Lincoln High School - Flambeau Yearbook (Manitowoc, WI)

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Superinfemlmt Il. S. Bonar

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5 ! ! 4 X I, I A r 1 w yi E 5 X Q D. 2 E E si 2 H

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P T:-.'a'.f'i7,grf Y-fs-H COURSES OF STUDY Mental tests of various kinds, standardized and made accessible in all lines of human endeavor, have opened new fields for study. Mainly after the World War, and to some extent just before it, schools from the kindergarten and up had been trying to measure mental caliber and mental achievement. The maxim A Sound Mind in a Sound Body , can now be almost literally exposed. Because we feel that we can learn to know more about children of school age, we are emphasizing leadership of the right sort. Some call it guidance. We now have objective means by which to exalt fitness. That alone changes the complexion of our courses of study, placing emphasis where formerly it may have been lacking, and deferring or withdrawing it alto- gether along other lines. To be sure, colleges and universities, while they recognize the intrinsic value of this new aspect in education, still adhere, and perhaps rightly so, to certain well-defined fundamentals. For example, a candidate must offer some definite things for college entrance. ln some places a break has been made by introducing a junior Collegeg yet the articulation from the elementary to the high school level has been made more gradual and much more definite than anywhere else in school life. In the light of these facts, l shall try to define in general work as now offered in the so-called junior and Senior high schools. From our study of pupils through appropriate tests, we find it advantageous to the pupil to inject some science and foreign language work below the level of the high school program. Up to about fifteen years ago, we saw fit to offer some work in the man- ual arts, commercial work, music, and drawing below the ninth grade level, but today it is not uncommon to see our seventh and eighth grade pupils studying French, Latin, Social Science and Elementary Science. Neither is it considered unwise for schools to offer and to encourage tryout courses. This latter is justified from the mass of evidence gleaned from the unfits in life. Why should we impose types of training upon those of our young people who, naturally disin- clined and often even partially unfit, could not make of life what they might make of it if they but knew more about promises in fields for which they are mentally and physically constituted? When you step into a Present-day School building while it is in regular session, you are apt to hear a brass band performing, see boys and girls exercising for physical gain, see the com- mercial department operating various types of mechanical devices in order to produce written work, hear a demonstration in speech. To all this, we must add those exercises carried on in universally accepted regular subjects which time and a changing world can only hope to modify but slightly. ' Not so long ago, led by Harvard University, schools operating on higher levels, began to offer elective work. This is possible because courses have multiplied to meet individual trends as well as the demands of industry. I-low different is the lay-out for the present school generation from that through which our parents were pushed! lsn't it safe to infer that the change in view-point, coupled with added experiences, will bring about many radical changes in our schools even during our own life time? -C. C. Stangel,