Magnificat High School - Magnifier Yearbook (Rocky River, OH)

Page 80 text:

A 0 4 f U 4 With the Carnegie Report, A Nation at Risk, and countless other evalua¬ tions of secondary education in this country, the adequacy of American high schools has come into serious question. Students nationwide were struck with fear when threats came of longer school days and a longer school year. But Mags girls had nothing to fear. Magnificat was more than ade¬ quate. Every student in the school had the opportunity for independent learning with the facilities of four labs above and beyond the proverbial biology, chemistry, and physics labs. An ever increasing supply of computers met an ever increasing demand, as the com¬ puter lab was constantly improved. And in the language and writing labs, teachers and tutors helped students ei¬ ther catch up or get ahead. At one point the tutors helped a teacher get ahead. When Sr. Mary Jo was gone for a week, four seniors who excelled in their own studies took on the job of teacher. Working in pairs, they taught two freshman algebra classes how to FOIL. It was an ar¬ rangement both the seniors and the freshmen enjoyed, and it was also the first time a substitute with a degree sat in the back while two upperclass¬ men ran the class. Some sophomores, though, were less enthusiastic about the new health re¬ quirement. Because of new state legis¬ lation, all sophomores had to take one semester of health. That meant re¬ vamping the existing health PE 76 ACADEMICS DIVISION

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With the announce¬ ment that she has been named MVP, Martha Cutar- eHi ’84 accepts the award from Miss Powell. Martha was the team’s co-captain. Photo by A. Sheridan. Coaches often have to double as managers, as does Miss Powell as she picks up third base after a home game. MHS played home games at Linden Field. Photo by A. Sheri¬ dan. For art accurate forecast. Ask the coach Most weather forecast¬ ers use charts, graphs, and radar. Many people afflicted with arthritis claim they can predict a change in the elements by the aches in their joints. Apparently Miss Polzer, the softball coach, has developed a new method: just check the softball schedule. It seems that during the 1984 softball season, whenever a varsity game was scheduled, the Cleveland area was hit with cold, rain, or wind. Any one of those three could be hazardous to a softball season. Unfortunately, all three could be counted on dur¬ ing the spring. The team was rained out of several non-league games and was forced to postpone four conference games until later in the season. In addition to the rain, the team was faced with games in forty-degree weather. While coaches Miss Polzer and Miss Powell and a few brave fans were decked out in long underwear and mittens, the players suf¬ fered in just their uni¬ forms. Perhaps the most bizarre weather affecting the season was the wind. At the first home game against East Tech, the wind was so strong that it caused numerous halts in the action due to poor visibility. Another plague was rusty playing skills. After starting the season with a big win over Lincoln West, the players seemed to remember that they hadn’t played for nine months. The hits failed to come, the errors appeared, and the losses piled up. Of course there were reprieves. The hits fell into place and the defense was solid in a few important games lat¬ er in the season. Accord¬ ing to Kathy Heppler ’85, “Our biggest problem was inconsistency. Somebody would get a great hit, and maybe we would score some runs. Then the next inning we wouldn’t be able to get the ball out of infield. The same thing would happen in the field. An outfielder would make a terrific play, and on the next hit an infielder would blow an easy grounder.” When a team is losing, it becomes easy to stop caring. That particular plague never afflicted the Blue Streaks, though. Even when they were losing by more than a few runs, they hustled down the base line. They cheered for each other from the bench and in the field. The weather and poor record, could have made the season dismal, but the players didn’t allow that.® — Molly McCloskey SOFTBALL 75

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Judges scrutinize the performances of Sue Liggett ’86, Mary Beth Heller ’86, Lynn Mikel ’86, and Donna Zelesnik ’86 in the DFLA Contest. Magnificat won the competition. Photo by A. Sheridan. Concentration fixed on his picture rather than Marriage class, five-year-old Chris Moran draws a tunnel. Some parents brought children un¬ der six into Marriage classes to discuss Erikson’s stages of growth. Photo by A. Sheridan. ACADEMICS DIVISION 77 program, which offered CPR as an elective to juniors. The junior class, meanwhile, boasted four sections of Honors Brit Lit. Many | thought it to be a little too much, since up to three years ago, two sections of an honors course was considered a lot. But the high enrollment for that course was indicative of the upward swing in honors classes. Four new honors courses were introduced this year. Two of them were AP classes, which had never been offered at MHS be¬ fore. Those classes prepared Mags girls for the AP test, just as Genesis pre¬ pared them for work, Marriage pre¬ pared them for a family, and the curriculum as a whole prepared them for the world. lil