Dondero High School - Oak Yearbook (Royal Oak, MI)

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a beginning 'THE WHUUERN REWUTAUTEUN in High Sclhaol Education uw w ,vw w M 11 Perhaps the modern period, more than any other, has seen the greatest number of advances in education. The turning point occurred in 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik I, the first un- manned satellite. This event made many Americans, particularly educators, aware of the gap between Russian and American knowledge and made them anxious to cure the deficiencies of American curricula, especially in the areas of science and mathematics. The National Defense Education Act of 1958 was a direct result of this new consciousness and its subsidies aided many schools in improving their facilities. The science labs at Dondero, for example, have benefitted greatly from the Act, and now students have improved facilities to carry on the experiments essential to a vivid understanding of subjects such as chemistry. The science revolu- tion has been followed by one in mathematics, which has now put all underclass mathematics courses under the program recently set up by the School Mathematics Study Group. An integral part of the present mathematics curriculum is the honors math program, now in its sixth year. At right, Mr. Vahe Dolikian is seen explaining trigonometry to his senior honors math class. The mathematics revolution in turn has sparked a similar revolution in the English Department. This year, the honors program in math has been expanded to include a parallel program in English, to meet the demands of business and industry, as well as those of colleges and universities, for more literate graduates. Fol- lowing new trends, Dondero's English Department has adopted such innovations as team teaching, which has gained, in recent years, much praise nationally, as well as criticism for being just another educational fad. Above, Miss Antonio Couretas and Mr. M. Robert Graham team teach a section of freshman English students. Team teaching is only one of the new advances which modern-day educa- tion has achieved, and the advances are so great that Le DuBridge, Cal Tech's president, was prompted to note that college freshmen of ten years ago would have flanked in competition with today's freshmen, except, of course, if the freshmen of ten years ago could have gone to the high school of today. I

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Education during the Middle Ages was often tied with knighthood. The system of chivalric education began in the latter part of the ninth century, reached its greatest height in the twelfth and was over by the mid- dle of the sixteenth. It was developed primarily for the sons of the nobility and consisted of apprentice- like stages,that of page and the squire, which one attained before becoming a knight. A boy became a page usually at age seven or eight, when he became attached to a lord or lady of the court and began education in the palace school in subjects such as religion, music, reading, weaponry and Latin. This period lasted until the boy ,was fourteen or fifteen, at which time the education be- came less sedentary. The young squire was taught to hunt, ride in armor and fight with the sword and battle axe as well as to observe the ritual of the Church. More than ever, he became the personal valet of his sponsoring lord. At twenty-one, this ended as the boy was knighted in an impressive ceremony. He was now officially a man, sworn to follow the perfections of the Middle Ages and fight for his lord and the Church. Although knighthood no longer exists, some of its flavor is retained in the vocation curricula of Dondero. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

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