Nokomis High School - Old Nokomis Yearbook (Nokomis, IL)

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Our School—Our Country—Our Future If this book were to do nothing else but show the relationship of our school to our country and our future, its publication would be more than justified. We write this article to show you how the things which we see, do, and learn here prepare us for life during this war and in its aftermath. Follow us as we take up our various departments, and see how each helps to make every pupil an asset to himself and to his community, during war and during peace. MATHEMATICS Mathematics is rightly called the queen of the sciences since she is the basis of every science in our modern world. There is not a blueprint drawn; a bomber built or flown; a lump of steel formulated, cast, and machined into a gun; or perhaps a new auto designed and built without the assistance of mathematics in every stage of manufacture. Neither can a house, a railroad, or a skycraper be built without her aid. Mathematical ability is one of the things the army and navy look for in their man; with it, he is immensely more valuable to his country, and is the one likely to be singled out for promotion. Their chief math” requirements are that he should be capable of performing the fundamental operations, and be at ease with fractions and percentage. He must be able to do these quickly, rapidly, and accurately. Mental arithmetic is also extremely valuable, because of the lack of time and of facilities in battle. But, will our mathematics be useful when this war is over? Surely, it will play a vital role in the reconstruction of the shattered world. All industries use mathematics. There will be a place for every mathematician. COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS Every unit in the armed forces needs workers who are competent in doing the paper work, workers who are proficient at keeping records and books; at typing the orders and letters and mem- orandums. Workers of this type are also needed in civilian life where thousands are employed in our many industrial plants and business houses. If all of its typists, stenographers, and bookkeepers were taken away, wouldn’t any big business fold up? Wouldn’t our country fold up? PHYSICAL TRAINING Our physical education classes and athletics arc aimed to make us strong and healthy, and to give us a means of exercise and pleasure. There is nothing like a good, fast game to set one’s blood a-running, especially if he is one of the contestants. There would be no soldiers or sailors, nor laborers of any kind, if we were a nation of puny weaklings. It’s patriotic to be healthy. Ten

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Faculty MISS D. J. MYERSCOUGH Illinois State Normal University, B. Ed. Home Economics, Physical Education MR. L. ARCHIE MONTGOMERY University of Illinois, B. S. Agriculture MISS FRANCES PIRCHER University of Chicago, M. A. History Miss Mycrscough Mr. Montgomery Miss Pircher Mr. Myers Miss Yacklc Mr. Rademachcr MR. L. P. MYERS Central Wesleyan College, A. B. Physics, Mathematics MISS STELLA YACKLE University of Illinois, M. S. English 1, II, Library MR. E. E. RADF.MACHER Central Wesleyan College, A. B. C jemistry, General Science, German MR. GROVER KESSLER Custodian Nine

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ENGLISH—SOCIAL SCIENCE—LANGUAGES It is said that a person is judged by his speech. Without a doubt, one who can express his ideas clearly and forcibly will make a place for himself in his dealings with others. A typist who can’t spell, or a stenographer who lacks knowledge of sentence structure, is not very valuable in the armed forces or anywhere else. A marine, a soldier, or a blue-jacket who fails to understand oral or written orders is a liability rather than an asset. When a person leaves a school, he should be able to expound his ideas clearly and logically, and know how to do so with good grammar and punctuation. In his leisure hours, he can take down a book that will take him to any place on earth, or even to the moon. He knows and enjoys the old writ- ers and the new ones. In our library he has been introduced to writings of all periods, on all subjects, and has learned to relax with a good magazine. But why study history? That’s old stuff.” That’s what some of you think. Every thing that happens is history. The more important events are the ones that your children will study, and wonder why they arc studying them. But why study the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, Andrew Jackson, World War I, and all that? Simply because of the effects that those facts have upon our lives today. No one can be a good citizen who does not know about the formation and development of our nation, the growth and mechanics of our Democracy. You don’t really know your own language until you study that of some other nation” is one of the first things a German student is told. This fact and the fact that it is interesting to know how people act, think, and talk in a foreign country make the study of the German language very helpful and valuable to us. Latin is the other foreign language we may learn here, but it is not really foreign. In fact, its chief value is that 50 per cent of our English words come directly from it. SCIENCE Our science courses consist of chemistry, biology, physics, and general science. These four sciences cover a world of territory. Eleven