Callaway High School - Lesprit Yearbook (Jackson, MS)

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English, Foreign Languages and History 41

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bpeiiio: foreign and As I trudged home from school, I began to think about the tedious job which laid ahead of me. Gather- ing information and writing my re- search paper took all the time and patience I could possibly muster. After all of the weary research I hit a barrier. It seemed as though an- other student took a liking to my topic and checked out all possible sources that remained. All this time and effort climaxed in an exhaust- ing failure. I then proceeded in gathering new knowledge. Leaving the library heavily laded with books, I realized that my task had just begun. The jungle of books ap- peared to grow around me. From this point I proceeded in putting confused thoughts on blank 4x6 note cards WITHOUT PLAGIAR- IZING. After many hours the thoughts began to emerge as some- thing else besides jumbled up notes. I felt the load lighten as I turned in my rough draft, index cards, and finally my finished pa- per. That simple view of English, how- ever, failed to be universal. To so- phomores, English meant a differ- ent world filled with Menagerie, research papers, and more gram- mar. To seniors, it could possibly mean English or American liteara- ture, novels, creative writing or, if one so chose, even more grammar. As if it was not hard enough learn- ing a familiar language, students could elect to cram their minds with the many rules and exceptions of a foreign language. French, Spanish, German, and Latin words filtered through the school as stu- dents struggled with vocabulary meanings, conjugations, and sen- tence structures. Then out of chaos arose a fun part of a language. Doing as the Romans do, stu- dents sang Christmas carols, parti- cipated in dances and sports and tasted foreign dishes. Such exper- iences helped these students to learn the history of each language. Not all history studied, however, dealt with foreign languages. In other classes one realized that his- tory repeats itself, itself, itself, it- self, . . , This information was con- veyed through the monotony of taking notes, notes, and more notes. For sophomores history meant learning of the discovery of America one more time. These stu- dents acquired worldly thoughts from world history. For juniors history meant the realization of the ever dreaded research paper. Criti- cal analyses also plagued these American history students. Senior American government instilled po- litical views toward our own go- I B vernment. To fill the gap left by a one semes- ter history course, seniors had the i choice of an elective. Such electives -M consisted of economics where I seemingly every aspect of today ' s M world boiled down to the economic system present at that point. Stu- dents visited the Merrill Lynch and Deposit Guaranty Bank buildings on one field trip. Another available elective was sociology. Here, stu- dents studied topics which dealt with the problems of today ' s so- ciety. All in all, Callaway students used their brains in studies con- cerning both home and abroad. Newspaper knowhow. Brenda Ellis dis- cusses everyday happenings from selected articles with her government class. domeotio The French Revolution. Teresa Cannon teaches a kindergartener the parts of the body in French. 40 English, Foreign Languages, and HistoTy

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mouthing off A touch of brass. Debra Burton ' s trumpet brings a little of New Orleans to band class. Have you memorized that song yet? Memorized it?! I haven ' t even got- ten all the notes right. Why? Is she hearin g us individually today? Yes, and I was so busy learning the music theory that I forgot to even look at the music! Oh well! I guess I ' ll just have to sight read it and hope my voice doesn ' t crack. As soon as school started, all the music organizations immersed themselves in fund raising and hours of dedicated practice for scheduled upcoming events. Be- sides playing at the pep rallies and in evening concerts, the band re- presented Callaway at the Green- wood Band Competition in April. The three choirs performed in as- semblies throughout the year and also in evening concerts. In addi- tion to all this, the Singers sang in concerts at various locations in the city, at District and State Choral Festivals, and for adjudication at a Choral Festival on the coast. For those students who could not carry a tune. Speech and Drama classes offered another outlet for expressing one ' s feelings. Some students considered some of the outlets rather unusual, though. After all, who would dream of hav- ing to learn tongue twisters for homework? But in spite of it all, the teachers and students accom- plished their goals. The students gained self-knowledge, learned how to write, act and give speeches, and above all, how to say even a simple nursery rhyme in front of a large group of people without fall- ing to pieces. As a result Callaway ' s halls became filled to the brim with self-confident, eloquently speaking personalities. 42 Speech, Music, and Drama