Burbank Junior High School - Wizard Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

Page 19 text:

THE HISTORY CF THE WIZARD BacH in 1907, the San Pablo Avenue School, or the Pioneer School as it was called, had a magazine named THE VOLUNTEER. The next year, the school was renamed the Franklin Lower High School. This was the beginning of the popular junior high school plan and Berkeley has the distinction of being the first city to reorganize its schools on the six, three, three , time allotment for the grades, first through twelfth. Hr. James T. Preston was the principal of the Franklin Lower High School, and our own Miss Santos was one of the pupils. In 1916, the present plant of the Burbank Junior High School was built. March 23, 1916, was Moving Day for Mr. Preston, part of the Franklin faculty and the children in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. The first WIZARD was published May, 1916 and contained just sixteen small printed pages. The name was selected to honor Mr. Luther Burbank, the plant wizard. The first mimeographed WIZARD was made December, 1917. Small sheets of blue paper with a darker blue cover, were used. The foreword was: The present WIZARD is a chronicle of the school life for the term ending December 1917. The cover de- sign, the various articles written, the typing, the stenciling, and printing were all done by students of the school. This is the paper ' s excuse for being. We have grown since our first edition, but we have never changed our idea that the book should be an expression of pu- pil activity: that the work of all departments should integrate. Hence we find the composition work, the art, the typing, the stenciling and the mimeographing are all the work of the pupils. Our latest achievement has been the introduction of amateur photography, that work also being done by a group of pupils known as The Snap Club. The budget for the WIZARD depends upon subscription sales collected before the work on the books begins. The only ex- pense to the school is for stencils and ink for the mimeograph. English teachers have alternated being in charge of the literary content of the book. At present, it is thought desir- able for an English teacher to keep the literary editorship for two consecutive terms, beginning with the spring semester. The art teachers take turn about in supervising the drawings. The typing teacher has change of the mechanical details.