Onteora High School - Tomahawk Yearbook (Boiceville, NY)

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The industrial arts teacher speaks for all special instructors when he says that we are all striving for a broad, general education. We live in a technical, industrial society, therefore industrial arts gives us a better understanding of our life today. The student works with the materials, tools and machinery of industry; there is the actual manu- facture of these products by the students themselves. They are helped to look at in- dustry from the standpoint of products, processes, occupations, and they study the mean- ing and development of industry with its implication on the way we live. The physical education program has a day to day routine which gives each child an opportunity to grow better physically, to develop coordination, better posture and balance, to learn how to get the maximum out of group play. The students acquire poise and ease, and social grace through the square and round dancing lessons. The health and attendance department, headed by Mrs. Hazel Osborne, is in a unique position to be helpful to the parents of the three towns. Mrs. Osborne has known the children for a number of years in the little one room school houses and they come to her as to an old friend if a sore throat or a headache overcomes them. Three doctors and a dental hygienist work with the nurse to bring children's health needs to the parents of the district, and consultations are available and encouraged. The privacy of a cot in a booth is there for the indisposed. The small gym for correctional exercises is a boon. Intramural and interscholastic sports are opening new worlds to the boys and girls of Onteora, many of whom have had little previous contact either as participants or spectators. Wide eyed and fascinated the pupils watch the 700 seats appear and dis- appear, the dividing wall fold away. Even more exciting are the cheerleaders in their brilliant Indian costumes. The music and art departments reach practically every child. All the faculty agree that a child learning to express himself through art or music finds greater freedom in all other facets of living. There is music appreciation. From the tiniest tot who colors Santa's eyes a deep purple to the serious upper classman who intends to use art as a career, the art program weaves its way through the entire program. Once the pupil has completed his elementary classes and is ready for departmental education, his interests more definitive, the central school with its space and facilities shows its real worth. From the first grade through the junior class, every student has personal contact with the guidance department for achievement, aptitude and interest tests. With the results of these before him, the guidance director plans an individual program for each student. If tests show a special aptitude in a particular field of learn ing, the student, after consultation with the parent, is permitted to advance at his own pace, thus enabling him to undertake a broadened and enriched program. Senior year, proving ground as well as the threshold to the future for the graduating class, includes career conferences where prominent local business and professional men and women come in to discuss the employment and career possibilities with the students. Work experiences are arranged for many in and out of the school. The guid- ance director makes the pupils aware of the opportunities for higher education, the state junior colleges, the various college scholarships which often go unused for want of takers. Centralization encourages the youth of rural areas to seek additional higher education along with his city brother. It also guides the mechanically apt and the agriculturally minded into their proper channels. Mr. Traphagen plans a survey of the

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accepts as its duty and obligation the tremendous task of developing and maintaining an educational program which will, in a true sense, effect a community school. The three R's, core of the curriculum in the one room school house, still holds its respected place but there is so much more at Onteora Central. In the kindergarten the five year olds come out of their rugged individualism to discover that there is order and pleasure in being together in a group. As one little five year old announced to her boisterous three year old brother at the dinner table at home, One person speaks at a time. Even the nap is not half bad when taken with some twenty others. In the first grade, that crucial period which really sets the child's attitude toward the next twelve years in school, there is a practical yet tender philosophy; the child is taught to enjoy learning. Happy children learn easily, says the first grade teacher. To this she adds that the child must be given an opportunity to be successful in some under- taking. He needs a success experience. Around the curriculum designated by the state for each class, the faculty introduces projects which will help the pupil enjoy studying and increase his intellectual curiosity. In 8th grade social studies the students concern themselves with the immediate present as well as the historical past. The class writes letters to Kings and Queens, Dictators and Presidents and gets answers. The teacher keeps his pupils aware of their own place in the sun and they work on personal scrap books to tell their life story to a possible future employer. General science includes biology, geology, physics and chemistry. Its staff hopes to graduate better citizens. A few will major in special branches of science, but mort will be consumers in many fields. They will have learned to question and think for them- selves, not to be taken in by scientific misinformation. The various departments cooperate with each other. General science group studying volcanoes builds a volcano. General math and general science work together on practi- cal problems. An Indian village is built in art class. The shops combine with mathematics and science at every opportunity and also with the English Department for writing up projects. These are only a few examples of the interplay of departments to enrich the pro- gram. There is a visual aid program manned by students who bring film and projector to the aid of the classroom and operate the equipment themselves. Recently, with a student operator, the film, OUR TOWN, was shown to 175 English students. The boys and girls are encouraged to find freedom of expression, and to be resourceful in thinking up subjects for speech making on the charming small stage in the English class- room. These talks teach poise, diction, self-confidence. They are also an exchange of ideas. Recently a fifteen year old student held the class silent and enthralled as she made a simple plea to teenagers to go to services in their various churches. The student is encouraged to express himself through writing; by means of dramatics he is helped to self-criticism with the use of the tape recorder, so that he himself can hear his own speech faults and strive to correct them. Three languages are available—French, Latin, Spanish, with German to be added later. Since the United States is part of the all world United Nations and our youth is likely to find itself in such wide areas outside our borders, the interest in the tongues of other nations grows. The cultural advantages of knowing another language are em- phasized.

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work opportunities in this area; he keeps contact with personnel offices of industry and employment offices. He makes the students aware of the wide apprentice training op- portunities set up by the state in the fields and trades of horticulture, machines, build- ing, practical nursing, dental hygiene, beauty culture, laboratory research. Mr. Trap- hagen believes that a large percentage of the student population could go on to colleges and technical institutes if they wanted; even where finance is a problem it could be worked out. The agriculture department has organized a branch of the National Future Farmers of America subsidized by Congress. This is a live organization with conferences and contests. The agriculture department concerns itself with reforestation. It encourages students in their home pursuits. One student has a chicken raising project under way. The teacher calls there to give advice; another student who may be interested in cattle exchanges a visit and opinions with a chicken raiser. The department is planning a small truck garden at the school and also a clearance project, both for the spring. Typing, bookkeeping, shorthand, business law are available in the business school department. The teacher encourages every student to take typing for personal use. He thinks that it might be wise to have a fifth year in business education, where graduated students could come back for a year of intensive study. Even graduates of the academic course could enroll. There are two growing libraries with some 2,000 catalogued books and encyclopedias to date. This is supplemented by large libraries from the state. The librarian, working with student aids, encourages a return to the pre-television interest in reading. She sees the school library as a place where reading habits and experience in the proper use of a library can carry over into the rest of life. The librarian uses student help throughout her program. Centralization has laid a cornerstone for a new era for the children and youth of the locale. They find themselves in larger groups with a greater challenge. Through the guidance department, any who are meeting this challenge inadequately are helped in every way to adjust, through tests of their aptitudes, through conferences with parents, pupils and teachers. Already the so-called slow or fast learner is finding his proper level. Parents are invited and encouraged to a very close contact with the school faculty. Already a young but vitally interested and strong PTA is working in cooperation with the school to help it achieve its aims. Since parents have close contact it is natural that the Adult Education Program should have had a big response, some 500 people registering for courses. Viewing the beautiful auditorium and the spacious gymnasium, their possibilities for neighborly living become apparent and one understands why the Onteora Central School is fast becoming known as the Community School. Behind the scenes of the buzzing classroom the administration keeps things running smoothly. Office routines, boiler stoking, transportation, faculty schedules, the cafeteria, the health of the children—their safety, their attendance ... all are part of the vast network of administration details which concern the Principal and his assistants. What impresses an outsider, meeting with the faculty, is its knowledge of the pupil, its eagerness to help him as an individual as well as to help him find his place in the group, also the faculty's cooperative attitude toward projects of his colleagues.