Oakfield High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Oakfield, WI)

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Ult?r (Dakfidt) £ riuml The fact that Oakfield maintains a high school reveals a condition that reflects credit upon our citizens. Few towns of our size in this progressive state can boast that they have sufficient interest in education, or pride in their community to support a free high school. Our citizens, realizing the advantages to be gained from a high school located in their midst, have shown themselves ready to contribute freely to the cause of education. It is well worth considering for a moment what the school otters to its pupils that will prove of value to them. At the start it might be well to state that our small school gives to its students practically the same advantages offered by any high school in the state, even though that school be located in a large city. In fact, in at least one very important particular, the small school has the advantage over the larger institution, in that it is able to attend much more fully to the needs of the individual student. Anyone who has investigated the matter knows that the classes in a city school are much larger than in the small school. Thus it can be readily seen that the teacher instructing small classes devotes a larger share of his or her time to the individual needs of each student and can show a personal interest in his welfare, which fact is an undisputed gain for the pupil. If we turn to other lines of activity in a high school, such as debating, oratory and athletics, we find that the same fact holds true. Each pupil has the opportunity to enter these fields of work, nor does he meet with such strong competition as to discourage him in his first attempts, as is so often the case in the city school. As careful instruction is the chief requisite in education it is evident that in this respect the small school can hold its own with the city school. Let us examine the course of study briefly with the purpose of discovering what the student gains that will be of value to him in his life work. Several lines of study are offered to all our students. Among the most important are English, history, mathematics, science and the commercial branches. Upon consideration we find that each one of these branches is useful in developing certain faculties in the student which will always be a benefit to him. English is required in each of the four years in order that the pupil may learn not only to write and speak this mother tongue

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THE “OAK Seventh Annual Edition. Editorial Staff. Editor-in-Chief..................Miss Della Parduhn Business Manager...............................Llovd Filbev Society Editor......................Robert McClain Junior Associate Editor..........Miss Leone Lurvey Art Editor....................................Herman Sonn Sophomore Associate Editor... .Carleton Henningsen Athletic Editor........................llalbert Ball Exchange Editor...............................Harold Burns Freshman Associate Editor........Miss Hattie Meyers Faculty Member......................W. L. Patterson

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correctly, but that he may gain a knowledge of the world’s best literature and an appreciation of the finest writings of all times. This appreciation of the best literature is an indication of culture and a source of enjoyment to the individual; moreover it places high ideals before the growing mind and assists in the molding of character. If you ask what value mathematics has in a high school, we answer that it teaches the student to think quickly, to be accurate, and to reason clearly, lie must have clear ideas in his arithmetic or geometry class to work out the solution of the difficult demonstration. If he is not accurate it will be impossible to work the problems that he is required to do in the study of any mathematical subject. In this way he also learns the lessons of application to work which is one of the most necessary traits of a successful man. Science is useful to the student because it is the key to the world about him. A great part of the knowledge which will be most beneficial to him in life comes from the study of nature. Of most importance to him is the study of physiology because to be healthy il is necessary that he know all about his body and how to take care of it. hen we think how little most people know about these very matters which are of vital concern to them we can understand the value of this branch of science. In botany and agriculture the pupil learns about all forms of vegetation and their uses to man. In physical geography he learns likewise of the earth and innumerable useful facts regarding its form, composition and structure. For instance soil is studied and its relation to vegetation. In physics the student studies the laws and forces which direct natural phenomena. Tie learns to interpret the varying conditions of the world about him as clouds, rain, sound. Indeed, science is fast developing into the most useful of all the courses offered in a high school. For the purpose of broadening the mind no subject is more beneficial than history. To train the judgment and free the mind from the little prejudices of life give the boy a knowledge of past events. If a man is to be rated as educated he must be familiar with the trend of the world’s history, and if he wishes to be considered a good citizen, able to vote intelligently, he must be acquainted with the conditions in his state and nation and the circumstances which brought about these conditions. He must know enough to help by his vote to remedy the evils which threaten us as a nation. Civics is the subject that gives this knowledge, to the high school student. rfhe commercial branches, bookkeeping, commercial law, arith-