Pontiac Senior High School - Quiver Yearbook (Pontiac, MI)

Page 12 text:

The 1941 Quiver Probably the two least complete¬ ly known phases of life and activity in Pontiac Senior High School are the faculty and departments. Some pupils know only the classes in which they are, or have been, en¬ rolled and very few teachers out¬ side of these classes. “Who ' s that teacher over there?” “Vve seen that teacher around; who is he?” “That teacher looks like a peach; I’d like to know who she is.” “What teachers teach math¬ ematics?” These are only a few fragments of conversations heard in the halls, but it is sufficient to illustrate that our teachers should be better known. The faculty helps Typical of an English class is this class under the direction of Miss Rubert. Row 1— Delores Henderson, Rosalind Wainberg, Stella Backalukas. Row 2 — J. B. Huntley, Bill Hodges. Row 3 — Jessie Yalasquez, Betty Lee Seaman. Planned for Education by Helen Harger and Thelma Rice I think English is one of the most important subjects taught in high school so I’ll begin by telling you about this department. There are two important divisions in the English de¬ partment; namely, the academic and non-academic courses. The non-academic classes distinguished by the “A”, such as English VIII-A, are a detour from the classical English and are taught especially for the students who are not planning to go to college. Practical English for everyday use is taught, and the students read modern novels instead of the English and American poetry taught to the academic classes. The English IV-A classes read modern books to promote their reading habits. The English VI-A course is built around the American spirit theme, and pupils read books about great Americans, so you can see that the theme of Americanism is presented by our school to teach the pupils that our country is the very best. The pioneer spirit is the theme of English VII-A classes. Books are read by the English VIII-A students to give them a philosophv of life. These books are “The Good Com¬ panion” by Priestley, “How to Develop Personal Power” by Carlson, “How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day” by Bennett, and “The Turmoil” by Tarkington. The academic English course emphasizes grammar, composition, and the classics. Students learn how to con¬ struct simple, complex, and compound sentences, how to use the right tenses in their sentences and many other im¬ portant tilings about grammar. Starting with sentence structure, the pupils then learn to write paragraphs; and finally they can very easily write themes in the correct style. English VIII is a very special course taught for the first time three years ago. It deals with preliminary college rhetoric, and essays are read and studied. The students of this class write several themes during the semester and one long thesis at the end of the term. Classics are the books read by the academic English students. “Silas Marner” by George Eliot, and Shakes¬ peare’s plays, “Julius Caesar,” “Macbeth,” and “Hamlet,” are studied as they cont ain so much knowledge needed for college entrance. Poetry by American and English poets such as Longfellow, Gray, Whittier, Riley, Milton, and others are also taught to these classes. A new course taught this semester for the first time in our school is an English VI vocational English class. This is taught for boys only to give them knowledge or information to assist them in their chosen vocation. This is a very practical course in which they select a vocation and gather information about it in the form of articles, notes, drawings and pictures which they put into a scrap¬ book on which they work all semester. They also are taught grammar, learn to describe machines and tools, to write letters, to make reports, and to study salesmanship and parliamentary procedure. They acquire knowledge which they can put to use upon graduation. Another new English course is an English IV remedial course. Pupils are taught to read better in this class. “Following Printed Trails” is the textbook used by which speed and comprehension are accomplished. It has been found that pupils get a great deal of necessary training in this class. Page eight

Page 11 text:

1 The 1941 Quiver Page seven

Page 13 text:

The 1941 Quiver the bewildered student select the studies which will benefit him most when he has graduated and ready to earn a living. Now with the faculty pictures and their names in the following articles, there shall no longer be any doubt as to their identity. The departments — English, speech, social science, science, language, mathematics, art, library, commercial, home economics, in¬ dustrial, apprentice training, gym¬ nasium, and music—will be written up in that order with the faculty of each department with it, so students will be able to connect certain faces with departments. With Robert Radunz, is seen in action. Killen, and Alison Stosuf, aj 3 e xantmenti and faculty Last but not least I shall take you to a journalism class. Although this, an extra-curricular class, it starts the young journalists out in their work. The journalism room is always the busiest place in the school except the offices, and when you step into the classroom, it would remind you of a regular newspaper office. But out of all this hub¬ bub of busy students comes the Tomahawk, our weekly publication, which gives clear evidence of lots of work. Students of this class learn how to write news articles, features, and editorials besides copyreading, page planning, proof-reading, and many other phases of newspaper work. Now let us go to a department which is very greatly related to English: speech. This course is under the teach¬ ing of Miss Hiller, Mrs. Perry, and Mr. Viola. The first course in speech is designed to teach the students the fundamentals of speech; namely, voice, langu¬ age, thought, and physical action, and through appropriate exercises, to teach the pupil how to i mprove his voice, language, thought and action in the complete integrated speech process. Speech II in extempore speech has two basic objectives: first, the acquisition on the part of the student of a practical knowledge of all the types of occasions in which the average person is called to speak, and secondly, the acquisition of knowledge and skill in the art of public speaking on those common occasions. Speech III is the combination of oral expression and story telling, and the fourth course in speech is in argu¬ mentation and debating. This course also has two ob- standing by” in the control room, a portion of the Radio class From left to right are: Elsie Campbell, Don Hoffman, William Hallman. The English teachers are: Row one (left to right)—Mr. J. Antis- del, Mrs. B. F. Lucas, Miss H. L. Hunt, Mr. G. Fisler; Row two—Miss M. B. Derragon, Mrs. R. C. MacAdams, Miss H. A. Paris, Miss S. V. McDermet; Row three—Miss E. Lighterness, Miss M. E. Rubert, Miss M. H. Wilson, Miss G. Heitsch. In the Speech department are: Row four—Mr. W. N. Viola, Mrs. D. Perry, Miss O. B. Hiller, and Miss F. Day, teacher of English and Journalism. Page nine