Rensselaer High School - Chaos Yearbook (Rensselaer, IN)

Page 12 text:

R. A. PARKISON PRESIDENT DR. E. C. ENGLISH TREASURER

Page 14 text:

Ippartnuntts Etujlifili EDITH E. SHEDD, A. B., Northwestern University. Edith E. Leonard, A. B., Western, Assistant. Louise Kiefer, Assistant. Three and one-half years of English are required for graduation. An eighth semester course is elective. In the Freshman year, the time is nearly equally divided between the study of classics and that of composi- tion and rhetoric. One original theme is required per week. The classics chosen are different in different years. “Silas Marner” is usua lly read first. In addition this year, “The Lady of the Lake,” “The Ancient Mariner,” and “The Merchant of Venice” were read. Oral com- position, to which one recitation a week is devoted, is based on the study of the “Odyssey.” The Sophomore work is divided about as is the Freshman. The classics this year were “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Ivanhoe,” and “The House of Seven Gables,” together with a volume of Old English Ballads, the almost childlike simplicity of which makes them suitable for early work in poetry. The Junior English includes a study of the history of English literature. The classics used this year were “Macbeth,” Chaucer’s “Pro’ogue,” Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” and Milton’s “L ’Allegro,” “11 Penseroso,” and “Comus.” Lyrical poetry (Palgrave’s collection) is used throughout the year. The rhetoric and composi- tion work consists chiefly in the study and writing of exposition, and argumentation. The Senior English (first semester) includes a study of the history of American literature, together with representative American classics. This year, Franklin’s “Autobiography,” Emerson’s Essays, and representa- tive poems from the great American poets were studied. Themes are written twice a month, are longer than those required in the earlier work, and are of the four kinds : description, narration, exposition and argument. Also a hook review of one novel is usually required. The elective course of the second semester of the fourth year is designed to meet the needs of those who wish to have more English work preparatory to entering college, and of those who desire a grammar review preparatory to teaching. Accordingly, the time has been equally divided between a study of classics and of grammar (Wisely). The classics used this year were one drama, “King Lear,” one novel, “Cranford,” and selected poems from Brownin g.