Social Studies

The arts are not dying in public schools, or at least not in Howard County. Instead, they're being infused into language arts, social studies, math and science, breathing new life into those subjects while offering students a new approach to learning. The approach is called arts integration, and it is reaping dividends at several Howard County schools, particularly those at the elementary level. In using art, dance, drawing and painting in other class settings, teachers say they are improving students' retention and grasp of subject matter.

A history student at Chesapeake High School in Essex could take a virtual view of the Gettysburg battlefield and plot a course of action. An English student could adopt the persona of a soldier and write a letter home, or prepare a news account of the events. The interactive technology that math, science and engineering students at the school have experienced for the past two years in Chesapeake High's $2 million virtual learning environment will soon be expanded to social studies and language arts courses.

Ruth Whitney Seabold, a retired Franklin Senior High School social studies teacher, died of a circulation ailment Nov. 29 at Seminole Nursing Pavilion in Seminole, Fla. The former Reisterstown resident was 106. She was born Ruth Asenath Whitney on June 16, 1904, in Baltimore to Charles E. Whitney and Gertrude Widerman Whitney. Her father owned a Walbrook hardware store at the corner of West North Avenue and what was then called Ninth Street. In 1911 her family moved to Reisterstown, where her father had a 40-acre farm at Berrymans Lane and Nicodemus Road.

To boost Maryland's chances of winning millions of dollars in federal education aid this year, the General Assembly passed legislation making growth in student achievement count for 50 percent of teacher evaluations. The change paid off last month, when Maryland was awarded $250 million from the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition. But winning was just the beginning. Now schools have to figure out how to measure student performance in a way that allows them to say exactly which teachers are effective in the classroom and which aren't.

When Richard L. Bright began teaching in Anne Arundel County in 1961, he remembers the principal scolding the female students about their short skirts. In his 48th year as a county schoolteacher and final year at Old Mill High School in Millersville, Bright said, the school's announcement system buzzes daily with a message to students: "Girls, cover up, and boys, pull up your pants." "In that sense, things never change," said Bright, 75, who is retiring and planning to take a week to clean out his classroom after his final day of school last Tuesday.

The Rev. Virginia H. Leitzel, a retired Baltimore County school teacher who later became an ordained Methodist minister, died Friday from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 84. Virginia Doris Mae Hines was born at the Fort Howard Veterans Administration Hospital in eastern Baltimore County and raised in Sparrows Point. After graduating from Sparrows Point High School in 1942, she enrolled at what was then Western Maryland College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English and history in 1946.

Sara R. Sullivan, whose career as a Harford County educator spanned nearly 60 years, died from a stroke Tuesday at Stony Batter, her 19th-century Fallston home. She was 98. Sara Robinson, the daughter of a grist mill owner and a homemaker, was born and raised in Street. After graduating from Dublin High School in 1928, she earned a bachelor's degree from Western Maryland College in 1932. Mrs. Sullivan began her teaching career that year at Slate Ridge High School, where she taught English, French and social studies.

Beth K. Currie, a popular Lansdowne High School social studies teacher who believed it was important to get students out of the confines of the classroom and textbooks, died of pneumonia Tuesday at St. Agnes Hospital. She was 78. Beth Kopelke, whose parents were grocers, was born in Aurora, Ill., and spent her early years in the family grocery store. When the business failed during the Depression, the family moved to Florida, where members found jobs on a dairy farm, and then to Baltimore in the 1940s, when her father went to work for the Bettar Ice Cream Co. as a master ice cream maker.