Hicksville High School - Comet Yearbook (Hicksville, NY)

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In addition to these profitable experiences, Hicksville High offers a wide selection of courses for developing new candidates for the business world, including typing, bookkeeping, merchandising, and courses in stenography, and business arithmetic And now I'll teach you how to park. After classes a good part of the senior class and a few stragglers from the junior class, drop into lecture or the front seat of a brand-new Montego for Driver's Education. Students are taught the finer points of sportsmanlike driving, and pink slip in hand, sit behind the wheel in the car to see who panics first: you, or your instructor. And when the car was safely back in its stall in the parking lot, it was usually time for study, or arduous homework which sometimes seemed too much but whatever was undone was hopefully overlooked. The day of judgment came every ten weeks, at the end of the quarter, spread out over a week, in which tests of all description were hailed upon you: essay, short- answer, multiple choice—if you happened to be lucky, there was a matching question. Gyp sheets or not, the answers, and their location were known only to you and your conscience. And when the teachers trudged home on long weekends, sharpening long, red correction pencils, you worried in apprehension. The relief came on one Thursday, and the computer, in its cold, mechanical style, wrote you its congratulations. IT SAYS UNLESS WE SACRIFICE A Register, to it, it will DESTROY AU the School. 26

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( U'C . Rumors fly about that wonderful course whose real name is supposedly so secret, it’s called Project Plan. Yes, students really have the choice to do homework or not in this independent study group. Recently they were found exploring the old sailing vessels at Mystic, Connecticut, having a great time. Hicksville High does, in fact, prepare students for something other than college, or a life visiting seaports. The vocational program at HHS readies students for careers in industry. Along with courses in the industrial arts, students take courses in math, English, science and history. The print shop boys practice their trade by printing school and district publications, a profitable setup for both the students and the district. Nearby the whirr of the lathe announces the carpentry shop, whose workers help out with construction work for school dances and productions. The beginning driver’s ed. student might be convinced that his car may be the next specimen for the auto shop. The boys do work on several vehicles, curing their ills and keeping the engine tuned. Hicksville would still be Indian cornfields if not for the application of skills taught in the architectural drafting course. Commerical building and home designing are emphasized. Yet the industrial arts are not the province of men only as evidenced by the beauty culture program, where 1,000 hours of practical work and theory are required for a license after a state exam. Experimental styles are reserved for mannequins and the braver faculty members. )

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When notified of the official grades and the certainty of graduation, there were many echoes to be heard, of cheering teams on to victory, the bell at the change of classes, and the ominous voice on the loudspeaker This is Mr. Rusch. Speaking.' Now cherish that time you forgot that homeroom was changed from after fourth to the beginning of the day, and you wandered around lost, mystified, bewildered. Out in the outside world, remember that the school still stands, poised, to educate the next year’s seniors. Halls now hollow, lockers cleaned and the dust and smoke of the exuberant class of’69 still rise and settle. Hall mothers conquered, teachers befriended, subjects passed, friend made. A group of 1066 hopeful educated young people now charge out onto the playing fields, hearing the speeches, the awards, and nostalgia. Hope, ambition, and education, go out and help the world. Pledging: noses push nickels. 27