Lawrence High School - Lawrencian Yearbook (Falmouth, MA)

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14 The Lawrencian pre decessor by one hundred years, that the study of history not only makes a more liberal, intellectual citizen, but in addition, it provides him with a means of interpreting and understanding life and its many social problems. History educates, trains, and socializes our citizens and in so doing provides for a bet- ter government and a higher, finer civilization. Donald E. Hurford COMMERCIAL EDUCATION Horace Mann’s educational re- forms took place in the first half of the nineteenth century. The tre- mendous advances which have taken place in the business and industrial worlds had barely started, but even then he realized the need for com- mercial courses in high schools. He once asked, “Can any satisfactory ground be assigned why algebra, a branch which one man in a thou- sand ever has occasion to use in the business of life, should be studied by more than 2,300 pupils, and book- keeping, which every man, even the day laborer, should understand, should be attended to by only a little more than half that number?” If he were here today, he would be pleased to see all the modern busi- ness courses in high schools, many more than just book-keeping. Much progress has been made in the field of communication, for ex- ample, since the pony-express days and since the days of Horace Mann. Then it took weeks to get news from one part of the country to the other. Now, by means of newspapers, we read glowing accounts of events scoi after they happen. Of course, there were many inventions, developments and improvements made between the pony-express days and the pres- ent time. The invention and the de- velopment of the typewriter was an important step forward in this pro- gress. The typewriter enables one to write much more rapi dly and accurately, and it insures uniform legibility. Shorthand has been great- ly improved and now is a great aid to the typist. The two go hand-in- hand for speed and accuracy in business. Then there is the printing press, which has developed from the hand- press to the present day Miehle two- revolution press. Instead of the weekly edition of a small newspaper, we now have several editions of many newspapers daily. In order to do this we must have, besides the improved machines, trained men and women to do the work required. There are those who must get the news, copywriters, and many others on the newspaper staff who do the kind of work that re- quires a business education. Besides news, advertisements form a large portion of newspapers. Persons with a good business education are re- quired to write advertising material and, since every business and in- dustry has a certain amount of ad- vertising, this business offers untoll opportunities for the commercially trained men and women. So all these modem inventions and developments have opened vast opportunities for trained book- keepers, stenograohers, and secre- taries. Realizing this fact, the high schools of today have installed ex- tensive business courses to train stu- dents to fill these positions. Students themselves realize the demand for trained young me and women in the business world today and conse- quently more of them are now tak- ing up the commercial course than ever before. This realization goes back and can be directly connected