Stockton High School - Blackhawk Yearbook (Stockton, IL)

Page 8 text:

 Mrs. Thomas, as English co-ordinator, represents one of the significant advances in the system this year. One staff mem- ber from each of the four “basic subjects’’ has been appointed de- partment head for his particular area in grades one through twelve. Such a stable nucleus in each subject area should produce substantial benefits as a result of continuity of direction and avoidance of duplication at differ- ent grade levels. Mrs. Buford and Mrs. Pierce compare progress in their 7th and 8th Language Arts groups. Bubbly Mrs. Werkheiser would float down the corridor if she weren’t weighted with a box of new books each day. In addition to working with three English classes, Mrs. Werkheiser has been doing a wondrous job of stuffing empty library shelves with shiny, enlightening books. Mrs. Hill has her Frosh- Soph English classes sweating over a few classics. 4

Page 7 text:

 Our 1958 BLACKHAWK broke precedent by including a division devoted to the “subject-cen- tered 9 phase of school. But yearbooks have gen- erally been “extra-curricular centered ' since the Neanderthal period and this precedent is too big to buck. Nevertheless, there would seem to be some wisdom in risking popularity every third or fourth year to make some trifling attempt at recording new educational trends in our own Unit 206. We intend to editorialize on that topic below and on the next few pages. Among the elements that seem particularly significant are: 1 The departmentalization and co-ordina- tion moves; 2 The effort to re-vitalize - put new guts into - the basic academic subjects which had been victims of strangulation from numerous directions; 3 Title III, application for federal science subsidies for facilities instrumental to an effective program; 4 Ability grouping in nearly all Junior- Senior High classes in order that more reasonable use may be made of varied speeds and approaches; 5 The long-awaited addition of desperately needed library materials - the life blood of a good educational program; and the conception of a County Film Library for use by this school and the other six units in the county. We ll venture only one wild prophecy and then turn the pages. Our prophecy is that three years hence, when the next editorial is due and the present freshmen are seniors, school will again be educationally-centered. This is not to suggest that the building will be creeping with bug-eyed book worms who squirm bleakly from class to class. It only means that a hint of serious learning climate is noticeable, though in a very formative stage, and the likelihood of a renaissance seems reasonably predictable.

Page 9 text:

 Mr. Bretl serves as Social Studies Department head in the Junior-Senior High and will soon begin to co-ordinate this work with the elementary program. On the high school level Political Science has been added to the curriculum for eager freshmen and News Analysis (1 2 credit, two semesters) has been added to the weighty burden of all underclassmen not electing a social studies course. The ex- periment with News Analysis is based on the assumption that a democratic nation wishing to sur- vive can hardly afford to have any but alert and well-informed members of society. Mr. Borg land smiles at this group for the first Ume this year. PoliUcal Science, in which the picture was taken, has been set up as an elective for ad- vanced freshmen. In addiUon, Mr. Bergland teaches sophomore Citizenship, and senior Social Problems. Mr. Werkheiser lashes one of his 7th - 8th grade Social Studies groups into study action. 5