Valparaiso High School - Valenian Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

Page 15 text:

MR. HOMER M. JESSEE MRS. LU S. BROOKE THE WORK OF THE SCHOOL. INCE 1872 Valparaiso has had a high school with a four years course. The faculty has generally inclined to classical or so called academic subjects, but there has always been a choice given the students l)etween languages and science. At pres- ent the freshmen may choose either the Latin or the Scien- titic courses. In the Scientific he substitutes for Latin, English His- tory, Intellectual Arithmetic, Zoology, C ' hemistry, and Manual Training or Domestic Art and Domestic Science. All })ui)ils have a further opportunity through the electives to become versed in Bookkeeping and Phonography. Eight credits of English, six of Mathematics, six of Latin, four of History, one of Civics, and at least three credits in Science are required of all students who are expecting to receive a diploma. A more com})lete description of these departments will be found in the following pages. SANFORD CAMPBELL.

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them with his idle prattle, and copying their work. The parasite is a person who is eonstantly demanding favors, but never willing to grant one; a person who is always growling if favors are not accorded him, but abuses shamefully those already given; a person who believes school exists for him alone and, consequently, is ever ready to become con- spicuous thru his arrogant actions. If the parasite wasted only his own time, he alone would suffer, but when he wastes the precious moments of others who need every second, he becomes a demoralizing influence and should be instantly removed. For example, consider how much disturbance one parasite can cause in our High School. If he disturbs everyone in the Assembly Room for one minute, it means a loss of two hundred minutes. This loss not being evident to everybody, the Principal is forced to take ten minutes of every person ' s time to explain the situation, thereby losing two thousand minutes or more time than one student spends in school in one week. If the para- site causes two thousand minutes to be lost in school, how many will he occasion in a ' lifetime! Another parasitic habit, equally bad, is the borrowing one. If in our High Scliool, one boy was given the task of supplying the demands of girls desiring knives for pencil sharpening, he could do nothing else. If a borrower impedes progress in school, how can he do otherwise in the business world which he must soon enter! The answer is plainly seen. Of what use is all our school training if we only learn to be destroyers, loafers, borrowers, degenerates, degra- tors and parasites ? Our presence would have a demoralizing effect on those about us; we could never succeed in business, for business has no use for parasites; in short, we would be miserable failures, blots upon the face of civilization and humanity. Therefore, let us not l)ecome parasitic in any way. Let us be builders, not destroyers; workers, not loafers; let us be all that is good and right in our sehool life and then with our school training shall come character development. Then and then alone shall we be free from those parasitic principles, and then there will be no such thing as, The School Parasite. F. J. MARSTON, Editor-in-Chief.

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MK. J. RICHARD FINKLE MR. J. M. LENTZ MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT. HE course in inatliematics requires for graduation three terms of Algel)ra and three of Geometry. The scope of the work in Algebra inchides the more advanced topics of progressions, binomial theorem, variation, etc. The work in Geometry includes both plane and solid Geometry. Such a course iii mathenuitics ade(iuately meets the most exacting College entrance requirements, although this is by no means the fundamental and only purpose of the dei)artment. Since the chief aim of the public schools is a better citizenship, the niathematics of the high school is not planned merelv to meet certain College entrance requirements and to fulfill certain laws, but to fur- nish knowledge and mental discipline. The students are instructed in mathematics and given the discipline afforded bv these subjects instead of the mere knowledge of the subjects as such. Freciuently it is claimed that high school mathematics is not prac- tical. No one will doubt that all knowledge in itself is practical but when it contributes to a well trained mind it is doublv so. The stu- dents are taught throughout their entire high school course, to gener- alize, to think broadly, to be exact, to make judgments quicklv, to see the application to problems of daily life. Thev are taught to see that they are constantly facing the same big problems met bv the business man, tlie housewife, and other practical persons, in that they must gain certain results with certain existing conditions. The students are 10