Emerson High School - Emersonian Yearbook (Gary, IN)

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J. A. WHITE EMERSON COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT The work offered in the Commercial Department is both academic and vocational. The content of these subjects, when studied as other high school studies are usually studied, contribute both to general culture and mental training. The North Central Association of Colleges allows entrance credits for bookkeeping, shorthand, business English, and other commercial subjects. When these subjects are taken with the intention of making them vocationally useful, they must be pursued somewhat more intensely, and to a considerable greater degree of perfection than is usual in other high school studies. Definite knowledge must be obtained and a considerable degree of skill acquired, for it is only that knowledge and skill which is one hundred per cent perfect most of the time that can be used in business, and which commands good pay. By including some of the commercial subjects in his elective studies, any high school student may receive at graduation a diploma that will admit him to college, and at the same time he will be qualified to enter a business office at a good salary. MINNIE KNICKERBOCKER EMERSON DRAFTING DEPARTMENT In the fall of nineteen hundred twelve, 0. N. Yeager took charge of the Emerson drafting department. Under his direction, the first systematized instruction was begun. Beginning with practically no equipment—rough-top tables, ragged-edge T- squares, cardboard triangles etc.—and no permanent room, the drafting department has grown by leaps and bounds until today it enjoys the distinction of having no superior in equipment or in desirability of location of room among the high schools and higher institutions of learning of the state. The work has been planned to meet the needs of two classes of students—those who intend to become draftsmen and those who wish to learn this “world” language that they may use it in their daily work. Provision has been made to care for all students—boys and girls—in the high school, and extending down to the third grade. HISTORY The study of History presents an opportunity this year that we seldom have. The aim of our work is to create a good citizen; a citizenship founded upon a knowledge of the problems and needs of our country. Current Events have formed a large factor in our work in an effort to meet this. O. N. YEAGER Fourteen

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ART The world is so full of beautiful things that we are indeed poor who cannot see and enjoy them. To live with and create that which is beautiful makes the drudgery of life’s common duties easier to accomplish. Make it one of the rules of your life to find something beautiful to look at every morning, and take time to enjoy it. You will not have to go out of your way. The Creator made nothing unsightly. All around us are wonders in form and color if we only have our senses trained to see. Let none of us belong to the class of those who “having eyes, see not.” —Ida A. Lull BOTANY IDA A. LULL A few years ago we were frequently asked why the subject of Botany should be offered in the high school, but now we are more frequently asked why we are not giving more time to so important a subject. The knowledge, which touches our lives at many points, thereby enabling us to understand our environment, is of most use to us. This is true of the knowledge we get from the study of plants, and we need to have much of such knowledge, whatever our business in life is going to be. Plants are having more to do with the making of history than kings and armies with all their war and commotion. The class of 1917 seems to have appreciated this fact, since more than fifty per cent of them have studied botany in the high school. CORA SNYDER, B. S. LATIN The Latin department offers a course of four years and enrolls about one-third of the High School students in classes. Caesar is read in the second year, Virgil and Cicero alternately in the third and fourth. The practical value of Latin is strongly emphasized, and an interesting Latin exhibit has been prepared by the students. The Classical Club is a live organization of about forty members from the advanced classes. It meets monthly in the Public Library Club Rooms. The Mercury GRACE OTT, Ph. B. News Service is a news bulletin published weekly by the department. Thirteen

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WINIFRED DAVIS A. B., A. M. KEZIAH STRIGHT THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT The High School course in English is organized primarily with reference to immediate personal and social needs. Only when school life is genuine are results obtained. Students write not to satisfy any teacher, but because what they write, if worth whi le, is printed in the school print shop and read by a large public. The depart¬ ment supports a weekly newspaper, articles for some of the local papers, a school annual, and when the print shop is not too busy, a literary magazine. In all courses, both literature and composition, the oral work receives equal attention with the written, as the young person is more often called on to state his case in speech than in writing. The auditorium classes are ever ready to listen to a good speech, story or play, so the student again works not for his teacher or class, but for a real audience. The English course also aims to establish the habit of reading good books and magazines in the right way. Pupils are encouraged and directed to read freely as individuals throughout the school period. To provide for this, library co-operation is secured, informal class discussions held, time allowed and credit give n. To many pupils this general reading proves more valuable than any formal subject in the high school course. In the reading of students the difference in ability, tastes, and age or develop¬ ment is recognized. EDITH HEURING, A. B. Fifteen