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WJ has 22 National Merit Semifinalists for 1968-69, more than :; either of the last two years. The semi-finalists are Teresa Amott\ Fred Artiss, George Bowden, Jean Carter, Vincent Barbara comer, Cgoliano1 Deborah Cooper, Jonathan Crutchley, Timothy Grittin, Edward Huff, Wayne Itano, Sheryl Litwin, Marsha Merrill, Jean Millican, Marie Moran, Martin Murphy, Sally Newman, Andrea A sneaky hand-off is well guarded by a powerful offensive squad of 16 Schiff, Richard Sutermeister, of WJ's 22 NMSQT Semi-Finalists. Bruce Tanenbaum, David Wald, and Linda Watson. These students achieved high status on the National Merit Scholarship QualUying T es t, which is administered each year by the National Merit Scholarship Program. The Program provides $1000 scholarships to those students who go on to become Finalists and Merit Scholars. Last year WJ had 19 Semifinalists; the year before, 16. VOL. 13, NO.2 WALTER JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL SEPTEMBER 27, 1968 Even though it has more this year, it still falls behind both B-CC and Walt Whitman. B-CC has the most in the area, 30 students, while Whitman follows with 24. However, WJ has the highest single scorer in the entire state: Linda Watson, who Charlie Brown and his All- Pierce; Snoopy by Bobbie Stalley; ing a song and dance interpreachieved the greatest possible stars plan to host Fantasia '68 Linus by John Nehmer; Sally by tation from "Thoroughly Modern score of 160. to be held October 4 and 5 in Mary Dillon; and Frieda, the one Millie.• Thera will be a Mexican the Boys' Gym, admission 75~. with the naturally curly hair, Hat Dance, a jazz dance and a Two studentB leave Mrs. Marilyn Voss will direct played by Gail McMullen. All of Spanish dance. Lori de Marne the show, and Thespian Presi- the characters were chosen will sing Janis Ian's "Society's Unfortunately, two of WJ's dent, Bob Graham, assisted by through auditions. Child• and Mrs. Randall will sing semi-finalists no longer attend SemPron and Drama n students There will be two acts with an •summertime• from the music.:.' this school. Linda Watson was wUl sponsor it. All profits will intermission during which re- Porgy and Bess. Several surprise accepted without her senior high be given to the SCA. freshments will be sold. acts will also be featured. school diploma by Radcliffe ColThe Crew Chairmen have been lege where she is now a fresh"I'm sure everyone will be "The all school variety show glad to hear that Mr. Tippens is a revised tradition which needs working choosing their crewsfor man. Teresa Amott left WJ in will be back to sing original the support of the whole school to Fantasia. Paints chairmen are order to attend McDuffie School songs and play his guitar,9 Peg be a success. students really steffi James, and Barbara Plitt; for Girls in Massachusetts where Melville, Thespian ana Semanon should attend and become aware makeup, Peg Melville; stage, Phil she is completing her senior year. member, reflected. of the surprisingly good talent Kurz; props, Roger Lydon. Fantasia was started on April About 15,000 Semi-finalists here at WJ,• encouraged Mrs. The show will be MC'd by Jett of '57 by the WJ Drama club as have been announced all over the Voss, Drama teacher and ThesJackson, as Charlie Brown. Some a money-making project. n con- country. Each state picks its pian sponsor. of the other Peanuts characters tinued as a tradition for the next Semi-finalists separately by will be interspersed throughout The show will feature a wide five years using such themes as counting the highest scores until the show, doing small comedy variety of acts ranging from a Show boat, Academy Awards, its quota is fllled. Thus, each skits. Lucy will be played by band playing selections from Fantasia-psychoanalized, and state has a different qualifying,
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qualifying score this year is 146. Last year it was 147, and in 1956 it was 150. For the 1967-68 year, Maryland had the second highest selection score in the country. New York had the top score ,, In Marylana, 12,754 students from 211 secondary schools took the NMSQT last March. Out of this number, 275 studentsgotl46' or better, and 1,444 students got at least 134, which is the qualifying score for commended students. WJ has a total of 62 commendations. Problems of commendation A large number of these 62 students received a score of 145, one point beneath the qualifying score. In almost any other state they would probably have been Finalists and then Merit Scholars, since most other states have lower selection scores.
The next stage of the competition for the Semi-finalists is qualification as Finalists. All Semi-finalists automaticallybecome Finalists if they are endorsed by their secondary schools, have high SAT scores, and submit the required information to the program. This information includes a financial statement. Merit Scholars' awards
The Merit Scholars are selected orig1nally without regard to financial need. They can receive either one-time s<:holarships or renewable scholarships, depending on their need. Merit Scholars for this year will be announced May 1, 1969. The NMSQT' is a series offive tests in the areas of English Usage, Math Usage, Social Studies Re ad in g, Natural Sciences Reading, and Word Usage. The sum of the scores on these tests determines the
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pec1a c asses cause overcrowding tory, it's an uncomfortable feel1ng being in Mr. Stephen Perialas•s 36 member first period •Thirty-eight students in my class knowing that Miss Reeder first period class, •Mr. Alexis is teaching the same course UPvon Bretzel, U.S. History tea- stairs with only 29 pupils. These are extreme examples, cher,exclaimed• •We'll see what we can do to but their point is ovvious. The adjust it,• sighed Mr. Lewis tenth day enrollment classroom Francis, head of the guidance figures are charted and available in Guidance Office A for department. Mr. von Bre!zel' s ,Jroblem ty- any interested student. •we used pifies conditions in many WJ to try to 1\fde these figures, but classrooms this year. Classes there's no point in tt," admitted are not only overcrowded, they Mr. Francis who is still making are also, in many cases, extre- schedule adjustments. mely unequal in size as is shown by two of Mr. von Bretzel's u.s. Computers blamed History classes: first period of 38 students and fifth periO':i of Mr. Francis attributed most of only 24. Something is wrong here. the_schedule mix-ups to the newby Laura Rosentbal and Tammy Jacobs
Miss Lucia Reeder i n her seventh period class teaches 32 students while during sixth period she can provide more individual work because there are only 15 enrolled in this section. It's that WaY in Mrs. FlorenceNewman•s Typing 2 classes also: 28 students in fourth period and exactly half that number in period six. And to get back into Modern World His-
ness of the computer system which WJ used for the first time this year. •Theoretically,• he stated,• the machine came out with better schedules -- there were fewer conflicts than last year.• But there was still plenty of confllsion as students searched for room 414 and classes remained · in the state of unbalance, But the problem of unbalanced classes is far from the most im-
portant one. As usual,thecrucial situation confronting WJ is the faculty, or lack of it. Projections innacurate
ous college entrance problems-so the course is being offered at WJ. However, is it fair to take up _one teacher and one class period to teach only 10 students? Then there is Mr. Donald Smith's second period, 11 student Technical Electronics course, and Miss Mary Ann DiPaolo's Ceramics 2 course with 11 students. Not to mention On the Job Training, which involves 17 students, or WJ's complete German program, set up for only 82 students. •we could have cut German,• stated Dr. Donald Reddick, "but 82 students wanted it." "So there is a shortage,• explained Mr. Francis, "If.we give everyone what he wants, and that' s what we're trying to do.•
Although the projection for the number of students for '68-'69 was 1,997, actual tenth day enrollment was 2,026. With the teachers we now have, WJ is still 1.2 teachers short. However, this is according to average figures and does nottak~intoaccountthat WJ has a ma]Or problem: its special programs. For example, •Pitch • and •Windup" occupy two periods of Miss Susan Barrett's schedule each day: periods that co'lld be better spent teaching English classes, suggests Mr. Francis. It's a decision that has to be made, and perhaps the only people who The number game realize the importance of these publication periods are the people And that• s the way the numon the two staffs. bers game works. Rockville takes Another classic example is the number of students divides Mrs. Allee Washer's Latin 3 ' and 4 class of ten people. by the number of teachers, diIn some schools Latin 4 stu- Vides again by the five classes dents find that they cannot take teachers are expected to carry the course because only a few a day, and comes out with a others signed Up. Lack of that ratio of 27.9 to 1. But it doesn't certain credit could cause seri- quite end up that way, because,
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out of necessity, differentcourses have have different class sizes. "We don't want the numbers game unless it helps us!" emphasized Dr. Reddick. "We want to build our case on programs. I don't believe in the ratio concept. • The major part of Tuesday's PTA meeting was to acquaint parents with the shortage problem. One suggestion, which wasn't a new one, dealt with establishing a maximum instead of an average class size. Dr. Reddick's eloquent but somewhat emotional discussion of the problem presented the facts as he sees them along with. the assertation that other county principals are also facing and makingpublicthesamesituatton. •Since last February we've bee n teu;.,,,. ....,, it like it is•" District ten director, Mr. Henry Gregory, a former principal of WJ, replied to Dr. Reddick with facts and figures of his own. Mr. Gregory, who rep:-esents the other side of the arguCont. page 3