Lawrence High School - Lawrencian Yearbook (Falmouth, MA)

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8 The Lawrencian many. He gave the results of this tour in his Seventh Annual Report to the Board of Education in 1844. At the sudden death of John Quincy Adams, in 1848. Mann re- signed his secretaryship to repre- sent Massachusetts in Congress. On September 5, 1852. Horace Mann was chosen president of the newly founded Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio. At Antioch he had an opportunity to demon- strate in practical application many of the educational ideas which he had advocated in Massachusetts. Antioch was the first non-sectarian and co-educational college of im- portance in the country and it pioneered in the field of teacher- training. Horace Mann died from over-work and strain on August 2, 1859, at Antioch. For so many years Horace Mann had lived up to the ideal which he expressed in his own words, thus: “I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: be afraid to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” We shall attempt to tell you, to- night, of the influence of Horace Mann on modern education. Be- cause he desired to see every boy and girl awakened to the respon- sibility and worth of himself, Mann devoted his life to an ever-import- ant cause — free public education for America’s youth. Carolyn Underwood Turner HONOR ESSAY MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE One of the things that troubled Horace Mann was the way in which mathematics was taught. He couldn’t see any reason for teaching ad- vanced algebra and calculus to stu- dents who couldn’t even do the simpler mathematics necessary to carry on a business. In those days “the exact science” was taught with no connection between its various branches and with no stress on how to solve everyday problems. Today in every branch of mathematics there is a stress on how each relates to the other. Let us take, for ex- ample, plane geometry. In plane geometry we have algebra, arith- metic, and geometric proofs. When we have mastered the problems in our text book, we turn to practical problems that any one of us might have to solve. Thus in trigonometry we study not only the relation of sides and the functions of angles of triangles but also the rudiments of surveying, the methods of find- ing one’s position at sea, and the way to locate true north astronom- ically. The improvements Horace Mann argued for, nearly 100 years ago, are still being realized today. Last fall Mr. Ballard and Mr. Marshall put in a new course, Comprehen- sive Mathematics. This course, under the instruction of Mr. Ballard, strives to connect the various phases of mathematics that the student has studied since entering school. It splices arithmetic, plane geometry, solid geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and physics into one line of thought with one objective: to solve practical mathematical problems. During this past school year, since the forming of our Com- prehensive Mathematics Course, two books have been published which might be used in courses identical to ours. Ours is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind in the country. This is, I think, a glowing tribute to the progressiveness of the faculty of Lawrence High School.

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Lawrence High School 9 Hand in hand with mathematics go the natural sciences. Any of the sciences studied by high school pu- pils taken without mathematics would be like an automobile without wheels. When Horace Mann was president cf Antioch College, he let the na- tural sciences play a prominent part in each pupil’s curriculum. The sciences were, to his way of think- ing, a necessity for the growth and safety of a democracy. If Mann and other educators had not reduced the arts to an even basis with the sci- ences, instead of leaving the arts above them, it is very possible t’rat today we would be without tele- phone, telegraph, radio, airplane, automobile, and steam train. W hat do these contribute to the growth and safety of a democracy? In cur representative form of gov- ernment, it is necessary for our legislators to sound out the voters’ opinions on proposed laws. With the help cf the telegraph, the tele- phone, and the radio, legislators do this much more quickly than form- erly. In Lawrence High School, one subject a year for the four years is scientific. First there is general sci- ence, then biology, the science of growing things; then chemistry; and last and foremost, physics. Although cur courses are necessarily incom- plete, they give a scientific basis for all pupils who take them and may awake a lively interest in the pupils who are scientifically minded. In closing let us look back over the sciences as Mann thought they should be. He thought that mathe- matics should be connected and should be used for solving practical problems. Also he thought science should be an important part of a student’s curriculum. It is interest- ing to see that these ideas have in- fluenced the teaching in our own high school. Eugene F. Lawrence HONOR ESSAY ENGLISH I am going to trace for you changes in the methods of present- ing English that arose from Mann’s educational philosophy. To accomp- lish this, I have divided the essay into three parts. Part I shows the methods of teaching English prior to the time of Horace Mann. Part II points out one idea, then one ideal ol ' Horace Mann that affected the English curriculums. Part III en- deavors to show changes in the methods of teaching English that resulted from the philosophy of edu- cation advanced by Mann. Part I. Methods of teaching Eng- lish prior to the time of Horace Mann. Defoe and Benjamin Franklin both advanced views in regard to English courses in the academies. The views propounded were ex- cellent. The advances they planned were: (1) Masterpieces were to be taught for their beauty as well as for criticisms. (2) Composition was to form the students’ own English style. (3) Oral reading was given as preparatory to enable the pupil to express his opinions in the pres- ence of others. Many obstacles hindered the completion of these ideals. Lack cf tradition, apparatus, and atmosphere caused the major- ity cf teachers to surrender the noble ideals brought forward. Ex- pression of the new interest in Eng- lish was shown by the publication of numerous text books on English grammar. These grammar text- books became the core of the Eng-