Memorial High School - Reata Yearbook (Houston, TX)

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xx sz' N-an L-L. .1- THE LAST FEW STlTCHES are performed by faculty member Mrs. Eva Jean Mears in her spare time away from the Sopho- more Otfice, Photo by Andy Mears. ICY TEMPERATURES brought a light snow that was scattered about the courtyard. Photo by Scott Waughtal. HERMAN HOSPITAL provided Houston with a world famous research center, medical school and treatment area. lt also provided the Medical Explorers Club with actual observations and experiences. Photo by Tom Freireich. A lot to live up to- ! Qoltliteih LVTIHQS he best of life was offered to us when we entered the halls of Memorial High School. An academic program was created to prepare us for college,jobs, and careers. Memorial's main goal was to expect the most from her students. It set up programs equivalent to college courses. A class for seniors was organized which was a combination of English and Govern- ment called CLEP. There were three categories of courses included in the curriculum to expand the students educa- tion: hard working classes, experimental classes and fun classes. The faculty felt it was their responsibility to give the students the best so they could outshine others and succeed in their goals. Most worked the stu- dents hard and made an A something to be proud of. Lots of nights were spent studying and many a weekend ended with homework. Academics was important because Memorial was in the process of molding students who had a lot to live up to. TRYING TO GROSS OUT THE CLASS during a dissection in biology, Junior Chip Brackett holds up a formaldehyded frog. Photo by Scott Waughtal. Academic - A lot lo live up to 133

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AT THE BELLAIRE DEBATE TOURNAMENT Brad Glos serman presents evidence in support of his arguments on Health Care. Glosser man advanced to the Octo finals at the event assisted by his partner Jerry Simon. Photo by Bill Montgomery. OVER 200 CONTESTANTS at the Memorial Tourna- ment busily prepared for Extempor ' . Speaking :Each con had to -choose a ffai-r-s-a only 30 rr to prepare for the s Photo by Bill Montg By Bobby Lapin ne of America's most exciting wartime stories, Battle CQ, by Leon Uris, tells in intimate detail of the making of a U.S. Marine. ln the story. a hoard of confused, bewil- dered men are thrust into a situation which calls for only a very short amount of time in which to mold these tyros into a working unit, fit to challenge and vanquish all those who dared to challenge. Such agony is also required for the making of a debate team. The long ordeal will begin sur- rounded in confusion, awkwardness, and most of all despair, and those who will survive will come out in the long run with a richness in under- standing, know edge, logic, and friendness, and quite possibly a loss of richness in the wallet. The journey begins in the infant stage. the novice class of Debate I. On the board are welcomes from the senior debaters foreboding future hazing of the novices. There are some familiar faces, some new ones, and each new- comer has the feeling that a very long journey is to begin here. The novice is informed that the entire country is debating the same topic area this year, and he thinks to himself of how boring it must be to dis- cuss the same topic week after week. He is told that he must begin work immediately on the topic, for he too will be called upon to serve the squad in his first tournament in just a few short weeks. Little does the confused novice realize how very important his next decision is to be, for the recruit must now settle upon who is to be his partner for the year: someone he will work. eat,- live. and even possibly sleep with, depending of ' course on the size of the hotel rooms in the out- of-town tournament areas. With little or noi knowledge whatsoever about his fellow novices,. the novice settles on the kid with a kind faced and semi-intelligent look, and a personality that l 34 Special Report, Memorial's debaters The making of ap debate team, seems to be 0.K. Thus. the tyro has a partner, a general idea of the area of interest, and now he must get down to work. V With the help of some ordered college debate handbooks and the patience of some of the nicer older debaters, the team settles down to write and research the all important affirmative case. They are told that they must isolate one aspect of the general topic area and build around it an eight to ten minute speech stating why this particular area of the topic is vulnerable to harm, why they as a team can solve that harm. and they must then present a plan for the elimination of the harm. They are told that countless, inexhaustible mounds of evidence exist in several nearby libraries, or for the lazy novice with a big wallet. he can buy evidence in handbook form that has already been researched for him by several college-age debaters. ' Hours of research and work. coupled with the agony of trying to find that last: crucial card eventually yield a three or four page document that is to lead the team into at least half of their debate rounds with some stretch of confidence. Alas! The ,work has been completed . . . or so think the self-confident pair. What now lies before the exhausted duo is another round of research. only this time to combat all of the other affirmative cases that they will encounter in the upcoming tournaments. Again, the novices must reach into their pockets for some cash to cover the expenses of additional cards. file drawers. and notebooks. . Finally, the early Autumn weeks having passed. the team can now settle back and marvel at the results of their research. For the team that has worked diligently, there could be anywhere from two to ten file drawers full to the brim with well documented evidence. For the team that occa- Si0I12lly fvund nevuieposits ot.ene1py4vQldd.em!.anicely nolished debate drawer with some cards and a coup e of handbooks. The lazy team will be able to display for their interest only a drawer with nothing inside and a recipe box, probably filled only with recipes. - Evidence aside, the noviis must now concentrate on theory. Emanat- ing from the many, varied theories of the senior debaters come a few con- sistencies. The words inherency, solvency, and causl-link take on new meaningcalong with a few of the squad's favorite expressions suchlas shaft, spi e, turnaround. ' From here on in, the team will become an integral part of the debate team of Memorial, and will share in the fun times of the out of town tour- naments and the not so fun shakedowns by the hierarchy of the squad. They will be sneered at by some of the school, praised at in selected moments by Sigma Gamma, and they will always marvel at the experi- ences they encountered in their evolution from a novice team composed of two scared and confused boys to a composed. confident pair of young men. The making of a debate team is no sculptor's dream. but it is surely every dedicated worker's delight. - 30 - Debate TQMMES