Shaker Heights High School - Gristmill Yearbook (Shaker Heights, OH)

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IN THIS, the 1956 Gristmill, we hope to take you on a journey tracing the year ' s outstonding events. Entering Shaker Heights, we have stopped at each important intersection, paused at even the minor detours, and proceeded to explore all aspects of Shaker school life. The new classrooms and corridors were put into full use for the first time. Important school news traveled quickly and easily to every room with the aid of the new public address facilities. All roads led to Shaker at the end of April when the statewide Student Council Convention was held here for the first time. The roads to learning were made smoother by the addition of more accelerated courses and four new staff members helped to keep the student-teacher ratio down to an effective level. This year has been a memorable one for all Shakerites with these and innumerable other exciting events. The student body took the high roads and the low roads up, down, across, inside, and outside the school thereby producing the 1955-56 story of Shaker Heights High School. The Gristmill wishes to recreate this story and keep alive memories of it by taking the yearbook ' s readers on a journey through Shaker. : 5]|fli] ENTERING SHAKER HEIGHTS

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journey through shaker

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Shaker Offers a Program of Sixty Subjects Mr. Goodman gives a Redox equation party. Miss Hollon helps Marie Bianco plan her future. Shaker is chiefly a college-preparatory school, since ninety per cent of its graduates attend colleges throughout the U.S. To give students the background necessary for college work, the school maintains high scholastic standards. Classes are geared to the above-average student, and all are encouraged to work to their fullest capacity. Counselors discuss with each student his col- lege and vocational plans, aiding him to choose a course of study which will be most profitable for him. All students take the Kuder Vocational and Personal Preference tests which help them to select the vocations for which they are best suited. Shakerites preparing for college are encouraged to take several mathematics, English, language, science, and social studies courses. The ability to express one ' s thoughts clearly is of the utmost importance. Thus particular stress is ' laid upon the study of English. Skill, taste, and knowledge are developed through com- position, grammar and usage, spelling, vocabulary, and read- ing. Composition in all years is taught with the stimulating ac- companiment of literature. The sophomore year is an introduc- tion to literature which acquaints students with several types of prose and poetry. Juniors study American Literature, learning about the American dream from Emerson, Lincoln, Whitman, and others who dreamed it. During this year six weeks is spent in a class designed to teach students how to write speeches and speak in public. These two years are the minimum English re- quirement for graduation. Completing the course, seniors become familiar with English Literature through the study of great writers including Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, and Maugham. The English Department also offers a reading improvement course which develops reading speed and comprehension. Wider horizons are open to students through the study of a foreign language. By studying Spanish, French, Latin, or Ger- man, a student gains knowledge of another country, literature, and way of life as well as a tool of scholarship. The language department feels that if the great barrier of language is wiped away, there will be a greater chance for world peace. Man has tried for millions of years to improve his environment by building shelters, plantfng crops, and killing wild animals. Today Shaker physics, biology, and chemistry students study the world in which they live, hoping someday to apply what they have learned in making medical, scientific, and engineering advances. Students are not taught from the textbook alone. Lab- oratory sessions and motion pictures are employed to illustrate the topic under study. In biology an individual project must be completed by every student. Such impressive works as building o T.V. camera and doing original research on the study habits of high school students have been accomplished. Projects are encouraged in the other science classes, as well as participation in many science contests. One of the courses most necessary to a prospective college student is mathematics. Every standardized aptitude or achieve- ment test contains many questions relating to mathematics. The