The following is edited from a Sept. 19, 2019, article in the News-Press entitled “A look back at Cape Coral High School” by Cynthia Williams.
It’s June and school’s out for summer! While some adults may think of schools as daycare centers or relate only to athletic programs, responsible and attentive adults are interested in what the schools are feeding the brains of their students. After all, isn’t school’s primary function education? Let’s take a look at how well Cape Coral High educated its students before the age of hand-held, electronic devices.
1998
Cape Coral High placed a high value on its business department. School administrators recognized that students skilled in computer technology were going to be in demand and to prepare them for careers in this field, they took pride in offering courses in keyboarding, word processing, computer applications and desktop publishing. In 1999, 49 Cape students participated in the annual, district business school competitions, and 30 of them ranked in the first five places in their categories.
Language Arts teacher Sue Prophet
Prophet always encouraged her students to enter writing contests, and in 1998, not one, but three of her students were winners in the National Poetry Society’s national poetry contest. A phenomenal accomplishment when you realize that 23,000 schools nationwide submitted over 100,000 poems for consideration.
1999
A Cape student won the district-level award in the Optimist Club International Essay Contest and two freshmen won awards in the regional science fair in Fort Myers.
Cape High’s music department
The team produced the Percussion Ensemble, the Rendition Color Guard, and the Sea Starrs Dance Team, all of which qualified to perform in the competitive shows of the Southwest Florida Indoor Ensemble Association.
2002
Education is not all about winning contests. In 2002, a teacher at Cape High headlined in the News-Press for her innovative method of teaching French. Her students collectively created adventure stories based upon French history and acted out their stories in French…