Oceanside High School - Spindrift Yearbook (Oceanside, NY)

Page 33 text:

The home economics class sews « fine sea . MACHINE OPERATORS In our Plant we learn to use machines, tools, equipment of various lands, to make things that we can use immediately. We learn the basic principles that underlie the planning and construction of things that we are not now capable of making. Mechanical drawing is basic in many things. The boys do much in the shop. They may be preparing directly for a vocation, or only for a valuable sideline. For instance, someone interested in becoming an electrician would have to be able to do such things as test an electric circuit, or wire a home, but even for those who have no desire to be electricians, such knowledge could be put to use in their own homes. Shop work gives practical experience in handling woodworking and metal working tools—training for anything from a carpenter to a watchmaker. For girls, the Homemaking Department corresponds to the shop, in giving training which can be put into practice as soon as a girl leaves high school. In home management students study homes and family problems, and in interior decoration class they learn the basic principles of furnishing a home, something about period furniture The girls get their actual practice in elementary clothing class, making clothes to wear themselves, and giving aid to the Bed Cross by making articles for hospitalized veterans. In short, such subjects as shop, homemaking, art or mechanical drawing provide not only book learning, but some of the practice necessary before men and women can become expert workers. Mechanical drawing c laaa at ita peak. Future cabinet builder in wood shop. Working with Metal in the foundry. 21

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Be p I class experimenting with prespectiwe. SKILLED ARTISANS Our Plant is concerned, too, with those attributes of the spirit which lend grace and beauty to life. It is concerned with our creative impulses, and consequently with those arts through which we coimrunicate our truest insights , our deepest experiences, our better selves. Each one of us has within himself a feeling for beauty that may be expressed in any one of many ways. In our Art Department, talented young men and women create drawings in pen, pencil, and charcoal. Others paint, in water and in oils, thus depicting their dreams and ideals through the medium of artistic expression. Creative impulses are nurtured in interior decorating classes, where pupiIs study furniture styles and room setting, and then model their own original ideas. Our emotions find another outlet through the Music Department. Our musicians find that there is music to fit their every mood. They get a lot of enjoyment from playing or singing the music of classical composers, and naturally they all enjoy a popular number here and there. This group includes the orchestra, the band, and the glee club. The Masque Society presents excellent young troupers in its varied productions. Would-be authors and poets are encouraged in the English and speech classes and in the school publications. Seeing their work in nationally circulated publications enthuses the students, moving them to continue in their literary exploits. Thus our Plant does not feel that its job is complete when it has satisfied only the mechanics of education. It seeks to fan into flame the sparks of creativeness found in students when they began their high school careers.

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CLERICAL DEPARTMENT We have come to believe that many things belong to the American way of life--soap, radios, lipstick, magazines, and so on. The various stages of production and distribution of these involve another phase of our American way of life--exchange of dollars and cents, or business. The vast army behind desks poring over columns of figures, estimating costs, making up payrolls, those sitting behind typewriters, standing by filing cabinets, using machines Resigned to facilitate work done in offices, those engaged in selling and distribution, all have a part in this activity of preparing things for consumption. Teaching workers to do these jobs well, and in co-operation with others is the goal of the Plant. Thus our purpose in education for business becomes more than ‘making a living, for through this view, we find ourselves ‘making a life. In order tomeet the business needs of today we offer training inthe management of business, the distribution of the products, and the consequent secretarial work necessary for carrying on the other two. Because of the vait, complete nature of our present day business world, a vast amount of attention must be paid to the keeping of records, the communicating of information by mail, the filing of material for future reference;generally speaking,these activities come under the heading of secretarial and stenographic. Our courses designed tomeet this particular call for workers are: shorthand, typewriting and secretarial practice. Our trainees may go immediately into offices in banks, law firms, manufacturing companies and publishing houses. A very large percentage of the secretarial practice classes is employed within a few weeks after graduation.