Eastern High School - Echo Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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THROUGH THE YEARS AT THE EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL ably tested orallyfk The following questions are typical samples: GRAMMAR 1. How many Personal Pronouns are there? Name them. 2. Name the number of Tenses in each Mood 3. What does an Active-Transitive Verb express? 4. How is a Passive Verb conjugated? GEOGRAPHY . How is Oceanica divided? . Where is Cape Gerda? . Which is the 111081: southern division of Europe? . Where is the Channel of Tartary? DEFINITIONS . What are Numbers? . What does Nought express? . What is Notation? . What is N umeration? ARITHMETIC 1. Reduce UZ of 3M of U8 of W 18 of U 3 to a simple fraction. 2. If 750 men require 22,500 rations of bread for a month, how many rations will a garrison of 1200 require? 3. If 25 men can earn $6250 in 2 years, how long Will it take 5 men to earn $11,250? 4. Divide 33.66431 by 1.01. PARSIN G Parse the underlined words in the following passagezivk To see young persons who are courted by wealth and pleasure resikt all the allurements of vice and steadily pursue virtue and knowledge, is cheering and delightful to every good mind. SPELLIN G Un iiSpeIIing,i the candidates were given 20 words to write, a number of them being proper adjectives or nouns, such as Olympic and Absalom. All words were carefully capi-talizedJ .4;th- AWNH It might be supposed that the young ladies who made the required grade on this middle-of-the-nineteenth-century type of the Report for 1851 states that the examinations were conducted Qiby the Com- mittee and the Instructors belonging to the respective school, in the presence of such members of the Board of Commissioners as please to attend? WSentences to be parsed were obviously chosen with more than one end in view. Here is another from the questions given on another day: The thoughtless man bridletb n6: his tongue; he speaketh at random, and i5 entangled in the foolishness of his own words. I 61

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THROUGH THE YEARS AT THE EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL time, as slates were still at the height of their unhygienic popularityi were supplied by the Board. There were also, of course, the questions of the studies to be pursued ta rather important itemi and the actual organization and procedure of the school day and year, but these matters can more conveniently be glanced at when the first students of Eastern Female High School have actually been enrolled. And they have yet to . take the entrance examinations! We are indebted to the Baltimore S an of 1844 for the definite record of two highly important events, the giving of the first entrance examinations and the opening of the school. The former took place, evidently, the latter part of July-the end of the school year-- for the newspaper item, dated July 315 reads: After an examination held by Dr. Monmonier, Dr. Collins and Mr. Toner, a committee of the Board of School Commissioners;k the following young ladies were granted admission to the Female High School: . Ada Blanche Franciscus, Mary P. Wise. . . . U-Iere follow 73 more names, not arranged alphabetically, with no indication as to which school the respective young ladies were to enter. The other Sun article, mentioned below, reported that 38 pupils made up the flrst class at Eastern? Of this historically important first group we therefore are not certain even of the names, only that they had met the requirements previously enumerated and were, according to the standards of the lower school from which they came, outstanding students, good higher school materialfii There is unfortunately no copy of the iirst entrance examina- tion, or of those of the years immediately following, but one of the year 1854 tbefore any of the changes for improvement suggested by the principal of iiEastern,i were incorporatedi doubtless gives a fair idea of what this first one was like. The questions were printed in fine print on small strips of paper-10 each in Grammar and Geography, 5 in Arithmetic, 6 in Definitions tnot mentioned in the original list quoted abovei , with 10 words in Parsing and 20 in Spelling. Of Reading nothing is said; hence that was prob- :kThe committee here referred to was one of a number of such committees that played a very important part in the functioning of the early school system, assisting in various ways in the proper conducting of the schools. One of the duties of the particular committee assigned to the two Female High Schools tfrequently referred to in the records as uThe Committee of the SchoolW was, naturally, to preside over the examinations for admission to these schools. 1251

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T HROUGH THE YEARS AT THE EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL i'Information, Pleaseiii iwe hesitate to say Quiz KidsW program would begin their adventures in the realm of higher learning when the schools opened in September following the one month of vacation; but this did not happen. Evidently unforeseen difficulties occurred in getting the new building completed, perhaps in finding the proper i person for its head tall speculation this, no explanations being given in the recordsi; in any case it was not until almost the end of November ifor the exact date, Wednesday, November 27th, WC again credit a Baltimore Sun article, dated November 25, 1844i that the hrst Eastern Female High School opened its doors and the first eager isurely safe speculation thisU Easternitesii passed in. It happens that we have two descriptions of this earliest home of the school, and the subject seems important enough to justify quoting from both. The brief one in the Boardis Report for 1844 simply states that the house tiis 50 feet long by 34 feet-two stories high, with convenient study and recitation rooms-bui1t in a neat and substantial manner-and the cost with its furniture, $3500? and concludes, The High School occupies the second story, the 9, Primary School the first story. The other description, from the S rm article mentioned above, adds the following interesting details: Quite a handsome brick building. . . . The building is of the same length and width as the old school house, but has been raised to two stories in height, with a commodious basement. The basement room occupies the whole size of the house, the ceiling being supported by wrought iron pillars. It is to be used, if occa- sion requires, as a recitation room, or for any other purpose con- nected with the school which the Commissioners may direct. The first story is also a large room, twelve feet in height, . . . The second story . . . is divided into three rooms, the largest for the school room, capable of accommodating one hundred and fifty scholars, the others to be used as recitation rooms; and this story is thirteen feet in height. The entrance to the High School is from Pitt Street, through a turret or wing situated at the northeast corner of the building. Three rooms on the second story of a building '50 feet by 34 feet and two stories high, the whole building costing, with its furni- ture, $3500-these details of Easternisii hrst home, apparently an entirely satisfactory one when provided, should especially be remem- bered in following, along with other aspects of its history, story of iiEasternisii dwelling-places through the years. E731 the