to man as a mem- ' ber of society. These sciences treat facts synonymous to the education, health, and pursuits of man, of crimes and their pre- vention, and of the reformation of criminals. Their history is traced in the most ancient of human records, in the sacred books and laws of Babylonia, Egypt, Judea, and Greece. Although the department offers a limited choice in this phase of edu- cation, it does carry the essential subjects necessary for college prepara- tion. We enjoy as required courses world and American history and civil government, and economics and economic geography as elective studies. By this means the fundamentals of this type of ologies are brought within the scope of the student who thus has an opportunity to discover whether or not he wishes to continue his higher education along such lines. llll

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l10l apartments With an enrollment of 525 the English department takes honors as being the larg- - est department in t h e acade- mic school sys- tem. English is the basic sub- ject for all oth- er courses, the one a r o u n d w h i c h t h e wheel of edu- 4 cationrevolves. F i n d i n g it necessary to meet the needs of our community, last year a new organi- zation of the program was made in both the junior and senior high schools. The addition of a class in remedial reading was made to the seventh and eighth grades, having this together with the study of the technique of writing and speech as the chief task of the junior high school English classes. Miss MacNeil did research work last summer at Washington Uni- versity in St. Louis, Missouri, to be qualified for the work of teaching remedial reading. Emphasis upon reading over a broad field is made in the ninth and tenth years together with intensive Work in normal speech situations and a greater perfection in the individual's style in writing. To make it possible for the college preparatory group to receive suf- ficient work in American and English literature, a year's course in the junior year is given, required for those entering colleges and universities and elective for those who love literature. Semester subjects open to juniors and seniors are journalism, business English, speech, dramatics, creative writing and world literature. The school page in the local news- paper is the work of the journalism class as is the publication of this book a development of the creative writing class. Eleven former students of the creative Writing class have had Work accepted for publication in the national Scholastic magazine, and a number of our English students have been excused from a freshman course in English upon entering universi- ties. Mrs. Dunbar, who heads the department and teaches senior high school English, creative writing, and literature, spent last summer as a member of the Institute for Higher Studies in English at Northwestern University. Miss Cernahan, who teaches freshman English, journalism, and business English, has charge of the library. Miss MacNeil teaches junior high school English, speech, and dramatics, The study of magazines is a distinct part of the work, the Readers Digest being read by the sophomores and the Scholastic by the juniors and seniors. The library of Buchanan High is not all in a centralized room be- cause each class room has its own bookcase of books pertaining to its own particular subject. The central library has approximately 1,982 volumes of which about 130 books were introduced this year. The library room is small and accommodates six people at a time. The bookstands for ordinary reference books as encyclopedias, yea.r

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E121- While this department cannot possibly produce an illustrious or spec- tacular curriculum, it does, however, deal with subjects which are dras- tically affected by current events. In short it is in the making from sun- rise to sunset. This factor is buoyed up by the untiring efforts of our leaders, Mrs. May Whitman and Mr. John Elbers. Could you find the height of an inaccessable tree on the opposite bank of a river if you knew the width of the river and the angle to the top of the tree? Easy enough, if you h a v e attended t h e fi r s t t w o weeks of the trig- onometry course offered a t B u - c h a n a n High, where the stud- ent is taught not only the use of figures, but prac- tical applications of them also. This course is under the competent in- struction of Mr. Joseph Hyink, who also teaches first year algebra, which is required for graduation, plane geometry, offered to sophomores, advanc- ed algebra, and solid geometry, courses for juniors and seniors, as is trig- onometry. Mr. Claude Carter teaches one division of freshman algebra, and Mr. Moore the other. Mr. Earl Rizor teaches junior high mathematics, preparing the seventh and eighth graders for the more advanced sub- jects. Also on alternate years Mr. Rizor teaches a course in business arithmetic for high school students. Not a great many years have passed since higher mathematics, the basis for all science, has been taught in all high schools, and the students of Buchanan High are indeed fortunate to have so competent a staff of teachers to prepare them for further learning. The physical science department of the Buchanan High School con- sists of the subjects: biology, vocational agriculture, physics, chemistry, and general science. A student upon becoming a freshman, has general science behind him. This subject ana- lyzes the relation of one science to another. Biology is offered to the freshman, and it teaches the student how to live better by comparison of the life of simple plants and animals to his own. As a junior, one may take a course in chemistry. This subject ex- plains unseen chemical reactions. The class is fortunate to have a well- equipped laboratory at its disposal to aid it in understanding the subject. Physics is on the senior list and concerns physical reactions of the uni- verse. Leading the science department to new discoveries are Mr. Clarence Langer and Mr. Claude Carter. Last summer Mr. Langer guided thirty- seven ambitious boys through farming projects. Our other guiding hand, Mr. Carter, through patient explanations and Wisdom, has indeed done much for our science department.