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

Page 20 text:

ncnromze “Is-are-am-was-were. Ain’t ain’t correct, is Vocational English was taught for those who did not plan on going to college. The significance of this course was that it dealt directly with the vocation for which you were training. Data were collected and articles written dealing with machin¬ ery and tools with which you were planning to work in the future. The writing of letters, acqu¬ iring a taste for good literature, parliamentary procedure, and such things essential after gradua¬ tion were taught. Business English was a practical knowledge of English as applied to business in the more technical terms. It was similar to Vocational English in that it prepares for a business position after gradu¬ ation. Speech courses offered in Pontiac High School were numerous. Preliminary Speech classes taught the fundamentals of speech, namely language, voice, and other minor things. In the more advanced speech courses, what to say when asked to speak at some banquet or other, if ever called upon for such an honor was taught. If you went on in the Speech classes, learning how to argue, no, not in the same old crude method, and also the art of debating were studied. This course gave experience and ability in applying the principles of sound reasoning in the classroom as well as at home. Radio was studied in Speech 5. In this course, the writing and presenting of radio scripts was studied along with the development of radio, as well as actual broadcasting. No, this isn’t a “rogue’s gallery.” Did you ever stop to think, if possible to think in your case, how many teachers of the most foreign of all languages, English, there were in this school of ours? Well, in case you can’t count that far, there are presumptiously sixteen! You have probably come into contact, at least once during your stay in P.H.S., with one of the English teachers including Mr. Antisdel, Miss Day, Miss Derragon, Mr. Fisler, Miss Hunt, Miss Lighterness, Mrs. MacAdams, Miss McDermet, Miss Nelson, Miss Paris, Miss Hubert, Mr. Watson, and Miss Wilson. In the speech department were Miss Hiller, Miss Perry, and Mr. Viola. Miss Nelson and Mr. Watson were both new additions to the teaching staff in the English Department of P.H.S. 16 THE 1942 QUIVER

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An ev r tYpical picture of any English class in P.H A- The apparently studious ft to right—Row 1: Elwyn Hi Beahler, Paul Barnum, i Row 2: Mary Dobbs, lobert Freeman, Russell Graffe. Row 3: Robert Georgi ina Neaf, Joe Mooney, aul Morris, Zorab Kabodian. Row 4: Constance Walker, Bill Webster. Industrious workers can almost in¬ variably be found in this class of comp¬ tometer and typing combined. Pictured are, left to right—Row 1: Lillian De- Rousha, Charlotte Eriksen, Doris Rey- nells. Row 2: Lucille Semands, Pat Supernault, Eva Robitaille, Donna Leit- ner. Row 3: Jamie Chittock. It is very rarely dull in either of the two study halls, 216 and 316. In this shot,” the students in the picture are trying to give the photographer the im¬ pression that they are really industrious. PONTIAC HIGH SCHOOL Classes taught on this floor are: Eng¬ lish, foreign languages, band and orches¬ tra, art, biology, social science, typing, shorthand, and radio. Study Hall 216 and the library are located on this floor for study and research purposes, but who ever studied in P.H.S.?

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Mr. Allshouse and Miss Lohmann had charge of the art department of Pontiac High School. Miss Loh¬ mann is a new addition to the teach¬ ing staff, and she has proven quite worthy of her position as well as being popular with the student body. Mr. Allshouse left for the armed service of the U. S. in May. Under the supervision of Miss Cole, second from the right, and Mrs. Travis, the library was kept in running order for the year. Many now books, both reprints of old favorites and the latest best sellers, were added this year to keep the P.H.S. library up-to-date. The commercial department offered shorthand, typing, bookkeeping, filing, commercial geography, calculator, and business English. Gregg shorthand was taught using an adapta¬ tion of Leslie’s functional method, which is a reading rather than a writing approach in the learning process. The method was interesting and the maze of curves, straight lines, hooks, and circles were soon voted fascinating puzzle. At the end of shorthand III, an average speed of 100 words per minute should have been attained. There were three semesters of typing. In the first, the keyboard, the correct fingering, and the parts of the typewriter were learned. The passing speed was 20 words per minute. In typing II, how to type business letters, and invoices were studied. Forty words per minute must have been attained before passing into typing III, where billing, cor¬ rection work, and tabulation exercises were prac¬ ticed. The emphasis was on speed and accuracy. The business English course was made up of the writing of effective business letters and business reports. A knowledge of the right attitude and the importance of the appreciating the reade r’s point of view was stressed. Filing—letters, names, and more letters by numerous methods! This commercial course gave practical experience on the subject. After com¬ pleting a filing assignment, “little men may have been bowling in your head’’ nightly, but the knowledge gained made every bit of it easy to bear. Almost everyone is benefited by a course of filing. The housewife can file her receipts of bills for quick reference. In the business world, there is always a demand for a good file clerk. If you were a shark at figures, bookkeeping was your meat. A good bookkeeper is well paid. Comptometer taught adding, subtracting, mul¬ tiplying, and dividing by using a machine. This sounds hard, but it was fun when the “art’’ had finally been accomplished. Have you ever wished that you could draw a reasonable facsimile of Mickey Mouse, famous characters, or other subjects? Why didn’t you enroll in one of two art courses offered in Pontiac High School? Commercial drawing consisted of studying all styles of lettering, color schemes and posters, while the course in free hand drawing consisted of land¬ scaping, ah, Nature!, figure drawing, pencil draw¬ ings, stage settings, and the designing of wearing apparell, both masculine and feminine. If you were in the mood for study, and who wasn’t?, or were curious as to whether or not there are kangaroos in Tasmania, you should have come a’running to the Library, for that was the place for you! There you found information on everything from Tom Mix to Thomas Edison, from the correct way to play tiddlewinks to the right way to raise pigs. In these modern times, the business world is rapidly be¬ coming more important. The demand for able and skilled secretaries, comptometer operators, typists, filing clerks, bookkeepers, is rapidly gaining by leaps and bounds. Students were seen daily in any one of the above mentioned classes with their noses buried in “perfects” and “imperfects,” shorthand notes, usually eligible, letters used in filing classes, or shorthand notebooks searching madly and profusely for “lesson 68 in today’s comptometer assignment.” Seen peering rather erono- mously from between the layers of the commercial books trying to convey the important features of their respective courses were: Mr. Baldwin, Miss B. Carpenter, Miss Hilliard, Mr. Kader, Miss Myer, Mrs. Minkoff, the former Miss Newman, Miss O’Hara, Miss Slater and Mr. Snyder. Mr. Snyder has had charge of all the defense stamp sales in the school this past term. PONTIAC HIGH SCHOOL V