Waterloo High School - Rosebud Yearbook (Waterloo, IN)

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THE ROSEBUD 15 at the same time it is preparing for work in engineering, surveying, and leads into the field of applied Mathematics. One-half of the Senior year is given to Commercial Arithmetic, involving reviews and drills of the practical problems in Arithmetic that are met in every-day life. The main subjects treated are fundamental operations, deci- mals, fractions, mensuration, percentage, interest, discount, partial payments, gain and loss, notes, papers, etc. SCIENCE Physics is tin science of natural phenomena and laws governing them. The work of the first semester is in Mechanics and Ileat and that of the second is in Magnetism. Electricity and Light. So far as possible the work is made practical. The laboratory is fairly well equipped with apparatus for individual and class experiments. Agriculture. “The basis of all American life and progress is the American farm. Pack to the soil is the cry. The purpose of this course is not to turn out in one year boys and girls with expert knowledge of how a farm should be carried on. It is rather to create an interest in the vital subject, which interest will lead to more attention to farm possibilities. The work covers in general: Plants and Plant Propagation. Tests for Germination, IIow to Increase the Yield. Soils, Various Farm Oops. Farm Animals, Horses, Sheep, Cattle, Hogs, Poultry. Plans of Buildings. The library is supplied with a large number of Farmers’ Bulletins and Reports which are used as supplemental work. Botany offers interesting subject matter to fulfill the science requirement. It is more than the science of plants for in it we study not only the structure of the different parts of the plants, the four great groups of plants and their various methods of accomplishing their two functions in life—getting a living and reproduction—but also how they adapt themselves to environment, distri- bution, elementary plant breeding and forestry, and their relation to the in- dustries. Practically every industry depends, directly or indirectly, upon plants, hence the importance of studying them. They offer great range in size and complexity, from the Giant Redwoods of California down to bacteria, which average one twenty-five thousandeth of an inch in diameter. It was Emerson who said: “The microscope cannot find the object in Nature which is less perfect for being little.' The truth of this becomes evident when we study algae, fungi and other microscopic plants, which one unfamiliar with botany would overlook entirely. The students become more observing of Nature and more appreciative of her beauties. Last fall the class made a study of trees and each student collected and mounted leaves of twenty species. A collection of common weeds was made also. In spring each student made a herbarium of fifteen spring flowers with detailed description and drawings of each plant. Several experiments were made to illustrate scientific principles. Frequent field trips brought the stu- dents into actual contact with Nature and made the work more attractive as well as more profitable.

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14 THE ROSEBUD FOREIGN LANGUAGE There are many advantages to be gained from studying a foreign lan- guage: as the principles of grammar are essentially the same in all languages, the study of Latin or German in High School serves to familiarize the student with English grammar. The vocabulary of tin average Freshman is naturally limited, and nothing serves to broaden it and furnish a supply of synonyms as well as the study of another language. At least sixty per cent of the words in the English language are derived from Latin: this alone would justify studying Latin in High Schools. Since French, Spanish and Italian are but modernized forms of Latin, the High School Latin furnishes a foundation for the study of any or all of these. The terms used by professional men— doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, etc., are in great part Latin. Much information of historical interest is learned from translating the writings of the ancient Romans. The greatest benefit, however, is that it teaches pupils to think. One cannot t: an date correctly without think- ing of case, number, tense, voice, etc. When a vocabulary gives several English equivalents of one Latin verb, the student must choose the one best adapted to the sentence—thus the judgment is trained. The first year’s work in either language consists of memorizing the de- clensions and conjugations, acquiring a vocabulary, and translating simple exercises. During the second year Caesar's Gallic War is translated. The great resemblance between Ariovistus and his descendant. Wilhelm II. has made “The War With Ariovistus” especially interesting this year. Exercises in Prose Composition once each week train the student to translate English into Latin. As only a few desired to study Cicero's Orations this year, that course was omitted. The study of German is not being emphasized this year, and will not be offered next year, but it was thought best to allow those who had begun it last year to have an opportunity to complete their language requirement in that language. MATHEMATICS One and one-half years are given to Algebra. The purpose in view is cor- rectness of thinking and accuracy in action. Mathematics teaches one to be exact, not part of the time and only in some places, but all the time in all places. If the pupil is preparing for higher education, Algebra is required as a basis for more advanced work. If he goes into business the training will lead him to be more exact and clear in his everv-day thinking. Geometry is offered in the last half of the Sophomore year and during the Junior year, the work including five books of Plane and three of Solid. The study of Geometry is such that it will lead the student to recognize and com- prehend mathematical construction of various objects round about him. The work with lines, angles, polygons, etc., in Plane Geometry, and planes, cubes, spheres, prisms, etc., in Solids, give concrete problems in Mensuration, while

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16 THE ROSEBUD MANUAL TRAINING No great amount of Shop Work was done by the High School boys this year as tlie students have already done much more than the required amount of this kind of work. The Grade boys gave one period a week to the work. The work was largely elementary, care and us» of tools, squaring stock, planing, ripping, laying out problems, etc. A small table with checkerboard top was made by each student that applied all the various problems of squaring, mitering, gluing, mortise and tenon making, and finishing. COMMERCIAL LAW A new subject introduced this year which is proving to be a decided suc- cess is Commercial Law. The students feel that it is work that is of direct benefit to them as it brings them in touch with some of tin common phases of every-day business life. The work is given in one semester and covers the subjects of Contracts, Agency, Negotiable Papers, Sales and Transfer of Property. Insurance, Part- nership and Corporations. DOMESTIC SCIENCE Every woman should know something about the science of cooking and the art of sewing. Many girls do not have the advantage of learning much of these subjects at home, so because of their importance, they have been given a place in the life of the school. One of the objects in introducing cooking and sewing in the public schools is to stimulate in the lives of our girls an interest for home-making. This year, more so than ever, our girls have had a chance to become acquainted with the problems of the home. In our cooking we have tried to follow the food conservation plans of Mr. Hoover, tin food administrator, in which he asks us to use foods which heretofore were not used extensively in our diet. And many of the recipes we found very satisfactory, especially the cereal dishes, and also tin war breads, in which we used corn-meal, oat-meal, rye, barley, graham and whole wheat flours. The substitute foods must be used in the diet at tin present time and our girls have learned how to cook many of these foods, so without doubt this fund of knowledge, small as it may be, helps our mothers with their food problems. Among useful things in the line of sewing, our girls have made simple garments for the poor and wearing apparel for themselves. They have also learned the old-fashioned art of knitting and have devoted much of their time to knitting for the Red Cross.