Sinking Spring High School - Imago Yearbook (Sinking Spring, PA)

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Statement of Sinking Spring High School Activities Since the Board of Education has placed all school activities and the funds derived therefrom in the hands of the Principal. I wish to make this financial statement public to account for the source of revenue and the expenditures. RECEIPTS Balance on hand in bank. December 4. 1931 .....................................................$ 31.70 Receipts from Basketball (a Genera] admission ................ —................. —............ $366.90 tb» Guarantees ............!................................................... 4800 «c Other Sources 14.10 $429.60 Receipts from School Activities (a Elementary Grade Operetta ......................................... $ 1488 ib) Washington Program — 26-15 (c) Washington Motion Pictures 14.65 id) Musicale 2.10 e) Stephen Haboush Commission 22.70 $90.48 Grand Total of Receipts -....... $551.78 EXFENTMTI’RES Basketball 1 a) b) (c d) ie (f) th) Referees Guarantees Transportation Equipment Ointment P. I. A. A. Dues Awards (Gold Basketballs) Treat for teams .......—.... $ 74 .50 76.00 24.00 156.87 ....... .60 3.00 ......... 20.00 3.45 «t Du Paul Sallade Account of James Muir 'Motion Picture Projector) Fred Medan Co. (Basketball Backstops) Hangens (Set of Traps Tor Orchestra) ........................................................ Transportation to KuUtown Field Day ................................. $358 42 $ 14.00 ........... 4.00 ........ 1.00 31 .......... 25.00 89.92 42.00 ........... 4.00 Grand Total of Expcnt' ures ......................................... $538 65 Total Receipts from December 4. 1931 to May 7, 1932 $551.78 Total Expenditures for same period .......................................................... 538.65 Balance in Checking Account, May 27. 1932 $ 13.13 Signed: Harry E. Sowers Supervising Principal

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Objectives of the Sinking Spring School by Prof. Harry E. Sowers 1. To guide and counsel the children in their study, in their social dealings, and in their moral aptitudes. 2. To make our instruction thorough and equip our pupils completely before we pass them on to the next teacher or dismiss them from school. 3. To train the pupils in the manipulation of the tools of learning. 4. To develop more self-expression and initative on the part of the pupil and the constraining on the part of the teacher of too much talking and lecturing. Guidance Failure in school work, waywardness and shiftlessness, undetermined and unpurposeful objectives and aims in life have been due to the lack of guidance and counsel on the part of the teacher. Every teacher should be able to assist and direct to some degree, the pupils who come under her care in these all important problems. Every teacher, both in the elementary grades and high school will be called upon this year to play an important role in this work. I. Guidance In Study. Do not feel satisfied that all pupils are learning with the same ease and speed . You have pupils with weak mentalities who need constant help, you have others who have not grasped the fundamentals and consequently are laboring and yet not getting anywhere, the result.--failure. Let us reduce this condition to the minimum by devoting more time to the weak. Teach them how to study, how to interpret the printed page, how to attach or approach the problem. Check and re-check, drill and re-drill until you find marked improvement, until you see they have discovered the secret. Once they have arrived at that point they become happy and contented children and their learning improves in leaps and bounds. You. too. shall be happy in knowing you have brought to light one who has been fog-bound. II. Moral Guidance. There is a great need these days for guidance of this type. The most potent factor in this wort is. without a doubt, the teacher. Children fashion after and copy their teachers. When they seek confidence they come to the teacher, when they would have help or advice they call upon the teacher. How can we shirk our duties and sidetrack the issue confronting our social order to-day? Do not forget that a child gone astray because the teacher would not heed the appeals when help was needed brings disgrace and remorse upon the teacher. On the other hand, any good advice and counsel given, as well a a helping hand extended when in trouble, rebounds with honor and glory to the teacher as th young man and woman succeeds in life. Let us show our interest in those who fall short of good moral influence in the home. Many homes have been saved by what teacher has said to the pupil. But. on the other hand, let us be careful of our own moral character before we attempt to impress too vividly our personality and character upon others. III. Educational and Vocational Guidance, ibis phase of the guidance program applies chiefly to the adolescent child, those in high school. All of us teachers are not thoroughly prepared to handle this type of work as it should be don ■ but we are all in a position to do some helpful work in the field. Our daily contact in subject fields will help us a great deal to advise. After all. the success and progress in the subjects bears greatly upon the kinds of professions and vocations which mav be selected. Again the subject teacher may discover an interest or aptitude in a pupil which another teacher or counsellor would not find out. Let us help the youth to find themselves and set them thinking about their future career. Many young men and women graduate from college without the faintest idea of why they went to college. We can avoid this to a marked degree. After all. there is nothing more gratif ing to those of us who are engaged in the teaching profession than to know we have had a big share in the shaping of the career and success of those who have been under our tutelage. Throughness of Instruction During the past school year a great deal was done by the entire teaching corps in this direction, but we found ourselves chiefly engaged in doing “patching-up” work and consequently we lost our step wkh the program as originally planned. This was more clearly noticeable in the high school than in the elementary grades, but since the elementary grades prepare the way for the entrance into high school, the teachers must be all the more alert in teaching the fundamentals and basic principles. Instruction in Manipulation Too few pupils and students are able to use the texts and books, as well as the supplementary materials. which are available to them. They have not been Instructed sufficiently in the use of them. Consequently they become parasites, constantly relying upon the teacher and the parent to tell them where and how to find or search for the desired information. The ability to use the Table of Contents, Index, Because of the several curriculums in the high school we must outline our program definitely and insist upon thoroughness. There will be rigid supervision this year so as to check upon the progress of the leaching and the learning. The Department of Public Instruction of both the State and the County are pressing the supervision program and consequently the local supervision must co-operate with the superiors. of the Tools of Learning Appendix, and Glossary in a book is of inestimable va'ue to time saving in learning. For those who are in the Junior-Senior high school a great opportunity is offered in the new library where instruction will be given to assist the pupil and Interest him in search for material. It is hoped that it will lead to more research and laboratory work.

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Sinking Spring High School Placed on Accredited List of Secondary Schools in the State Sinking Spring High School received Stale recognition and was placed on the Accredited List of Secondary Schools of Pennsylvania during the past year. To receive this recognition is an honor to any cchool or community. In erder to receive this honor the school must meet all the standards for secondary schools. This includes 100 per cent certificated teachers, properly certified supervising principal, diversified curricula, minimum standard of equipment and apparatus, for science departments and other laboratory subjects, minimum standard for high school libraries, systematic personnel record system, thoroughly organized pre ram of studies, completely developed courses of studies, or curriculum, supervisors in all special subject'. Luch as art. music, and dental hygiene, properly certificated instructors in physical education, and a number of minor items. The local school has met all these standards and received very favorable comment upon the same. Following are copies of letters received from the State and County officials. The first letter is a statement of conditions existing at the time of the dating of the letter. LETTER I. May 17. 1929. Mr. A. F. Kemp Superintendent. Berks County Schools Reading. Pennsylvania Dear Mr. Kemp: This is to report my visit with you to the Sinking Spring Borough High School on May 8. 1929. We are pleased w’ith the general spirit of work in this school and the earnestness of both pupils and teachers in carrying out the school program. A check of the conditions prevailing in the school indicates that development is needed along the following lines: 1. The library facilities provided are inadequate for a school of this type. This inadequacy is in part due to the fact that additional mater-ills are need and also in part to the fact that for satisfactory use a library needs to b? carefully organized and administered. In a small secondary school it has been the practice to convert one of the classrooms into a library classroom. In other schools, where it has been found necessary to temporarily house the library in the various classrooms of the school, a central catalogue has been developed and books charged to the various rooms. 2. The physics equipment destroyed at the time of the fire has never been replaced. I am enclosing a copy of the SCIENCE MONOGRAPH which outlines the minimum physics equipment in a classified secondary school. 3. At the present time no teacher on the staff has certification for geography. This should be given the attention of the district. 4. The school needs maps and other materials so that the geography work can be carried out on a highly satisfactory basis. In this connection geography materials are also needed for th? library: 5. The teachers in the first six grades are providing art instruction for those grades. There is no definitely organized art program for grades seven and eight. I am enclosing a copy of a statement outlining a minimum art program. The art work of this school can best be carried out if the district can join with other districts in providing art supervision and teaching. C. There is an increasing demand for more complete and accurate personnel records, particularly in the secondary school. Whereas, in previous years it has oniy been necessary to have the scholastic records of the pupil, colleges now demand a complete personnel record. A record '•imi iar to that used in the Carnegie Study is being found very helpful in the various secondary schools. Copies of this record can be secured by writing to Doctor W. S. Learned. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education. New York City. 7. A soon ns the district finds it possible to do so. practical arts for both boys and girls should b? added to the program. 8. Tj meet the full requirements for Junior-Senior high school organization this school should have a program of practical arts as is suggested above. In developing this program, an additional teacher or the time of part-time teachers should be provided. As the school is organized at present the principal is carrying a rather heavy teaching load. Sincerely yours. William H. Bristow Assistant Director Secondary Education August 20. 1931 Subsequent letters give record of improvements and approvals. Mr. Alvin F. Kemp Superintendent. Berks County Schools Reading, Pennsylvania Dear Superintendent Kemp: This is to report my conference with Assistant Superintendent Strieker and Mr. Sowers. Supervising Principal at Sinking Spring, relative to the development of the program for the coming year. We are very much pleased with the set up as outlined by Mr. Sowers. For the coming year the school will meet full requirements in health and physical education, practical arts, fine arts, and guidance. It is unfortunate, of course, that a certificated teacher could not be found for the work in shop, but it is believed that this problem can be satisfactorily adjusted so that the work may be In charge of a certified teacher before the term 1932-33. V e are particularly gratified to note the development with regard to the library. Mr. Sowers reports that the library will aggregate the 1000 volumes for the coming year and that library instruction will be given to all pupils under the direction of the English teacher who has certification in this field. Commercial werk is also being introduced for the first time this year. Will you please convey to the Board our appreciation for the splendid progress which their school is making, and assure then of our desire to co-operate in every way that we can? Very truly yours. John F. Brougher Assistant Director Secondary Education