Lawrence High School - Lawrencian Yearbook (Falmouth, MA)

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Lawrence High School 11 class work and allowed to devote the time to their own specific desires. Type VI. Content Courses. Many students finish formal edu- cation with graduation from high school. To meet the needs of this group, a course known as business English is taught them. Others de- sire a college education. To prepare these students for college, a college division is taught the necessary material. Lawrence High School is an excellent example of this type. In all the above methods of teach- ing English, individualism is stress- ed. Summary: Let us review the essential parts presented. Grammar constituted the early study of English. Horace Mann widened the course and had more school pupils learn the material. We owe individualism, or better education of the masses to Horace Mann. H. Hooker Hall HONOR ESSAY LANGUAGES In the early days of our country, the study of languages was of little or no importance to the trail-blazers and pioneers. They were concerned with the practical side of things and used language merely as a tool in their work. But with the thickening population came the more cultured atmosphere of village and church. Even at this stage of development, Latin ard Greek were of no interest to any but college and college pre- paratory students. If a person were preparing for college, he studied under the tutelage of his minister, or perhaps an occasional school teacher who knew more than the three r’s. Those who wished to learn French, Spanish, or any other for- eign language had to learn by per- sonal contact with natives of that country. The lack of interest, even as late as 1815, is shown by this quotation from Harvard College in. 1815 by Van Wyck Brooks: “Decor- um was a Harvard characteristic. Neither Mr. Quincy nor Mr. Dana cared a button for the German language, which had been spoken by the Hessian troops; a half-bar- barcus tribe of Europeans who had been hired by the British king.’’ In 1837 a new era began. As a result of Horace Mann’s work in the public schools, many great strides were made toward better teaching and the introduction of more necess- ary subjects. However, it was not until 1875 that modern languages were recognized as subjects for col- lege entrance. Since that date, much has been done toward making them a useful part of the curriculum. Greek and Latin, the old stand- bys since 1640, have been put in the background. Greek is a’most entirely neglected by high schools, and Latin is studied because of col- lege entrance requirements or as a foundation for the so-called “modern languages.” Of these mod- em languages French is the most frequently taught, but German, Ital- ian, and Spanish are also somewhat popular. Instructional methods have been almost revolutionized in recent years. Instead of having all trans- lation or all grammar, oral work is interspersed with the e in such a way as to give irterest and prac- tice in both the spoken and written tengue. As much as possible, stu- dents are taught the correct pro- nunciations of words and sentences. This is accomplished bv correctly trained teachers and the use of phonetics, an alphabet of sounds.

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12 The Lawrencian The use of phonetics is just one of the many changes since 1875. Textbooks have changed from fine- print, pictureless grammars to easy- to-read, attractive books, whose bright covers and picture-sprinkled contents combine the business of grammar with the color and charm of stories of foreign lands. If one should ask: “What are language courses worth? What do they contribute to the high-school student’s education?”, we should reply: “Besides giving instruction in the bare essentials of the language, modern language courses tend to include something of a cultural na- ture. They give a glimpse of the art, literature, and music of other countries. They show our neighbors to be people like us, who are only separated frcm us by the barrier of speech. When this barrier is broken, the contributions of these other languages are realized.” All these things lead toward the supreme goal cf the educational in- stitutions of America, as hoped for by Horace Mann, the father of the public school system, “enlightened citizenship — that this nation may not perish from the earth.” Robert Brown, ’37, HONOR ESSAY HISTORY Introduction The subject of history is the old- est of all the social sciences. The story of its origin, development, and expansion can be traced from the earliest stages of life to the century of today. As civilization has ad- vanced, so has the subject of his- tory gained in importance and re- cognition. To give the complete story of the subject would be to narrate the rise and advance of mankind throughout the ages. From this prolific background we will, to- night, extract only that which is vital to our interests. Accordingly we begin our story with the situation in America dur- ing the last part of the 18th cen- tury. We shall briefly notice, dur- ing the next two and a half cen- turies, the place of history in the school curriculum before the year 1837, the changes instituted by Horace Mann, the present status of history in the schools, and today’s new and different conceptions re- garding the subject, as compared to those of yesterday. History Before Horace Mann During the period of the Con- federation, when the United States was still unorganized and the spirit of independence and individualism high, history was almost entirely lacking in the public and private schools. The few that did offer courses in the subject were pre- paratory schools that prepared stu- den ts for the law and ministry. The types of history taught in these schools were, naturally, those per- taining to the classics, usually An- cient history, Roman history, anti- quities, mythology, and chronology. There was no American history, and even the British history during the Colonial Period was absent. There were, however, a few public lead- ers who, before the close of this period in America, recognized the importance of the subject. Ben- jamin Franklin, most prominent of these, submitted to the public a plan for a scheme of education based on historical study. He urged and recommended the schools to teach American history, but only slight attention was paid him and the subject made little headway.