Central High School - Red and Black Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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reaenfing- Superintendent o Instruction , Dr. Henry J. Gerling ' f ' ENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL has indeed a unique and distinctive history. Built in 1853, after ten years of planning, it achieved the distinction of being the first public high school west of the Mississippi River, and probably the first co-educational high school in the United States. From its beginning it has been a compliment to the pioneer spirit of American democracy. For fifty years Central High School was the only public white high school in St. Louis: and among its graduates of that historic half century, are the names of many distinguished men and women. The influence of these graduates has been no small factor in spreading high-school opportunities to an ever growing portion of the city's population. Today St. Louis has ten public high schools, eight white and two colored, enrolling more than 20,000 boys and girls annuallyg and while the girls greatly outnumbered the boys in the high-school enrollment of those early years, the enrollment today includes a slight majority of boys in all of the high schools, Central included. This volume is replete with information about the glorious achievements of Central High School through its eighty-five years of existence. What is being said, and said well, by the many contributors to this yearbook, needs no supplement of further facts. This statement is intended. therefore, merely to convey my appreciation of the school, my pride in its history, my earnest hope that its splendid ideals will persist. On the firm foundation of its traditions, may Central High School add to its illustrious past the splendor of a brilliant future. r:::::::::::::::-::::::::-hr:::::::4-rr.-::ee-eereere:sr:v-Y-::::::::4vsr:::-::::+:::::::::::::::v-eerr::::::::::-er

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President on the 100th Anniversary of the Founding Public Education in St. Louis THE N 1 t t l r WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON February ll., 1938 My dear Mr. Gerling: I am glad that you are planning appropriate recognition of the centennial of the opening of the first public school in St. Louis. Our democratic form of government, which gives the individual infinitely more than any other likewise makes infinitely greater demands upon every member of the community. Ae the bulwark of our system of govern- ment is education, the public school is indeed the corner- stone of our whole democratic plan. It is something we must protect and improve and perpetuate as the invincible guardian of that form of government which alone will satisfy a free people. Very sincerely yours , 21444-if 114 Roosevelt's Letter to Dr. Gerling Of