Central High School - Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Mr. Rani: y I-usToRY DEPARTMENT lf has been said fhaf he who does nof know fhe hisfory of fhefasf is condemned fo repeaf ifs misfakes. Parf of fhe Social Sfu ies curriculum is fhe sfudy of man from ancienl' 'limes fo fhe presenf. The desires for peace and securify have been presenf in every sfage of hisfory. Counfervailing forces have also been presenf. lf is our obiecfive fo feach how man has foughf fhese anfi-social forces and fo evalua-fe his successes and failures for fhe guidance of fhe presenf and fufure. Wide spread hunger, desire for social equalify. nafionalism and aggressive fofalifarianism are fhe chief causes of fermenf foday. Far reaching decisions on fhese problems are being made consfan-fly by fhe governmenfs of fhe world. Since we are a democracy if is +h'e obligafion of fhe Social Sfudies Deparf- menf fo help creafe a well informed acfive elecforafe. HARRY RANTZ Deparfmenf Head. Social Sfudies A wif once said. The only Thing fhaf we learn from hisfory is fhaf hisfory 'reaches us 'no+hing. Affer fhree years of in- 'rensive sfudy in fhe field of hisfory, many of us could probably supporf fhis sfafemenf. However. fhis cloes nof'mean fhaf we did nof learn hisfory: if means fhaf we didn'f care whaf we did wifh if affer we learned if. Firsf. we sfudied Ancienf Hisfory. The plan was simple. We sfarfed as far back as we could remember lacfually as far back as fhe guy who wrofe fhe fexfbook could rememberl, and learned abouf fhe people lfhe people were called Ancienfs l. I+ seemed fhaf in every era, since earliesf fimes. one counfry always had fhe iump on all fhe ofhers. They were eifher sfronger, smarfer. or richer. Occasionally, fhe were sfronger. smarfer. and richer, all af once. Buf if never lasfedz sooner or lafer all fheir civilizafions collapsed lwhich is a very comforfing fhoughf in fhis day and agel. There were fhe Egypfians, The Greeks. and fhe Romans. Since fhey had nofhing beffer fo do, fhey waged wars, builf monumenfs, and invenfed fhings. Their sole purpose inbdoing 'lhis was fo give hisfory sfudenfs somefhing fo sfudy a ouf. A , iff W

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E U5 E S2 i I E o a I i .E s 0 -I A: I A. O C C 0 9 O Mr. Mr. Pennypacker 5 H 5 an 1: Q .l 5 n. I5 :I I 3 I J: E 3 We learned abouT equafions. An equafion is a group of Terms wholly unrelafed, wiTh an equal sign somewhere near The middle. EquaTions were invenTed To be solved. We learned abouT subTracTing. which is really addiTion. and abouT addifion, which is really addifion. buT was The same as subfracfion. We subTracTed up. ThaT made iT algebraic. A new cosmic visTa unfolded before our innocenT eyes- signs. MulTiplying a plus by a plus equaled a plus. Okay. MulTiplying a plus by a minus Turned ouT To equal a minus. STiII okay. BuT mulfiplying a minus by a minus was a plus. Why? Two wrongs don'T make a righT. The Teachers gave us dirfy looks when we asked Them To reveal The secreT. We iusT had To accepT iT on faifh. Then leTTers and numbers seemed To give birTh To liH'le numbers which were placed reverenfly above Their parenTs. They were called exponenTs. They Tell how many Times you mulfiply somefhing by ifself. VVe sTill don'T undersfand exponenfs. We spenT a year doing geomefry. IT was a lesson in logic. All you do is prove hypofheses according To The esTablished Theorems. Mosfly we proved ThaT Triangles and Things were equal or similar. lf we didn'T know The Theorems, we invenfed ones. IT was easy. Second year algebra review firsT year algebra for half a ear. Then iT became complicaTed. We found ouT ThaT curved lines aren'T iusT curved lines. They are graphs of equafions. The Trick is guessing The equafion, or visa versa. Then There were logs. Logs are glorified exponenTs wiTh a complicafed seT of rules designed To speed up simple mulTiplicaTion problems. Trigonomefry was a half year course proving ThaT if you know any Three Things abouf any Triangle. you can become compleTely confused. We learned ThaT if you wanT To, you can roTaTe Triangles Through quadranfs. Nobody wanTed To. We s enT Two chapfers doing problems mechanically and Two more cloing The same problems wiTh log Tables. IT was efficienf. We learned abouT The sine curve and oTher fascinafing biTs of informafion. For Those who Iasfed To The end. maTh analysis was The final course. The firsf Thing we were Told was ThaT we hadn'T been doing maThemaTics'for Three and a half years, iusT fancy ariThmeTic. This was a disfressing shock. We found ouT whaT seTs were. Then we began calculus. Only iT wasn'T called calculus. BuT everyThing was The same as calculus. ill' was a lesson in reasoning. l We weren'T supposed To go To college Thinking we knew calculus. ThaT never was a problem for us. So. we finished maTh . . . four years . . . where would iT lead? iz is

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fs - if ff snr' if '-if Q. 4 l - A 5 sil A S -Q-W ----'- DFW-Igwv ' ' 'W' Wi+h +he fall of Rome. we eniered in+o +he Dark Ages lor Middle Agesl. We didn'i' aclually enfer fhe Middle Ages lor Dark Agesl. we iusl' +urne'd lhe pages of our lexfbook, and 'rhere fhey were. The reason why +he Dark Ages were dark lor fhe Middle Ages were middle?l is +ha+ ihere was an absence of knowledge. In o+her words, everybody was siupid. Since everybody was sfupid. 'rhey iusr did whai' came na+urally- fhey waged war. Wars were +he only highlighf of ihe Middle Ages lor Dark Agesl, excepf for 'rhe Feudal Sysfem. which was a pyramid on which noblemen could s+and. , ' Suddenly. people began +o quesiion l'hings, explore fhings, inveni fhings. and become generall smarf. The sun of knowl- edge illumina+ed and eliminaled +lie Dark Ages lor Middle Agesl. This period was called +he Renaissance. Jus+ when fhings began +o swing, our course came 'io an end. lngeniously linked wi+h Ancieni' l-lisiory was a course in Pennsylvania Hisfory. We learned fhis when our feachers were +ired of leaching Ancienl I-lisfory. The nexi course was Modern World Hisfory. Few of us look il' because if merely deal? wi+h +he insignificani period of world hisiory from fhe Renaissance 'ro modern limes. Also, if wasn'l' a required course. We sfudied American Hislory, in all of ifs aspecis, for +wo years. To aHemp+ a humorous rehashing of our Na+ion's Hisiory. which was so fhoroughly iaughi. would be somewhaf akin io blasphemy. We sfudied poli+ical hislory, economic hisiory, social hisfory, di loma+ic hisiory, and milifary hisl'or . We observed pa-Herns olpsfruggles beiween Norih and Souih, Easl' and Wesi, rich and poor, ins and ouis. men and women. cowboys and Indians. goodies and baddies. feachers and sludenis. Par'r of our course was devoled 'ro The fascinafing subieci of Economics lA+ leas+ we fhink if was fascinaiiingg we're nof surel, and parl' of our course was devofed +o Polifical Science lThis course was so fascinaling +ha'r we could +ake a quiz on if every dayl. Hisfory is a course which is ready-made for fes+ing, since learning hisfory eniails learning a large body of fads. 'We s'ruden'rs ofien complained +ha+ fhe obieciive +es+ meanl' +ha+ we would only have +o regurgi+a+e digesied fads. This was noi so. When a feacher asked for +he five causes of 'rhe depression of +he fhirfies. ihis did noi' mean +ha'r ihere were 'live causes of 'rha'r depression. Cerfainly. if +he depression could have been caused so easily, 'rhere wouldn r have been one. But rafher. +he aufhor of 1'he fexibook, or +he ieacher fell Thai' +here were 'Five definife causes of +he depression, and we would have +o be able fo lisl' +he'm. Some reachers fell' fha? The essay ques+ion was +he proper +es+ of a s+uden'r's knowledge. These essay quesiions were simple. For example: Wha+ caused +he Civil War, whaf hap- pened during +he Civil War. wha+ happened aF+er The Civil War, and why? Some +eachers gave open book +es+s, buf fhey probably were nof aware of fhis. I7