Newton High School - Newtonian Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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and a host of other fateful activities. The office of Assistant Principal serves as clearing-house for information, a nerve- center for the total school, and a liason between administration, students, and fa- culty. Mr. Howland might well be called the Leonardo da Vinci of Newton High School. He is nominal director of all clubs and advisors, himself advisor to the Student Council. He is in charge of Orange Shield and the non-food service operation of our rather limited cafeter- ia, as he terms it. He must manage and be responsible for all student funds - the bursar is directly responsible to him. He is coordinator of data processing, and as such, the man directly responsible for IBM report cards, or what is sometimes referred to as Howland's Follyf' He makes up final exam schedules and gets out all special bulletins. He is director of the lost-and-found, Chairman of the United Fund Drive for Newton High per- sonnel, liason between the school and W Q- -- . ! Y I . gg, e' the Newton police, and shares graduation responsibilities with Mr. Gradone. On top of all that, he listens to all complaints, whether they be from stu- dents, faculty, parents, or disinterested observers, serves as a confidential agent for anyone wishing a sturdy shoulder to cry upon, accepts compliments on behalf of the school with grace, takes on major disciplinary problems, and at last, but by no means least, serves as principal when Mr. Mechem is called away. I have a very broad job status, Mr. Howland says. With a position as complex as that, many of us would go crazy almost im- mediately, but Mr. Howland relishes the work and all the glamorous situations he ends up in. As Assistant Bomb Ofiicer he used to spend sleepless nights wondering what he would do if he ever had to decide whether a bomb threat was real or not, but now he feels confident he would make the right decision. It's the kind of mis- take you can only make once, he says with an obviously blase gesture of his wrist. He gets his greatest pleasure from the personal contact of communication with people which he has as a go-between for administration and students. Sometimes he gets the feeling he must please every- one, even when he knows he canlt do it.

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' Mr. Richard Mechem, Principal became convinced that if major changes were going to take place in society they would have to take place in education. During his experiences in the Navy he began to feel that it wasn't enough just to deal with certain groups in society, and that he wanted to get into a situation where he would instead be influencing all of society. He started out as a teacher, but in his own words As I shot my mouth off with different suggestions, then, as always happens when you make a noise, you get put on a committee and pretty soon I found myself kind of drawn into administration. It was certainly an auspicious beginning. Gradually, he found his career moving more and more in that direction. His Hrst purely ad- ministrative position was as a Director of Studies in direct control of the curricu- lum at Groton. He began to feel that from his point of view the actual teaching experience was not enough, that his ca- reer would have greater direction and be more personally satisfying if he were in- volved in curriculum building. He hasn't given up on teaching, however, Teach- ing to me is still the most fun and the most rewarding, he says, and I'm still dissatisfied as a teacher. As principal of such a large school there is a danger that Mr. Mechem will .-.b ., 13 allow his job to become too concerned with abstract ideas, losing a sense of ex- actly what's going on in the school. He avoids this by visiting classes, by teaching whenever he can, and by keeping up with extra-curricular activities and sports as much as he can. Mr. Mechem has a responsibility in establishing communication between the community and the schools, a communi- cation which he feels is based on trust rather than on formal channels. At times this responsibility as the representa- tive for Newton High can reach almost theatrical proportions, extending over an area of several thousand square miles. During the ulonghair crises last fall Mr. Mechem was berated for several hours by an all-night disc-jockey in Providence, Rhode Island. Mr. Mechem's comment: His attitude was how square can you get? It is in the area of future planning that Mr. Mechem is most excited. Both in curriculum and in general school policy there are dramatic changes in the ofling. With obvious pride he says, At Newton we have very much encouraged not only the department heads but the individual teachers to push ahead on projects of their own. We are on the threshold of something almost revolutionaryg we will be attempting to free the high school from the students' point of viewf' The future Newton High will be organized around teaching units of three teachers, each sharing an office and classrooms. The high school will be open both day and night in an attempt to fully utilize its fa- cilities. The cafeteria will be open at all times. Students will only have to attend school when they have classes. Oppor- tunities will be available for superior students to graduate in one or two years. The physical plant will be much im- proved, with extended laboratory and athletic facilities. Mr. Mechem even en- visions a swimming pool. Without losing sight of immediate problems flike girls' boots! it is towards this future vision of a collegiate Newton High School campus that Mr. Mechem works. Which administrator has the titles As- sistant Bomb Oflicern and Prefect of Parking, and receives threatening phone calls from night club owners? lf you guessed Richard C. Howland you would be right, for during his four years as ad- ministrative assistant this harried man has incurred upon his personage these

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In the long-hair crises he received sev- eral complaints from downtown hair- dressers. I don't think we would ever call a hairdresser in town and tell him how to cut somebody's hair, says How- land the philosopher. Mr. Howland believes that an ad- ministrator does not necessarily have to have a doctorate, be forty years of age, and study at the Sorbonnef' He believes that many teachers think the role of the administrator is to make things smooth for the teacher and get out of his way. I think this is true, but I don't think it's enough, he says. c'Administrators should try to lead when they 'cang they should lead both educationally and ethically. Mr. Howland was the antithesis of the typical future administrator in school. Instead of hacking around or flunking out, he graduated second highest in a class of 222, was editor of both the year- book and the school newspaper, and was president of the National Honor Society. As a senior in high school he wanted to be either a lecturer or a private detective. Some people around here think I'm a de- tective, and not too privatef' Mr. How- land went on to say. As Director of Newton Technical High School, Mr. Orrin Brawn is probably the most unassuming administrator you will End in the Newton Public Schools. Try- ing to get Mr. Brawn to talk about him- self is like trying to get Willie White-Card to pay up 56.50 on his overdue reserve book in the library. One student termed him: a heck of a nice guy. That's not as simple a compliment as it might sound, for it includes understanding, patience, friendliness, and a great deal of compas- sion for all people, but especially boys in Tech High. Mr. Brawn's job parallels that of Mr. Mechemis in the regular high school, but he enjoys more personal contact with his students than Mr. Mechem does, and thus, he is in many ways more of a housemaster than a principal. He is di- rectly in charge of all eight departments of Tech High-Automobile, Electrical, Electronics, Drafting, Machine, Mill Car- pentry, Printing, and Sheet Metal - and it is his responsibility to coordinate the work of all the departments and relate them to non-trade courses such as Eng- lish, social studies, mathematics, and sci- ence. Mr. Brawn feels strongly that the relatively high quality of Newton's voca- tional training cannot be allowed to re- main static. He belives that Tech High must continue to improve in the coming years and extend the various alternatives open to vocational students. At the same time he recognizes the pressing need to Wvif ,.., W E if Q 1, i 5 - x ,,,wxv . Mr. Richard Howland Assistant Principal integrate Tech High more fully into the rest of the high school. In general, the housemasters are prob- ably closer to students than any other group of administrators. When the house- plan was first put into operation in 1960, Newton High had grown so large that many students found themselves un- known, unwanted, and unloved in the huge, factory-like atmosphere. This feel- ing of alienation created three problems: first, all kinds of severe, emotional com- plexes aroseg second, there was a marked increase in the number of Newton mothers being rejected annually by their progenyg third, there was a tremendous decrease in delinquency-breaking the rules ceased to be any fun, since there was no chance of being caught. Thus it was decided that a housemaster would be created to go along with each house, his specific function being quite logically to love each of his students and increase juvenile delinquency. As two of the new housemasters were women. one of the first questions to arise was whether they should be called housemasters also. This question was quickly resolved when one budding faculty member stood up and said: Well, if the men are technically ui 15.