Benjamin Russell High School - Echo Yearbook (Alexander City, AL)

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The Benjamin Russell High School — The Fairgrounds — Alexander City, Alabama Erected in 1950 Accredited by the Southern Ass’n in 1951 ♦ --------- ♦ --------- ♦ THE ALEXANDER CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION Mr. T. D. Russell, chairman Dr. H. E. Askin, vice-chairman Mr. L. E. Sellers, Jr. Mrs. Wade Lamberth Mr. Bill Edwards The Benjamin Russell High School building contains thirty-five classrooms, a fine arts auditorium, lunchroom and kitchen, library, health clinic, dark room equipped with modern audio-visual equipment, gymnasium, industrial arts shop, agriculture shop, two science laboratories, home economics kitchen, sewing room and fitting room, offices for the principal, librarian, lunchroom manager, athletic director, and numerous lounges for teachers and students. Four

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year “That Wonderful Year we hope you'll see The past reappear like a memory HAT wonderful school year of 1960-61 with its serious moments of meditation, its fun-filled moments of belonging, its triumphant moments of victory, its gay moments of stardom, and its grateful moments of appreciation was a memorable year at BRHS. Its serious moments were spent in various ways. We worked long hours on classwork and homework, spent serious, thoughtful moments at Morning Watch for devotionals before school, worked hard writing and making pictures to publish the Echo and Cinder, remembered our soldiers of past wars in the patriotic Veterans’ Day program, and finally reached that long-awaited and final serious moment: Graduation. Many events went into the making of the fun-filled moments of belonging. There were all our band trips, the AHSPA Convention in Tuscaloosa, student council conventions and workshops, football dances after the home games, the fcotball and basketball banquets which climaxed their respective seasons, decorating cars and floats and preparing for Homecoming festivities, the Senior banquet, the gala Junior-Senior prom, the Christmas card sale to help finance the Echo, the day the juniors received their class rings and the Junior magazine sale. Then there were those gay moments of stardom featuring Miss Echo, the girl who most nearly represents the spirit of BRHS and the maids from each class who belonged to her court, our homecoming queen and homecoming maids, those students chosen for the Senior Who's Who, the DAR Ccod-Citizenship Girl, the editor of the Echo, the officers of each class, the officers of each club, and the girls chosen as club sweethearts. Victory was our motto in that wonderful year. Our undefeated football team captured the title of the Confederate Conference and boasted many individual champs. Two seniors, jimmy Foshee and Hershel Hicks, were named as co-captains of the team. In addition to the football team, our fine basketball, wrestling, baseball, track, tennis and swimming teams along with rousing pep rallies imbued every BRHS student with triumphant moments of victory. Remembering cur loyal patrons and their many kindnesses and firm support of our teams, our band, our annual, and our projects gave us grateful moments of appreciation. ♦ ♦ ♦ Three

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The Curriculum Each student, guided by his parents, should decide what type of training he expects to receive from BRHS before he enters the ninth grade, and he should select his subjects according to his decision. The curriculum of BRHS is well prepared to meet the needs of the students. There are basic requirements for graduation from BRHS which include English—four years; social studies—two years, American history being required; mathematics—one year; science—one year; a minor subject—four years. The curriculum offers the following courses in the various studies: social studies—American history, civics and Alabama history, world history, democracy and economics; mathematics—general math. Algebra I and II, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry; science—general science, biology, chemistry, physics; foreign language—Spanish I and II. Typing I and II, Shorthand I and II, bookkeeping and business law and arithmetic are included in the ever-expanding and enriched commercial department. These vocational subjects provide adequate secretarial courses for those who are preparing for this field. Other vocational subjects, which may be taken two years, are home economics, agriculture, shop, and industrial arts. The diversified occupation program, offering a wide variety of courses to be taken in conjunction with on-the-job training in school, is controlled and supervised by the government. Any occupational field in town which deals with training in the productive skills, such as banking, nursing, technicians, commercial work, textiles, selling, and beauticians, may be enrolled in by the students. Journalism is also offered one year. Band, physical education, and chorus are offered as minors each year. Office and library are offered to interested students who meet certain requirements. All minors carry half-credit. Sixteen major units and two minor units are required of a student for graduation. Fi fe