Kingston High School 1965 Yearbook (Kingston, NY) - Full Access

Drama should fulfill three obligations if it is to exist in an ed– ucational setting. The foremost obligation is to those students who work most ac– tively to produce a play. Their training should be sound and of sig– nificant value in all future dramatic endeavors. The second obligation is to the entire student body. In classes they are taught what one looks for when seeing good drama, and any play produced in an educational institution ought to serve as a practical example of these principles, thus supplementing the regular program. The final, and most im– portant obligation is to the audience as a whole. Parents, friends, and neighbors can be persuaded to visit the school to see some particular student perform. Often they do so with an attitude of sacrifice and martyrdom. It is the obligation of all who work on a production to make it so excitingly meaningful as to dissolve this attitude of m– difference and allow one of eager participation and enthusiastic re– sponse to grow in its place. The Advanced Placement Program was started in September, 1958, under the guidance of Mr. M. Clifford Miller, then principal of the high school. Underlying the program was an awareness of the nec– essity for judgments and insights that went to the heart of human com– plexities. The program sought to enrich the experiences of capable youngsters and provide for them frames of reference which would transcend the limitations of popular culture. In the English program the emphasis is placed upon the examin– ation and evaluation of literature in much greater depth. Authors such as Eliot, Hardy, and Ibsen provide a look at the major intellectual trends of our times and seek to understand their causes. In social studies greater emphasis is placed on ideas which have changed and determined the course of human events. History becomes, then, an examination of the past in order to anticipate the future. In the sciences, a much greater emphasis is placed on the scientific method and its relation– ship to the institutions and mentality of the present day. In a word, the juncture between science and philosophy becomes more meaningful. If one could point to a single major goal of the Advanced Place– ment Program, it would have to be that which provides a degree of detachment for those who one day will seek to determine the future. 157