Robert Louis Stevenson School - Circus Yearbook (New York, NY)

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ginihe gardier Madame Barbier, for a number of years has had charge of the French department in our school. Her taste, her thought, and even her manner of speech is reminiscent of her native land. When one says she is French, one does not imagine or picture any one specific characteristic. But France as a nation has always been distinguished, and its people have always carried that distinction into their Own way of life. As chairman of the Summer School City Wide French Committee, she prepared the syllabi and has been writing all the examinations. Madame Barbier is also founder of our French Magazine Un Petit Coin de France, which has been published annually for the past nine years. She is now completing a French text-book, that will be of great assistance to students preparing for college entrance examinations in French, especially for those carrying an accelerated program. Madame is also an accomplished pianist and she has sung professionally in Paris. One of her pleasur- able pastimes is the collection of antiques and news- paper clippings. As a teacher she brought France into the classroom. She is sincere and conscientious and whatever she undertakes she does with an energetic and complete wholeheartedness, such as war bond drives, and campaigns to provide food and clothing for war torn countries. w..i.fsmi, Somehow it would be very difficult to picture Stevenson without Miss Silsby. Not only has she been here a long time falmost nine yearsj but if any of the girls need anything or want to ask a question fno matter how trivial or great it may bel the first person they go to is Miss Silsby. This year the school has undergone a few minor revolutions C among them a new beautiful office for Doctor Rubinsteinj. One of the most important changes was the promotion of Miss Silsby to Assistant-Principal. It doesn't really change her duties too much fexcept that she has a very able new assistantj, but it is a rather nice title that she certainly deserves. Miss Silsby went to St. johnsburg Academy in Vermont - then to Wfellesley College where she majored in Biblical History and Spanish. She tried teaching awhile, but abhored it, then she studied secretarial work in Boston. Her jobs varied from a job in a California bank to a Secretarial job inChina! She spent a few wonderful years in China then came back to the United States via the Suez Canal and traveled through Italy and France. fSomeday she hopes to go back to China for a visitj. Another thing she'd like to do is take an airplane trip fnever been up in onej. Miss Silsby has always preferred working in schools and is very fond of Stevenson. Miss Silsby, we hope you'll remain here for a long, long time.

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-DR. ANNETIE RUBINSTEI Dr. Rubinstein, our English teacher and principal, also holds many other important jobs. She's chairman of the West Side Child Care Council of'Greater New York, lecturer, and one of the founders of the Anti- Fascist Refugee Committee. She studied at home until the seventh grade, and one of her earliest tragedies was being qualified to enter the eighth grade, and being too young, was refused on the trumped up charge of not knowing French. But to this day she maintains that it was unforgivably unjust since most of the other children didn't know French either. This was two strikes against the school already. She ,entered the Woodmere Academy-stayed there until her senior year, then went to Lawrence High for one year-N. Y. U. for four years. While working towards her Doctor's at Columbia, she was a philosophy instructor at N. Y. U. She was only nineteen when she was called on to substitute in a philosophy class, where the average student's age was about twenty-four. She was terribly afraid that they wouldn't take her seriously and when anxiously asked the outcome, she modestly answered, But they did. She considers. her outstanding incident of this period, the time when she wrote a term paper in Limericks after having dreamed through a course in History of Philosophy! Next followed a job in the Department of Welfare-but after one year she decided to go back to teaching and in 1954 she became principal of R. L. S. She has one tremendous passion-Shakespeare. After being in her English classes for many, many months and hearing her quote profusely from Shake- speare, Browning, Dickinson, Keats, and almost every other, even half way decent writer, we are aghast, if she doesn't remember some remote line. But that's her fault-she trained us wrong. Our amazing Dr. Rubinstein has, however, one serious incompetency, she can't carry a tune. Z Mn? WLlJf0I' . lf' - ,rf . -M - WJ E l Q tvgpiiwymgm It .1 'lim' .W 'U'll1l7 i r 5 flaw, ' Y 4 C W it p at I ...ll . 'vi . 1-M lwvlwm uuluu fli XA X A 4 1 Y' 3 nUl7'3FTTIl'Mi:'t11iN1ff2'?YifiNntP .uiilinLcil1llllll

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eff mffaef Bower I sharpened my pencil and wandered into the Bio room. After all, it should be nice to have a jump on the gossip about the new science teacher. I sat down opposite Mr. Bower -- no he still wore his navy uniform flieutenantj. I wondered but then came down to earth. What school did you go to? and then what did you do? A B.S. at N. Y. U. and an M.A. at Columbia, then I worked for the U. S. Coast Geodetic Society in San Francisco and taught science on the West Coast. Finally, the navy - the Pacific fleet. Mr. Bower was on the carrier, the U.S.S. Independence in photo- graphic intelligence. Besides analyzing pictures, Mr Bower collected about 1,500. We saw some - they were fascinating. I was thinking After the navy, teaching must seem quiet and dull. But Mr. Bower assured me that he preferred teaching. Teaching is a challeng- ing occupationf' he said. People are interesting. Mr. Bower also has an orientation class - a pet project of his. In fact Mr. Bower said, Orientation is vital - everyone should take it. Through such a course the problems become crystallized and it helps people select an occupational field. It helps you to understand people too. ,. -V ,f ' .M ' f Shri? dJ7rougLfon Every Monday afternoon at Robert Louis Steven- son you have surely seen groups of staggering females shufliing up to the gym to trip the light fantastic fan' l do mean fantastic, with an occasional tripb. The reason for all this is our very attractive dance teacher, Miss Shirley Broughton. She is an Alumna of Bennington College in Ver- mont, where she finally decided to become a dancer. The necessary requirements for a dancer are rhythm and coordination but there must be that unde6nable something declares Miss Broughton. She has studied under the supervision of Honya Holm and Martha Graham. She likes the dance drama, which is the new type of theatre Martha Graham developed. She believes that modern dance offers the basis for a better vocabulary, better suited to express emotions than some of the, more classical forms of dance. If time would permit, I could go on because Shirley Broughton is a very interesting and wonder- ful dance teacher. There's just one thing we can't understand - why is she so forgetful - or is it just spring fever?