Wikipedia

Garfield High School (Seattle)

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 140.247.40.55 (talk) at 03:17, 25 October 2005 (→Drama Club). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|September 2005|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.

James A. Garfield High School
File:JamesAGarfield HS.jpg
Map
400 23rd AVE
Seattle, WA 98122
Information
TypePublic
Established1920
PrincipalTheodore Howard II
Faculty94 (October 2004)
Enrollment1,630 (October 2004)
Information(206) 252-2270
Mascot
Colors		Bulldog
Purple & White
Websitehttp://www.ghs.seattleschools.org

James A. Garfield High School is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington. It is known for its outstanding music program, and for its high degree of cultural diversity.

Located in the urban Central District of the Seattle, Garfield draws students from all over the city. The school's mascot is the bulldog and their colors are purple and white. Garfield has a tradition of a strong basketball, which was recently emphasized in the state tournament by a second place finish in 2004 and a championship in 2005. Garfield is known as one of the premier public high schools in the country for music education due to its award winning jazz bands and orchestra. Garfield is also known as the magnet school for the school district's Accelerated Progress Program for especially gifted students. As a result it has many college level classes for students to take ranging from calculus-based physics to Advanced Placement studio art. It competes each year with the Lakeside Upper School, a private school, for the highest number of graduating National Merit scholars in the city. The school is also known for its award-winning student led outdoor education program, known as Post 84.

History

James A. Garfield High School was founded in 1920 as East High School on its current ___location. Its original class consisted of only 282 students, transferred from Broadway High School. In just three years, however, the school's enrollment grew enough that the 12-room building was replaced with a brand new, Jacobean-style building designed by Floyd Naramore. In 1929, the city commissioned the architect to design an addition for the school as enrollment peaked at 2,300 students. [1]

The buildings have lasted for over eight decades, but are scheduled to be partially demolished in a sweeping redesign of the school which will begin in 2007. This will come as a relief to many of the students, who daily make their ways through narrow and overcrowded hallways.

Athletics

Basketball

Garfield basketball teams have won many regional and state titles, including a stretch of twelve years under coach Al Hairston from 1980 to 1991 during which time the Bulldogs won five Class AAA titles, eight Seattle Metro League championships, qualified for the state tournament nine times, and won the state tournament five times. The boys basketball team has been state champions a total of eleven times and runner up five times since 1949.[2] Both the girls and boys teams were state champions in 1980 and 1987. More recently, the girls team was runner up in 2004 and state champions in 2005 under former Garfield star Joyce Walker, who played on the 1980 championship team. [3] [4] [5]

Programs, Clubs and Activities

Post 84

Post 84 is the largest student program in Washington State, with over 350 members. It is a mostly autonomous youth branch of The Mountaineers, and is unique to Garfield. It provides extracurricular outdoor environmental education and leadership training, absent from the school district's mainstream offerings. Many of the program's participants are inner city kids who don't have these opportunities outside of school.

The program's outings include SCUBA diving, mountain and road biking, rock climbing, snow and beach camping, hiking, kayaking, wilderness survival training, and a trip called Desert School. Desert School is a week long trip to sagebrush steppe of Eastern Washington to teach freshmen about the geological and ecological history of Washington as well as give them an opportunity to bond with other members of the freshman class.[6] All of the trips are led by the staff of Post 84 which is comprised entirely of trained students.

The student staff have all undergone a 30 hour wilderness first aid course called Mountaineering Oriented First Aid (MOFA), in addition to leadership training, which is bolstered by the experience gained from leading trips. They have also completed the introductory Post trips called Wilderness Survival and Advanced Wilderness Survival.

Post 84 is a 501(c)3 non-profit with an executive committee comprised of Garfield students. The administrative side of the program is also run entirely by students in an occupational education class. Post 84 received the King County Earth Hero award in 2002 for environmental protection and education.[7]

MOFA is offered by The Mountaineers, an outdoor recreation club which promotes community awareness of local environmental matters and offers classes and trips in and about the great outdoors.

Music

The music program at Garfield High School is world-renowned, and has won numerous awards and the respect of many. It has produced several noted artists, including Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones.

Orchestra

The orchestra, under the direction of Marcus Tsutakawa, has been ranked as one of the best high school orchestras in America by Downbeat magazine for multiple years in a row. It includes a symphony orchestra, a concert orchestra, a chamber orchestra, and a thriving chamber music gig service started in 2004. The orchestra has toured in Japan on numerous occasions. One tour included a joint concert with the Kobe Philharmonic Orchestra and chance to perform at the Asakuchi Music Festival in Satosho. They have also toured central Europe with a second place finish in the internationally renowned Vienna Youth and Music Festival. [8] Graduates of the Garfield Orchestra have been admitted to many of the top music programs around the country, including Oberlin College, whose conservatory building was designed by Garfield graduate Minoru Yamasaki. In 1995, guest conductor, Gerard Schwarz, the Seattle Symphony Music Director said, "I don’t recall hearing a high school orchestra perform anywhere in this country on such a high level." [9]

Jazz

Garfield's Jazz program, under the direction of Clarence Acox, has won many state, national, and international awards and accolades in big band, combo, and individual categories. The Jazz Ensemble has toured Europe in the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals and has attended the International Association of Jazz Educators’ conference. [10]From its consistent placement in the top three of the Essentially Ellington Competition, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and Reno Jazz Festival, the Garfield Jazz Band is considered by some to be one of the best high school bands in the country. [11]


Drama Club

The Garfield Drama Club is the second largest student organization at Garfield. In a fight with the lamentable posties, Shmarfield's finest would destroy the multi-coloured fleet of north-face wearing silver-spoon-in-mouth losers. Let's go Sensually Frustrated Drama Geeks!

Noteworthy Students

Christophoro "CML" Morris-Lent: Complete Wanker.

Alberto C. Summerfield XIV: Sweet dude. Keep on tagging the b-room, dood.

Aric Skurdal- Blonde vixen.

Quincy Jones- Some sort of musician, or comedian... or something.

Jimi Hendrix: Greatest accordian player in history.

Warren Anderson- Complete effing pimp.

50 Cent: That's right. He went to Garfield.

Naomi Hummel-Sally Bowles

Molly Svenson- other Sally Bowles (blonde).

CML- Complete wanker.

Famous graduates

Garfield has a long tradition of musical greatness including jazz legends Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson. Jimi Hendrix attended, but dropped out at age 16 to pursue his music career. He was later awarded an honorary diploma.[12] More recently, Leah LaBelle (class of 2005) was a finalist on American Idol.[13] Garfield's extremely strong math and science departments can claim architect Minoru Yamasaki among their graduates. [14] Among the buildings he designed are the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and the World Trade Center in New York. He also designed the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, which now has many men and women from Garfield among its students. Another graduate and indirect contributor to the musicians of the school is philanthropist Jack Benaroya who donated the money to build the concert hall for the Seattle Symphony, a venue which Garfield's musicians have played at many times.[15] Chess grandmaster Yasser Seirawan won the U.S. junior championship while leading the Garfield chess team to a top five finish nationally. He graduated a year early to further pursue his chess career, winning the world junior championship in what would have been his senior year.[16] Garfield's strong sports teams have turned out two outstanding women athletes. Joyce Walker, 1984 Olympic women's basketball gold medalist, former Harlem Globetrotter, women's basketball All-American at LSU, and member of the LSU Hall of Fame, has nine individual high school state records still standing over a quarter of a century later. [17] [18] Garfield's basketball team also produced Debbie Armstrong, the 1984 Olympic giant slalom gold medalist.[19] Notable male athletes from Garfield include Dr. Homer Harris, who held all-city records in three track and field events, was the first African American captain in any sport in Big 10 history and is a member of the University of Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame, Chuck Carroll, who earned a total of 17 varsity letters in football, basketball, and baseball and is a member of three Football Hall of Fames, and Billy North, who played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball, winning a World Series title with the Oakland Athletics in 1974 and going to game six in the best of seven series with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1978.

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garfield_High_School_(Seattle)&oldid=26410146"