Image provided by: Charlotte Berkham; Portland, OR
About The Grantonian (Portland, Ore.) 19??-???? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1966)
* Q Youth corps program curtailed; school quota cut down to twelve Students interested in obtain ing part-time jobs through the Neighborhood Youth corpsshould contact Henry Pond who will help in getting in • touch with Joel Sappenfield, NYC coordi nator. The regular school pro gram is scheduled to begin this week. “The program has been drastically curtailed,” states Mr. Pond. Only 12 positions are open to Grant studénts this year as compared with 50 last year. According to the NYC summer newsletter, “Because the Depart ment of Labor desires to spread NYC money throughout the statfe, Portland will be allocated funds for 200 enrollees this year in stead of 650, as we had last year.” Congress is considering a bill that would double the appropri ation of NYC to $496,000,000. Wing construction nears completion Science will be moving into a building of its own this year. “We’re disappointed the con struction is not completed, but we are glad that the end of the construction is in sight,” com mented principal Dr. Roy Mjalo. Chemistry and biology classes anticipate completion of the new science building by November 1. Receiving special attention, the cafe teria remodeling is sched uled for completion thé first or second week after school begins. The cafeteria addition, the sci ence building, and a covered walkway leading from the main building to the science byilding have been under construction by the Gene H. Settergren Con struction company since Febru ary. Housed in the science building will be two chem istry and four biology classes. The two chemistry lecture rooms will share a lab. A dividing door will lend itself to team teaching of chemistry. Old science rooms 213 and 215 will be used for special educa tion classes. Rooms 229 ahd 235 will be converted into general science labs. A faculty lounge may develop in room 217. Rewriting the regulations to in clude all high school students is also under consideration. Presently students must be 16- 21 years old. Participants work 10 hours a week at $1.25 per hour. The vjrantonian Vol. 69, No. 1 U. S. Grant High School, Portland, Oregon Friday, Sept. 9, 1966 New teachers to replace old Japanese family hosts Michelle Rex as year begins Lost: Eighteen teachers. Six of these teachers taught English, two social studies, two art, two home economics, one math, one •physical education, two science, one music, one business educa tion, one industrial arts and one activities director. Lost are Alice Allen, Ber tha Alm, Evelyn Basgen, Lynda Bramlette, Joseph Carson, James DiNucci, Charles Edmonds and Hel en Fink. Completing the list are Steph anie Fisher, Judy Frykmann, D. Allen Johnson, Gerald Merry man, Ethel Nordgaard, Charlotte Pennington, Paul Romans, James Schell, Charles Stones and John Sweo. Found: Twenty-five new teach ers, two of whom are intern teachers. Teaching English will be Ronald Baderman, Ernest Cowan, Gayle Nelson, and Star Van Valkenburg an in tern teacher from Reed col lege. Those teaching languages are: Julian Amaya, Marjorie Blizzard and Mutsuko Bunch. Combined classes will be taught by Elizabeth Barker, James Conover, Agatha J. Fiskum and Mike Rumpakis. Konrad Daae, Rosalie Morris and Omer L. Watson are the new art teachers. Carolyn Fitzwater, Vernon Marshall, William White and Nora Young will teach physical education. Additional teachers are virgil Edstrom, industrial arts; Rebert Fair, mathematics; Wilbur Funk, choral music; John Monohan and Paul Yakimi, special education; Lee Ryker, biology; and Kay Willardson, home economics. by Cynthia Froom “It was Thursday last time we looked,” said Michelle Rex, sen ior, concerning time differences she encountered this summer as an American Field Service stu dent to Japan. Michelle and 49 other AFS students left San Fran cisco on Thursday at 10 a.m. and arrived in Tokyo, Japan, at 4 p.m. Friday. After an orientation in Tokyo and language lessons, the stu dents were sent. to their fami lies. Michelle took an eight hour- train ride to Takamatsu where her family was waiting. Takamatsu, located on the is land of Shikoku south of the main island, means the “tall pine tree” in Japanese. “I found some difficulty communicating at first with my family,” commented Mi chelle. “There was so much I wanted to tell them, but only my mother spoke a little English.” Japanese homes usually have sliding doors that make one large room or several smaller rooms. There are no beds and the floor is covered with “tata mi,” a type of thick mat, which is built into the floor and serves as the bed. Michelle’s home was much more “western” and she had her own bed. “Ochoogan,” a Japanese festival, was celebrated in the mid-summer and Mi chelle found it comparable to our Christmas. Almost every day during the two week period gifts of fruit, candy, cheese and butter came. Michelle was honored by the “tea ceremony club”, at her sis ter’s school. After the ceremony was performed, she was given a “yucata,” a cotton kimono, as a gift. Dating in Japan is much dif- MICHELLE REX, exchange student to Japan is honored by the “tea ceremony” club at her Japanese sister’s school. Michelle is wearing a “Yucata” which she was given as a gift after the ceremony. f er ent than in the United States. Three or four couples may get together on a Sunday afternoon Assembly included in Orientation day Orientation day on August 30 allowed approximately 750 in coming freshmen a preview look at the school. Organized by the executive council the day began with an assembly. Later there were sem inars, tours and a chance to pay fees, “I thought they were a good group . . . quiet in assembly,” stated Rick Dinihanian, student body president. for a movie or a trip to the tea and coffee house. “The teen-agers of Japan wear no mod clothing and I would say that they are about two years behind the US teen-agers,” said Michelle. “However they do have popular singers who sing songs that the Beatties do,” she added. JtampjuA, JfapsAA, Saturday, September 10— Football, 1:30 p.m., Frank lin, there. Wednesday, September 14— Assembly Thursday, September 15— Nelson Denney tests. Jean Lobb spends year as exchange student to Sweden by Lorna Viken Forty-four hours before sen ior Jean Lobb left for New York June 15 she was notified by the American Field Service of the opportunity to spend a year with a family in Sweden. Her wardrobe was pur chased in thirty minutes. She was given the multi tude of required shots in two days. Her passport met her in New York. Unaccompanied by the usual adult, Jean and seven other AFS exchange students from Oregon, Southern Washington and North ern California toured Chicago and Washington, D.C. Before an adult met them at the AFS dor mitory in New York, a Green wich Village exploration was in cluded. During the eleven days aboard the ship “Seven Seas” scheduled to arrive July 1 in Rotterdam, Jean and the other AFS students attended special orientation classes. One subject includ ed the Swedish language. Quotations are taken from Jean’s letters to her family. “Today they talked bn customs and holidays. They explained drinking prob lems and how to make and accept toasts. When one has a birthday, it is the custom to remain in bed until the entire family comes in and wakes you with their sing ing. “Crayfishing is a very popular Swedish pastime during August. Christmas was told about. “And the food; herring in the northern part of Sweden is so smelly that apartment houses rule that it must be eaten outdoors. “In the south, pig’s blood soup may be refused quite graciously. The other things sounded deli cious. (P S. Sunday, no classes. Monday, free love is orientation topic.)” Living in a rural area on a 2500 acre farm is a new exper ience for Jean. Most AFS ex change students apply for an en vironment similar to the one they have grown up in. Norrby is the name of her Swedish family. Jean has four brothers and a sister Lena, 19. The oldest brother, Jean Lobb 23, is studying in California. A 21-year-old boy is in the service and there are two more sons aged 16 and 12. “Tillflykten has begun to feel like home. The very name of the farm means “the refuge.” This family took 'me in as a member immediately, ahd the only “dif ficulties” in adjustment were lit tle ones: getting used to a differ ent bathtub (this one is about 6 inches narrower and 6 inches deeper than the one at home, I am sadly reminded as I bruise my elbows and trip climbing out); and getting used to a new sugar spoon (this one is shaped like a flattened out gravy ladle, with little holes in the bottom. Of course, I didn’t notice that the holes existed until I had car ried a spoonful of sugar to my dish of sour milk, from the sugar bowl across the table. By that time, the spoon was empty, and there was a little white trail across the tablecloth.” The father of the family works as head of a board which decides what construction can be done in the suburbs of Stockholm, which is forty minutes from home. “We came out onto a huge cobblestone marketplace with a huge fountain in the center, barrels of bright yel low flowers, an outdoor cafe in one corner, and a view of the water, the beautiful water. “Stockholm is all built on the water, it seems. There are four teen islands on which the city is built and some forty bridges con necting them.” Bicycles are the main trans portation for travelling through the countryside. “Our bikes ar rived July 6, rusty and old, rented from the nearby police station at Skellefted. We’ve ex plored all the country roads around here.” Jean has been away from home for almost three months. During this time she has learned much about Sweden, its customs, cul tures, and people. But she has also learned about Amer ica and, most important, about herself. “Now I see what is meant by the ostentatiousness of Ameri can tourists. Everywhere. But Americans—much as you may embarass me here, much as I wish you could be just a little more sensitive to the country you are now in, I’ve never loved you more. “When I see an American now, I immediately feel a bond, a kin ship, and I love you more than anything because we have some thing in common. I am proud to be an American, and I think America is great — has been greater, can be greater.”
