South Pasadena High School - Copa de Oro Yearbook (South Pasadena, CA)

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COPA DE ORO,1936 DEPARTMENTS OF INSTRUCTION The photographs appearing on the two preceding pages tell at least a partial story of the academic side of school life at South Pasadena Senior High School. The field of instruction is broad in its scope and varied and interesting in its activities. At the head of the city school system, of which the senior high is a very im- portant part, is Mr. George C. Bush, Superintendent. At the head of the high school is Principal John E. Alman. The foremost purpose in the minds of these two men and their corps of assistants and teachers is to establish in the lives of the one thousand or more students who attend the school each year habits of living happy, harmonious and useful lives. They look upon the years spent by students in schoolnot so much as years of preparation for the future but more as years con- stituting a period of tremendous present importance to the students. In South Pasadena Senior High School the departments of instruction, and the courses within those departments, are numerous. Nearly all departments offer extra-curricular activities for the students, thereby increasing interest in and per- haps the usefulness of the subjects of those departments. The language depart- ments, for instance, sponsor the Latin, French and Spanish Clubs; the Art depart- ment has its club and activity group; the library has its organization which offers students better opportunities for the learning of proper library methods; the Speech Arts department sponsors the Senate Club and the Peter Pan Players; the Girls, and Boys, Athletics departments have a dozen or more organizations and activity groups; the Commercial department assists in the operation of the students store and in addition has charge of school savings and a stenographic service to the teachers. Some departments furnish added educational advantages by spon- soring field trips. The Chemistry classes made a trip to the Goodyear Tire Com- pany plant when they were studying rubber, and the Biology classes made excur- sions to the beaches to search for specimens of marine life. These extra activities are felt to be valuable, not only because they are edu- cational, but also because they are enjoyable and stimulate the students to take a real interest in worthwhile things. No extra-curricular work is compulsory, but almost all students take a great enough interest in the work of at least one depart- ment to be willing to spend time outside of school hours. Students belonging to certain classes, such as the Tiger stan, and the cub journalism class, often spend a good deal of outside time interviewing individuals in search of news. This year the school has been especially fortunate in having on the teaching stag Miss Carlene Barnaby, an exchange teacher from Dudley, England, who is exchanging with Miss Myrtle Farrar of the History department. Miss Barnaby has brought a great deal to this school and it has been happy to have her here. Not only do the departments supply opportunities for extra-curricular activ- ity, but they also co-operate in the working out of entire school projects whenever the necessity arises. A striking example of fine co-operation of this sort was shown when the entire school united its efforts during Southern California TraHic Safety Week. Each department spent time daily studying the problems of traffic safety. Every student was engaged in some activity that would make him conscious of these problems. English students wrote safety slogans, mathematics classes made graphs and drawings, biology classes studied the harmful effect of alcohol upon man, and other classes made posters, drawings and signs. Safety Week gave rise to a truly all-school project. 16K;

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1936 COPA DE ORO,

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CLASSES Advancing Youth catches the earnest spirit of the Renaissance in the pursuit of learning.