Emerson High School - Emersonian Yearbook (Gary, IN)

Page 18 text:

EXPRESSION DEPARTMENT The expression department has been busy this year, and the results are gratifying. An “oral” newspaper was published every week in the auditorium by the different classes. The first paper was “The Auditorium Review,” published by the Senior class. “The Junior Sun” came next, and took some of the laurels from the Senior newspaper. The Sophomore class presented “The Gary Farmer,” and they made their publication very helpful, as well as interesting. This semester the advanced expression class of thirty students held an oratorical contest to choose representatives for the Lake County and the Northern Indiana Associations. The work was strong, interesting and artistic. The Senior play which the expression department will present this year is “Secret Service,” by William Gillette, provided the boys do not enlist for a real war. FRENCH This year we have had one beginning and one second year French class. Early in the second semester each section presented a French play in the auditorium. Al¬ though they were simple, both were very satisfactorily given. The French Club has been inactive this year, but we hope to revive it and add to its membership in the fall. IRENE OLIN, A. B. Sixteen

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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

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FORGE SHOP The forge shop gives one unit in vocational work at the Emerson school. It will have been in existence four years at the close of this school year. We are proud of some of the students who have worked in the shop. Our purpose is not to make a blacksmith out of every student who enters the shop, but to give him the best knowledge of the trade that we can, so that when he goes out into the com¬ mercial world he will be prepared to choose the trade best suited for himself. Our shop has all the electrically driven machinery that is found in the best commercial shops, so that a boy has the privilege of getting experience first-hand in modern forge shop work, and some of the boys are making good at the trade. Our problems are all school work, but of a large variety, such as play ground apparatus, orna¬ mental iron fencing, iron stairways, all kinds of hooks and chains, plumbers’ and machinists’ tools and wrenches, the latter our own designing and construction. The largest job we turned out this year was the iron stairway for Glen Park school. Four thousand pounds of structural steel were used, and two months were required to construct it. All this and many more jobs were turned out by the forge class. Every student in vocational work should have some knowledge of steel and iron, and I know of no better place to get it than at the Emerson school. FRANK FLOYD FOUNDRY We do not think the Annual would be complete without giving Mr. Keegan, the foundry instructor, at least one black mark for his good-natured tyranny. Many of us have been students of his in the last four years, and when we went to his room for instruction, you may be sure we got all that was coming to us. We are all well acquainted with the one question Mr. Keegan never got tired of asking us, and that question is, “Boys, did you come here today to work? If you did I have the material for you to use and the time to teach you how to use it, but if you came here to idle your time away, you are in the wrong place, and I would advise that you get your program changed. I will try to have the gymnasium moved up here by the time you get back.” Seventeen