Erasmus Hall High School - Arch Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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5 - ,lx lj,-x lkx fix 1' IRI' S 12355: A P1oNEER IN EDUCATION Af the seventy-prst convocation of the University of the State of N ew York in Albany, Dr. Campbell, Sapeifirztemlent of Schools, reviewed the prog- ress made in Erasmus Hall as an example of the model high school. By DR. HAROLD G. CAMPBELL HE first secondary school to be chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York Was Erasmus Hall Academy, , founded in 1787, in the old Dutch village of Flatbush, Brooklyn, by a group of public spirited citizens, among Whom were Alex- ander Hamilton, John Jay, Senator John Vanderbilt and the U Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, who became its first principal. Erasmus had long since celebrated its Iooth birthday as a private academy, when in 1896 it became part of the public school system under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education of what was then the City of Brooklyn. The modern secondary school, Wherein the aim is to develop the Whole per- sonality of the individual child, owes much to this institution that dates back to the latter part of the eighteenth century, to the year of the framing of the American Constitution. When in 1896 Erasmus ended its days as a private academy and became part of the public school system, the late Dr. Walter B. Gunnison accepted the principalship With these Words: Erasmus Hall shall stand, as far as in me lies, for sound scholarship, for general culture and refinement, and for that character that shall be self-reliant and manful. The traditions of the past shall be cherished and shall ever be an inspiration for the futuref' Eleven

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WINTER TWILIGHT The trees are quiet now. All day the shining rapier of wind Has tortured them. All day the bitter rain has lashed Gaunt boughs that lift Beseeching mercy from the sky. The sky above them glows A deepening sapphire. The wind and rain have fled before the dusk The trees are still To-night the trees will cower ,neath the stars And moan, remembering. DOROTHY LORRAINE SPEAKE

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l yfzlvfznx In-X fzfx 4X fgxvf' Xiif3.t,,'7i5 If there be one criticism of modern education and of modern tendencies in general, it is that too little attention is paid to self-reliance and manfulness and that the traditions of the past are too little cherished. Education as well as government may become over paternalistic and destroy self-reliance by mak- ing school life soft and easy. Educators, as well as others, may go too far in scofhng at tradition. The example of Erasmus Hall, which has made its past a part of its present, and where Greek is still taught as well as industrial art, has made it possible for the secondary schools of 1935 to avoid the mistakes of those who would ignore tradition and make education an effortless pastime. Erasmus, in many respects, was the forerunner of what we now know as the progressive schoolsf' and yet Erasmus is as old as the Republic itself and clings to tradition as the ivy clings to its walls. Dr. Gunnison was among the first of his contemporaries to preach the development of the child's entire personality and the treatment of every boy and girl as an individual. Eugene Harter, writing thirty years ago, said that at Erasmus 'Qthe aim is to give free play and an opportunity for any possible taste and talent a boy or girl may have. Dr. Gunnison stands pre-eminently for his insistence upon the recognition of the individual and the development of personality in pupil and teacher. Erasmus Hall gave us the Arista League, constituting one of the first attempts to make special provision for bright students. The Arista was established at Erasmus by Dr. Gunnison in 1910. Since that time practically every school has organized an Arista. Erasmus Hall gave us the Grade Adviser system, an early step in the direc- tion of individuation taken within a few years after the school had been organ- ized. Under the Grade Adviser system a special teacher is placed in charge of each entering class and remains in charge of that class, acting as guide and counsellor to the pupils, until they have been graduated. From the beginning the Grade Adviser has been one to whom students may turn for advice as to what career they seem best fitted for, what college they ought to attend, or in what employment they would be most likely to succeed. The system having proved its value at Erasmus, it was soon instituted at other high schools. Erasmus since it became a public high school has had but three principals- Dr. Gunnison, Dr. J. Herbert Low, and Dr. John E. McNeill. The problem of Dr. Low was and of Dr. McNeill is to perpetuate the ideals and preserve the traditions of an old, old school in a new and vastly different world. How well Dr. Low succeeded until the time of his retirement last year and how well Dr. McNeill is succeeding today is a tribute to the genius of both. Twelve