This year we are very fortunate in our school to have an American Field Service student from England. I, like many others, have talked to Margaret Ireland about English customs, reaction to American and English schools. I find Maggie extremely interesting and would like to share with you a typical English school day as told to me in Maggie's own words.
My normal school day begins about 7:30 when I am awakened by my father, cup of tea in hand. I leave the house about 8:15 and travel, by car, to my school seven miles away. When I get to school all the girls gather in the cloak room for exchange of news, gossip, etc., before going to the auditorium for a short religious service, at the end of which the announcements for the day are given. Lessons begin at 9:15. There are seven 60-minute lessons a day. Others may be added after school but usually you will leave school at 3:35. After the first two lessons we have a short break when everybody goes outside, weather permitting, and drinks their free milk. For those of us who have reached our last two years in school, there are special duties at this time, our main one being making sure that everybody goes outside. This can be quite a job when the weather begins getting colder.
Lessons begin again at 10:55 and we have three more classes before lunch. Most people stay in school for lunch as a lot of people live out of town. The meals are government subsidized and cost us about 25 cents. The break at lunch is usually filled by some society, either films, music or a program.
During the summer months people like to use their spare time to play tennis or sun bathe-if there is any sun.
In our school there are students aged 11 through 18. This means that the older students aged 17 and 18 have to do a certain amount of military duties. We have to keep order in the libraries and in the halls where silence is necessary and this includes most of the places where people move about because the crowded conditions make such rules necessary for the smooth running of the school. Because many people go to school in a town other than were their homes are located, and since it is an all-girl school, the social life is limited. We do not go to watch our teams play and the only time we manage a dance is for very special money-raising purposes. You school and your home are usually quite separate.
Two Fort Scott seniors were announced today as winners of the "Outstanding Youth of the Month" award sponsored by the Optimist Club. They are Steve Armstrong and Judith Kay Singmaster.
As musician, Miss Singmaster plays the accordion as a sololist in a band and in a duet. She also plays the viola in the Fort Scott Youth Symphony, the Pittsburg Youth Symphony, and the High School Orchestra. She also plays the piano, sings in the school's select chorus, a sextette, and a girl's trio, and sang the part of "Anna" in the school production of "The King and I." She won a place in the state 4-H chorus and a trip to the Kansas State Music Clinic at Manhattan as a reward for outstanding music activity. At the Kansas State Federation of Music Clubs Contest at Pittsburg last year, her accordion solo received a "highly superior" rating, and a duet with Charla May Edmiston, also won the highest rating. The two of them appeared on the state superior winners concert as a result.
She was chosen as the County Leadership Girl in 1963 and 1964 in 4-H, and has shown dairy heifers at the fair and had the grand champion female in 1963.
Scholastically, she has always been an A student, and gave the valedictory address for the graduating freshmen class of over 230 students. She as remained on the honor roll through high school. Her activities include Y-Teen, Pep Club, Foreign Language Club (vice president) and Thespians. This year she is vice president of Pep Club and president of the Thespians.
She has performed on programs for numerous civic and service clubs in Fort Scott and the area. She plans to enter the University of Missouri at Kansas City to study English and the accordion, and hopes to become an English teacher.
Armstrong, an outstanding athlete, is the son of the fifth grade teacher at Eugene Ware School. During his eighth grade year he lettered in basketball and was a member of the football and track teams. He was third on the honor roll. In the ninth grade he lettered in football, basketball and track, was president of the student council and tied for first on the honor roll. As a sophomore he participated in basketball and track and received a minor letter in both and was a member of the Foreign Language Club and was at the top of the honor roll.
During his junior year, he was president of his class, a member of the Letterman's Club, and at the top of the honor roll, co-captain of the basketball team and voted All-SEK by the coaches of the league. He lettered in basketball and track. This year he is a member of the Letterman's Club, a member of Pep Club and again co-captain of the basketball team.
He attends Diamond Union Church regularly and is president of the Diamond Youth Fellowship. He wants to coach basketball and teach mathematics.
Making their entrance on a cue from the director are Ellen Query, Steve Miller, Jill Lewis and Jo Nell Anderson. The percussion section builds up an exciting climax in Handel's score of "The Royal Fireworks."
Brass section principlas Roger Sprecher, Richard Albright, Lynn Murray and Dale Carter lend a quick change in dynamics during the playing of "The Last Spring" by Edward Grieg.
Concertmistress Bonnie Floyd "takes it in tempo" as she and director Carl B. Clinesmith work out a passage in Mozart's Symphony in G Minor.
Kaye Clinesmith, viola soloist with the Youth Symphony, pauses in rehersal. She is a senior and also a student of Markwood Holmes, Pittsburg State College. Miss Clinsmith attended the Junior High Music Camp at the University of Kansas in 1961 and played principal viola in the orchestra, and in 1962 and 1963 attended the Mid-Western Music and Art Camp at the university. She received a Division I rating for viola in both district and state contests when a sophomore and junior. She is a member of Mid-America Youth Symphony and has played principal viola with that organization for the past two years. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, moderator of the Presbyterian senior youth fellowship, Pep Club and student council.
Principals in the string section are Bonnie Floyd, Kathy McNear, Mike Dunkel, Kaye Clincsmith, and David Freeman.
Time out for the woodwinds gives a much needed rest to these first chair instrumentalists: Kathy Ellis, Susan Stapleton, Sandra Newcomb, Susan Diehl and Al Gordon.
