Sunset Hill High School - Sundial Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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-wwf-'?'SrL-im-is ,. . -- - -- .- -, - ,sa-..-A--. .. . , - - -. 1. real experience with actual material is an essential to learningg that opportunity for varied expression is necessary to right edu- cationg that freedom, with a balancing responsibility, is the best condition of moral and intellectual growth, that one of the most effective and wholesome motives of work is the social motiveg that for their best development children must be treated as individuals and not as a group. i The school does not believe that school work should be made easy. On the contrary, it is planned to be as difficult as the child, by diligent effort, can perform. The child learns that everything worth doing involves the performance of disagreeable tasks, which must be performed cheerfully and promptly. It is through real in- terest that the chi1d's best effort is put forth. The school is a place for hard work done eagerly and with definite purpose, and expects of its pupils intellectual achievement of high quality. The school prepares students for college. In this prepara- tion greater emphasis is placed upon the values inherent to the subject-matter than upon the -mere preparation for college exami- nations. The pupils are prepared to tal-ze the college entrance examinations but the school desires to prepare them in a larger way for the opportunities which college offers. The school's aim is so to train its pupils that they are fully prepared to make the most of their years in college, and that they may carry the work with ease and success. This means- that they must have acquired in their training the power to Work independently and hard g that they have been equipped with tastes, interests, judgment, and an out- look which will make college life rich and full of meaning. With such training students go to college eager for all that is most worthwhile in college life. The supreme object of the school is to educate its children for right human relationship by cultivating the spirit of intelligent social service: by developing the sympathies and the finer emo- tionsg by training the mind to become the efficient instrument of the will disciplined for purposeful living, and by inculcating prin- ciples of true democracy. The following quotation from the writings of Colonel Francis W. Parker, a pioneer in education in America, epitomizes our ideal: 6'The value of a school should he judged hy the growth of its pupils in honesty, courage, helpfulness, unselfishness, charity, wisdom and strength. ......l2.... beg Scl six int 11W of sax Tk sci tio me thl an ch fin tr: da pe stm pr ea of sc sc sl . in L -Hi Y- -- i H -- A l V- . -n. L in. W. LHH W-gli - . - T J Q LJL- -:-- -Z -nv lg p L . . Q- 5:--: f ,.,,, L, , ' ' . 4: i V 'Tm' TT A' W ' ' 'f f 'r1':..,,

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--D ilii . I -Gif -H he new Lng the warts of J study r much tstand- his en- 1 mu-st hysical rooms 1t, at- bodily 'e their giving iitiated ind by iguage, ealized nildren, thg by uce on larger clinch- te and the so- :he pu- tion of ree ex- :nse of or plan- pleas- i n V F i 41 i Q f - -.-...,.,,, M., mf... .,....s-..,,.....,.. ures and obligations of democratic life---to gain knowledge in the selection of leaders and followers--and to form ideals of co-opera- tion and comradeship. In brief, these new schools are endeavoring to cultivate the child s whole being, physical, mental and spiritual, by creating in the school an environment in which he can be trained to carry his full part of the burdens and privileges ot citizenship. Life is the great thing after ell, the life of the child in its time and in its measure no less than that of the adult. -John Dewey. A STATEMENT or THE EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES or SUNSET HILL scfnooi. The Sunset Hill School is one of many throughout the coun- try founded for the purpose of giving concrete expression to the ideals and methods oi progressive education. The school is not an experiment but puts into practice the findings of psychologists, educational and health specialists and other experts-, who have studied childhood and adolescence under all conditions and have subjected each new theory to severe and prolonged tests in labora- tory schools established for the purpose. While public schools are constantly modifying their methods to embody these findings in their curricula, their problems of securing adequate space and equipment and a teaching force large enough to meet the needs of the enormous numbers of pupils are so serious as to retard progress. It is the privilege of the private school, therefore, with its smaller numbers, greater relative teaching iorce and less crowd- ed physical conditions to put into practice more rapidly the best results of educational investigation. -Parents who have faith in the new education will find in the Sunset Hill School those condi- tions a.nd opportunities which they desire for their children. The plan of the life in the school is based upon the principle of the right of every child to the highest development of which he is capable. It is the purpose of the school, throughout the entire school course, to train its pupils to worl-r happily, whole-heartedly, and intelligently to their own maximum capacity. VV e hold that the school has fulfilled its obligation to its pupils only when it has stimulated them to their best effort. We believe that self-actuated work causes the greatest gain to the pupilg that training in initiative is the child's great needg that ...Ila-

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-1 .-'. 1 55, -, - U ,,1..',glg.s,,EP. un, I IAQ-vu - .nl !n 5f ms lrningg it edu- le best e most eg that viduals : made : child, 'ything which real in- a place expects repara- to the exami- itrance larger aim is e most k with ired in at they ln out- With s most hildren slligent r emo- 1ent of g prin- Francis 7 ideal: L of its wisdom PLAN OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION The entire school course covers a period of thirteen years, beginning with the Kindergarten and continuing through the High School. The first six grades comprise the Lower School, the last six the Upper School. In the Lower School the work embodies interests and activities which are adapted to children from live to twelve years of age. The technical requirements, the essentials of reading, and arithmetic of these grades correspond to that of the same grades of the public schools. The seventh and eighth grades form the junior High School. The work of these grades covers a wide range of study in the sciences, history, literature and language. The elementary por- tion -of high school subjects is given in the eighth grade. In large measure the work is departmental. The ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades correspond to the usual High School. A full and thorough college preparatory and a special cultural academic course are given. The courses in- clude subjects in the sciences, literature, language, music and the line arts. The High School is admitted into both the North-Cen- tral and South-Central Associations of Accredited Schools. The school is planned as a country day school, i. e., a school day long enough to include the full number of class periods, periods for study, gymnastics and out of door recreation, music study and group interests of a social nature. This plan, with the proper arrangement of the school program, with a hot luncheon eaten without haste, results in better health and lessens the amount of home study. The wholesome social activities provided during the regular school hours should make unnecessary additional social life on the school days except in the home circle. More hours of rest and sleep are possible by this plan. .....l3..... E