Freeport High School - Voyageur Yearbook (Freeport, NY)

Page 18 text:

19 2 7 THE YEAR BOOK 19 2 7 felt that the girls also should be taught something of the essentials of home-making. Since sewing required nothing especial except sewing machines. a room was arranged for it in the basement of the old school. Two tables for cutting and two or three sewing machines were placed in it. This room was poorly light-sewing room ed and had practically no facilities for keeping unfinished work, not much incentive to work, it is true, but a start in the right direction. The cooking room was better lighted and equipped with especial desks, gas plates, and a large gas oven for general class use, in fact this was the best equipped of all the manual arts rooms. This department, as we now see it, occupies the entire basement floor on the east side of the building. At the front is located a large sewing room equipped with cutting tables, electric sewing machines, electric irons, and lockers in which to keep materials. A small room containing mirrors and a large cabinet in which are hung dresses in the process of completion, lies between the general sewing room and a smaller room equipped with table and cases for protecting unfinished millinery from dust. The house-keeping suite consists of a model kitchen, spotlessly clean and containing every convenience necessary in the modern home, and several small rooms which can be furnished in the same manner as a home. The girls are taught proper arrangement of furniture and interior decorating. With these ideal conditions under which to work, we should have much more efficient homemakers than in the days gone by. The study hall formerly was a room having a southern exposure with the sunlight enther falling directly on the pupils or reflected from the pages of their books, thereby cooking room

Page 17 text:

1 9 2 7 THE YEAR BOOK 1927 The recognition of the need for manual training came early in the growth of Freeport High School. It was fairly well equipped from the beginning, although the quarters were much too crowded and there was no finishing room. Very little was done, however, in practical woodworking until 1921, at which time, a syste-manual training room matic course in shop- work was adopted. The project carried on by the grades were made simple, both in operation and detail, increasing in difficulty to the advanced course in high school work. In this latter course, the boys were permitted to select their own project with the advice of the instructor. This usually was the construction of some piece of furniture. Even at this time, exhibits of the finished pieces were held each year in the shop. In the new building there came a decided change in the grade of work as well as the amount that could be accomplished. A finishing room, free from dust, made it possible to produce work that brought exclamations of suprise from those who viewed it. Plenty of storage space and a large, well lighted workroom made it possible to have a much greater amount of work accomplished and, seeing the possibilities of better work, the boys are showing greater interest and enthusiasm. The exhibits in wood-working have now become so large that it is necessary to utilize the entire floor space of the gymnasium to give the public a chance to see the products to advantage. In September, 1926, a sheet metal and electrical shop was equipped and added to the manual training department. making it possible now for a boy to get practical knowledge of metal work, soldering and electrical wiring. At the same rime the desirability of manual training work was considered, it was MANUAL TRAINING EXHIBIT

Page 19 text:

19 2 7 THE YEAR BOOK 19 2 7 making it impossible to study with any degree of comfort. In the present study hall it matters not whether one sits near the windows or in a far corner, there is plenty of light, except on stormy days when the deficiency is made up by the brilliant electric lights in the ceiling. The individual desk seats allow greater free-study hall dom to the individuals than the old combined desks, every sudden movement of which was not only discomforting to those in adjacent seats but ofttimes detrimental to their work. This room has now become the permanent possession of the seniors outside of school hours, a fact that can be readily seen by the meek look of all underclassmen who enter it during those hours. One of the most popular rooms in the building is the library, a very different place from that of former days, in which only fifteen or twenty could work comfortably and which was available at only certain hours of the day. It is different now: there is room for seventy-five or more students, ample bookshelf space so that the books can be properly catalogued, magazine racks, dip-ing files, and many other aids for those who are looking for information on some especial topic. This is a place sought out by pupils rather than visited under compulsion. Several pictures adorn the walls, the most notable being the “Laughing Cavalier,” who, from his place, smiles down knowingly on all the seekers of knowledge or pleasure who throng the room. Altogether, the library is a room to be proud of and should be treated as such by all the students. Systematic exercise for developing the body were practically unknown in regular school work until the new gymnasium was opened. Now it is considered a most vital part of the school curriculum. LIBRARY