Middletowns High School Curriculum and Extracurriculum in the 1920s

Document A: Courses of Study Available to Students at Middletowns Central High School: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. General Course College Preparatory Course Music Course Art Course Shorthand Course Bookkeeping Course 7. Applied Electricity Course 8. Mechanical Drafting Course 9. Printing Course 10. Machine Shop Course 11. Manual Arts Course 12. Home Economics Course

Courses Three to Twelve inclusive have a uniform first-year group of required and elective subjects. Four subjects are taken each half of each year, of which two or three are required and the rest selected from among a list offering from two to nine electives, according to the course and the year. The indispensables of secondary education required of every high school student are: Four years of English for those taking Courses One through Six. Three years of English for those taking Courses Seven through Twelve. One year of algebra. One year of general history. One year of American history. One-half year of civics. One-half year of sociology. One year of science. One-half year of music. One-half year of gymnasium.

Document B: History furnishes no parallel of national growth [to that of the United States]....Practically all of this has been accomplished since we adopted our present form of government, and we are justified in believing that our political philosophy is right, and that those who are today assailing it are wrong. To properly grasp the philosophy of this government of ours, requires a correct knowledge of its history. --Indiana State Manual for Secondary Schools (1923)

Document C: A sense of the greatness of their state and a pride in its history should be developed in the minds of children....[Teachers should instruct that] the right of revolution does not exist in America. We had a revolution 140 years ago which made it unnecessary to have any other revolution in this country....One of the many meanings of democracy is that it is a form of government in which the right of revolution has been lost....No man can be a sound and sterling American who believes that force is necessary to effectuate the popular will....Americanism... emphatically means...that we have repudiated old European methods of settling domestic questions, and have evolved for ourselves machinery by which revolution as a method of changing our life is outgrown, abandoned, outlawed. --Indiana State Manual for Elementary Schools (1921)

Document D: The most fundamental impression a study of history should leave on the youth of the land when they have reached the period of citizenship is that they are their governments keepers as well as their brothers keepers in a very true sense. This study should lead us to feel and will that sacrifice and service for our neighbor are the best fruits of life; that reverence for law, which means, also, reverence for God, is fundamental to citizenship; that private property, in the strictest sense, is a trust imposed upon us to be administered for the public good; that no man can safely live unto himself... --Indiana State Course of Study of the Elementary Schools (1923)

Document E: In class discussion I try to bring out minor points, two ways of looking at a thing and all that, but in examinations I try to emphasize important principles and group the main facts that they have to remember around them. I always ask simple fact questions in examinations. They get all mixed up and confused if we ask questions where they have to think, and write all over the place. --Teacher of history and civics (1924)

Document F: When do you study? some one asked a clever high school Senior who had just finished recounting her week of club meetings, committee meetings, and dances, ending with three parties the night before. Oh, in civics I know more or less about politics, so its easy to talk and I dont have to study that. In English were reading plays and I can just look at the end of the play and know about that. Typewriting and chemistry I dont have to study outside anyway. Virgil is worst, but Ive stuck out Latin four years for the Virgil banquet; I just sit next to ------- and get it from her. Mother jumps on me for never studying, but I get As all the time, so she cant say anything. --Interview with high school senior (1924)

Document G: The theory of evolution offers a more accurate account of the origin and history of mankind than that offered by a literal interpretation of the first chapters of the Bible. True: 19% False: 48% Uncertain: 26% No answer: 7% --Poll of 556 Central High School students (1924)

Document H: The Turemethian Society makes every individual feel that practically he is free to choose between good and evil; that he is not a mere straw thrown upon the water to mark the direction of the current, but that he has within himself the power of a strong swimmer and is capable of striking out for himself, of buffeting the waves, and directing, to a certain extent, his own independent course. Socrates said, Let him who would move the world move first himself....A paper called The Zetetic is prepared and read at each meeting....Debates have created...a friendly rivalry...Another very interesting feature of the Turemethian Society is the lectures delivered to us....All of these lectures help to make our High School one of the first of its kind in the land. The Turemethian Society has slowly progressed in the last year. What the future has in store for it we can not tell, but must say as Mary Riley Smith said, Gods plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold; we must not tear the close-fhut leaves apart; time will reveal the calyxes of gold. --The Turemethian Literary Society, the only club in the school, described in the 1894 yearbook

Document I: The Bearcat spirit has permeated our high school in the last few yeas and pushed it into the prominence that it now holds. The 24 Magician has endeavored to catch, reflect and record this spirit because it has been so evident this year. We hope that after you have glanced at this book for the first time, this spirit will be evident to you. However, most of all, we hope that in perhaps twenty years, if you become tired of this old world, you will pick up this book and it will restore to you the spirit, pep, and enthusiasm of the old Bearcat Days and will inspire in you better things. --The 1924 yearbook

Document J: 1. To support live school organizations. 2. To recognize worth-while individual student achievements. 3. Above all to foster the real Bearcat spirit in all of Central High School. --Platform of the student newspaper (1924)