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Morning sun greets many banners
On its western track, Dear to us beyond all others Waves the Gold and Black. Flag we love, black and gold, |
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To the torch of Scarlet and Silver,
We lift our voices high. It sheds the light of learning, Though years may onward fly. Suns may rise and set on thee, |
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Looking back, it seems like it should have been a cinch. Go to school, pay attention to teachers, do assignments, take tests. It was, after all, laid out in easy-to-follow steps, just like an Arthur Murray Dance Studio course. In actuality, it was anything but easy. There was peer pressure and volumes of unspoken rules. There were the right clothes, the right shoes, the right crowd. There was cool and not-cool, and a whole lot of each. There was the right table in the cafeteria. The right school clubs and activities. There were kids from different social stratas, each keeping to their own. But we all had the desire to belong, to be a part of something, and ultimately, we were: when all was said and done, differences were put aside and we all stood together as members of one proud community named Miami Beach High School.
The "old" school itself? Even if you weren't really interested, you couldn't help but notice that Ida M. Fisher's architect, August Geiger, had created something quite special. The building had two separate but adjoining sections that housed grades seven through twelve. Stuccoed archways, Spanish-tile roofs, and open air everywhere made the architectural style of the building perfectly suited to its tropical environment.There were three levels of classrooms, and each class opened on an exposed courtyard. In the center of one, coconut palms held sway over a carefully tended garden and fresh-water pond; in the other was a large terrazzo patio area that hosted the most important of our pep rallies. Until 1960, when the senior high was relocated to 2221 Prarie Avenue (now called Hi-Tide Drive), and the black-and-gold Typhoons became the scarlet-and-silver Hi-Tides, Mr. Geiger's beautiful high school building was a great place to start finding one's way in the world, and it's a place that is affectionately remembered. |
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| If the spirit of a school is its student population, its intellect is certainly its teaching staff, and Beach High had a whopping intellect. It was also a demanding one; teachers pretty much insisted that their students produce, and parents had no problem with that. Discipline was the order of the day, but it was always meted out with respect . . . and the respect flowed both ways. They were for the most part superlative instructors and caring people, the teachers of Beach High. Gail Hammond Davis and Robert Kope, Orin Schroeder and Ann Hendrick, John Coleman, and Myron McKiernan, Charles Drummond and Leonard Frischman, and all the rest. Perhaps we didn't realize it then, but looking back we know: we were truly blessed and privileged. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| No remembrance of Beach High in the decade of the '50s and early '60s would be complete without mentioning the school's principal, Irwin W. Katz. As Leslie Litt (at the time in 11-9) said of Mr. Katz in the Embryo Literary Magazine of 1959, "(He) is a warm, capable, and most understanding leader who is as much a part of Beach High as the very halls through which we walk. . . . | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"On the subject of discipline, Mr. Katz has some convincing theories. He believes young people 'understand and want limitations'; and as long as the authority is fair, it will be respected. Privileges should be given in proportion to the degree of one's maturity. This philosophy," she goes on, "is possibly a contributing factor in the secure feeling of the Beach High students. |
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| "Mr. Irvin W. Katz, the pulse of Miami Beach High School, is quite an inspiring person. To even talk with him for a little while is heartwarming because he is so interested in every person around him. . . . This school is his school, and we can take a cue from his words that he will do his best to 'continue to make Beach the best school in the county.'" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I think we're probably all agreed that he more than kept his pledge during his tenure at our school. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2004 Words to the Wise, Inc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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