Schreiber High School - Port Light Yearbook (Port Washington, NY)

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It was a very good year. Menacing as the prospects of September seemed, the months that followed were filled with vitality and exuberance. Yes, there was anguish; in life there is always anguish. But we learned and we worked — and we played. Schreiber proved again that school is more than an eight-to-three jailhouse — it's a community and an environment. Students joined forces and Schreiber Is Celebration Of Student Energy '76-77 will be year to remember 22

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how we can combine programs, come up with a curriculum that’s perhaps a little stronger, to meet the needs of the current student body in Port Washington. Now, defining loose, I’m talking about the kind of things you lived through, where kids were lying around the halls — that’s loose. Port Light: So you would say the problem is mostly a discipline thing? Mr. Swaab: I wouldn't call it dis- cipline, per se. I think the majority of the students here are basically well disciplined. But it’s more a living to- gether kind of thing, a cleanliness thing, and interacting thing. Port Light: What’s your idea of the perfect high school? Mr. Swaab: Well, in the first place I don’t believe in perfection. There’s a perfect answer to a math problem, or a perfect performance in the Olym- pics, but there’s no perfect school organization. A perfect school would meet the needs of every single kid that ever came through its portals, and that’s not really possible. You’re constantly working to meet the needs of a greater number of kids. Most schools do a good job dealing with a certain group of kids. The broader your program is, the more program offerings and options you have for the different kinds of kids that enter your school, the more you’re approaching perfection. Port Light: Do you think that modu- lar scheduling comes closer than tra- ditional scheduling to meeting those needs? Mr. Swaab: Well, I think it’s not the modular schedule that does it; it’s the program in the modular schedule that does it. Modular scheduling is only a vehicle or a means that allows you to introduce those options I was alluding to before. You can start with a fairly structured program and say that that meets the needs of 50% or 60% of the students. You could add variations to that and now begin to meet the needs of 70% of the students. A modular schedule allows you to create more flexibility, and therefore more options, which, in turn, theoretically, will allow you to meet 80% or 90% of the stu- dents’ needs. Whether you do or not, that’s not the modular schedule that The school has a respon- sibility in teaching fairness, justice, responsibility, maturity ...” counts. But what you really have to talk about is whether the program at Schreiber High School is meeting the needs of most of the students. That’s the question. Port Light: Do you think it is? Mr. Swaab: I’m not sure yet. I’m very concerned, very concerned, that it’s not. I see it meeting the needs — I don’t think there’s any question that it does an excellent job with the aca- demic student. Whether or not it does an excellent job, or a good job, or even a job, with the other groups of students, beyond the strong academic program, are questions that we’re looking at now. I say we because I’m working on that with the faculty. That’s an area of exploration for us. Port Light: Beyond a basic academic education, what kind of things do you think a school should provide its stu- dents with, and how would you prior- itize them? Mr. Swaab: Well, I couldn’t just pri- oritize them, off the top of my head; I couldn’t say one is more important than the other. The school is struc- tured for two purposes. One is to bring to people basic fundamental ed- ucation — everything from reading and writing to advanced physics, cal- culus, business courses. Now schools have begun to modify that program and say that it shouldn’t be the basic academic program, but it should also be a vocational program. Hence, you have the vocational curricula within this school, and also have the Boces program, which is really just an exten- sion of the offerings of this school. So, that’s a second area. But I think schools also have been established — the American school was always es- tablished — with the purpose of trans- mitting American values. To that end, the school has a responsibility in teaching fairness, justice, responsi- bility. maturity; the delicate balance between the individual and his right to pursue his course of action, and the obligation to the greater group, the society, and keeping in balance those two forces. In our society, that’s a constant struggle — to the group — his community, his society, the coun- try. That’s a very difficult thing to teach, but it’s an obligation for the school to fulfill. Port Light: Do you think it’s being done well? Mr. Swaab: I can’t say that. I don’t know. Port Light: I have only one more question. What advice, what words of wisdom, would you like to leave the graduating class with? Mr. Swaab: I don’t know, other than good luck. Words of wisdom? (pause) The faster you begin to understand how little we all really know, the better off you are.

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created winning teams, harmonious music, entertaining “behind the scenes” constitute even more than the result, theatricals, informative periodicals, and more. Girls’ sports And Schreiber's students had fun! There were so many night, always “the” event of the year, was as popular and things to do and ways to do them that everyone could as well-done as ever. Our students demonstrated multitu- (and most people did) find something to entertain them- dinous talents and interests in virtually hundreds of areas, selves with. It will be a year to remember, full of all the joys However, there is something more important than the and sorrows of living and growing and changing, product of any endeavor. The work or time or thought 23