Joliet Central High School - Steelmen Yearbook (Joliet, IL)

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x vw ll l l l lllllll SUMO! ll.. 1882 size of the original liuiltlinpl. lfven then, until tht- gultlition of lgll-21 somcwliztt reliev- efl the nllllltlltvll, thc lwniltling wats enlirt-ly in- atlt-quaite. Result-N using thru- storage rooms, sevcrgtl xxztsli tmmtiis, the xx'oinei1's rest rmmii :tml three immiis ligglitcd liy girlilicixil light only, six ontsitlc lvtlilrlings including Clllll'Cllk , Hut lvuilwlings Qlntl un f'X'l7llNlll4'NS lvloclc were zilso pres-ed into service. Xxvillt Illm' l'4PllllYlL'llUll H14 Illc 1021-Jlznltlitiwi, nniny of the slums were inovetl into tln- nt-xx' lunltling, ztnil El lunch rnoin xxlth it seating cupucily of HHH und :i siipplenientury luncli ruoni for the tencliers wereincorporated on the fourth Hour. ln the very heart of the liuiltl- ing ll new gyinnzxsinni shines forth with at 1L'ZllillQ' czipzlvity uf 2,000 :intl of fflllll iinwt' by plzicinig l'llUYIlltlC scztts on the gymnnsiuin floor :intl on tln- running truck ztl-uve, thus creating ll coiwcntimi hull rich in acoustic properties, :Xluwc thc toiunnst scat of the iwrinzlnent lrlezicliere, is the intlom' running truck of fnnrtcen lzips to tht' mile, marking it one of the largest uf its kind in this section of the country. ' The erection ot the lust inillion and one- liztlt dollar ufld11n'n1 to our hugh scliool has lu-cn the lorwzirrl step to the realization of n vlrcuin of one gfrezit trtlticxition system, directed liy one Qwjuilw of executives :intl including Il Cl1iNlll1lElll1'll'l nf ziczulemic high school, ,lunior Cdllegle, night sclniol, ccintinuzitifui school, Antcriczuiizzxtion selmol, :intl voczitiunztl trzrle school. The acztclcniic high school hue grown from ll struggling, almost unknown institution to one ul mttimiztl TL'lfllll2ltlUl'IQ from Z1 school of- fering lint one general course to :L school offer- ing et dozen :ind several times that nuinlwer of variations of tht- regular courses lmesidus. lts English depzirtinent hus lveen liuilt up to include in the majority of courses, three years of rc-qiiired linglish with electives of English or American Literature or Publi: Page Ten Speaking in the senior yeztr, More than five liundrml students :ire llllillll fulvnntziqe of the foreign language study which is directed Ivy 11 corps of zilmlt- instructors, The mathe- inzttics clepurtmcnt offers three and one-lialf years of work, including cnminercizil ziritlnne- tic, elcinenlury and zulvztnced algebra, plane :intl solid gt-mnetry and trigmnoinetry. Its 4lep.irti'nt'nts of Home Economics und Manual :arts lmtli offer excellent courses of the inost ltI'2lt'llCIll vsilue to students, whilc the coin- inerrizsl courses, estzxlvlisliwl smut Lifter the re- intwal to the blelfcrson Street liuilding, are preparing scores of promising stenographers 211111 lnmk-keepers for the lwusiness world. All students :arc required In take fleciipatioiis and Civics, while the inzijorily must take a year uf world history und one-half yu-:xr of Ameri- can history. l'hysiczll education is neglected for neither boys nor girls, llfjlll being pro- vitlwl with 21 suitalvle gymnasiuin. The Science depztrtinent offers several one and two seinester chemistry courses, hotziny, Zoology, :ind hicvlogy, gcogrzxphy, physio- grztphy, and physics. As curly as 1901, snccizil advanced courses in some of these sciences, particularly in chemistry and zidvzmncecl physics were estab- lished :ind went to form the nucleus of the wlmle ,luninr College movement, These courses were folloxvcwl by others in higher mzithenifitics, including geometry, college al- Qelira :ind several additional chemistry cour- ses, literature and the modern languages. XYi1hin the next few years, the lfniversities :intl colleges throughout the North and Middle West were accepting students from the lun- ior College. Its name was officially estab- lished six years ago, and in 1920 the work was reorganized on 21 more complete and sufficient basis. Since then its prestige has so increased that it has lween recognized by the Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges as a successful enterprise.

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,-z.....-.. ,......-,- ......., ..,. , ,,.,. 2 .,,, , ,. -- -, NNW ' -4 I , -i ,,,...,,,,- 1 1 'Ji L ZELTLT i? A9 tj up fled 'tat 5 will I r 'tftg TtT ft l E TEH 'H vi' QYQV iwiili m Y 'uv' ' H 2 -A tzto sill! U il 1 t DRlGlNAL Bu11.D1NG 1, N N v. i F EI 15-4 'QrQ,,g,.g3-f1'i? l i tggg was : 2,411 1- ,A Htttttt I t t ' - .JU 1 F1 -1 1 , l, l lD.1-. N fiffl EASTERN AVENUE ELEVATION time did not seem ripe till almost seven years later when the high school had crowded the grade pupils out of the liuildingg on Chicago Street and even utilized the halls and ward- rolites for class rooms, A statt- law passed shortly hefore that time, regarding the cs- tahlishing 1-I township high schools, reguired a petition signed by titty or more citizens to sulumit the question. A petition was duly drafted, subniitterl, and signed hy the requi- site nuinher a11d tiled on Fehruary 21, 1899. Several months later as a result of the deci- sive Vote of 2,725 to 329, the ,loliet Township High School district was declared established. Shortly afterward, the citizens of Joliet so generously authorized several successive liond issues! to insure the selection and purchase ol a hiigh school site and the erection of a suit- ahle building upon it that the present high school lmuilding was completed and dedicated on April -l, 1901, That liuilding, characterized by Andrew S, Draper, President of the lllinois University as the finest high school huilding in Amer- ica, was at that time justly considered to he a super-structure, NVitl1 its marvelous ar- rangement of lahoratories, assembly hall, lihrary, and museum, it was the pride of the cominunity. The wonderful hrs-atl1i11g appa- ratus or Ventilating system and the spacious arteries or corridors ot this herculean pet of the puhlic were current topics otdiscussion, lvut to us who know it hotter much is amus- ing. XYC cannot iinagine an office lvarely larger than Dr. Smith's private sanctuary, especially on a Monday morning after a Friday after- noon's ditching escapadef' Neither cottltl we very readily heconie accustomed to a gyinnasiunt of a size of old 329, then called the Basket-hall room. XYe should certainly like to have seen it or the -luniors' or Seniors' room, both lining dt-signed to accommodate ALL of hoth classes or the 2l.LlllllOl'lLll'I'l which Mwitlt lsalcony seats co111fortal,ily 1500 people. Wie prefer not to 111editate on their idea of lieing seated co111fortal1ly, Certain, it is, that the seating capacity lacks that numher hy at least live hundred, . In ten years, the high school had increased its enrollment from little more than 125 to almost 600 and had more than douhled its teaching force. No sooner was the new huilding' complete than its growth multiplied hy great leaps and hounds, so that live yeais later the student enrollment had grown to lllllll and the faculty to tl1.irty-eight. This growth was so marvelously rapid that in l9l5 it necessitated the erection of an ad- dition on Herkimer Street almost half the Page Niue

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we ' E .f , . A fi . L fa 1 t f -535 - . 'Qf 5i5i3i'i1'i ' i' 'I 5-54:51 i: 'f. fQfI1E'Q .'.. A .... ..V...... -,', i.. ,,.. , , .,,,A.A. ,,,. ' ..,.... , HIGH SCHt it iI,, llltjtt Although the ,lunior College is a part of the high school to the casual observer, its work being conducted in the high school building, it has its own assembly, library and student regulations olifering more privileges and greater freedom to the students than is possible in the high school. From an extended chemistry course, the college has grown to include courses of pre- commerce, literature and arts, insurance, pre- medical, pre-legal, household administration, teachers, industrial adminstration, chemistry and chemical engineening, electrical engineer- ing, railway electrical and railway mechani- cal engineering, railway civil engineering, municipal and sanitary engineering, and mech- anical engineering. its enrollment, last year, showed an increase of approximately Z5 per cent over that of the previous year, while an examination showed that about one-fifth of the enrolled Freshmen were non-resident, coming from high schools in Lockport, Plainfield, Manhattan, Morris, Providence, Pontiac and XYilmington, besides a number of students whose families have be- come residents of the city in order to take advantage of the unusual opportunities offered for securing a high school andt ,lunior College education. Our night school is a miniature resident type of those glorified correspondence schools which guarantee to double your salary or pro- mote you from chief bottle-waslier in the Snider's Catsup lfVorks to the President of the New York Central in thirty days. Gur school is much more modest in its claims, but it affords a chance for an extended meas- ure of specialization to the business worker or housewife. Most of the students enrolled have taken subjects relating directly to their work as a manner of improvement, and as a result the commercial course, mechanical drawing, and wireless telegraphy classes have usually been overcrowded, while all the classes in the do- mestic arts have been surprisingly well filled. For some time the State had felt the need to offer a part-time extension in various branches of the educational held to those of its children who were compelled to discon- tinue their education at an early age to go into the industrial world. it was seen that they would need not only academic work but vocational training as well, to better lit them- selves for their respective industrial pursuits and for their places in society, lt was also found by experience that evening schools did not fully meet the need, for it was only the Older and the most energetic and ambitious of the workers who would attend school after the day's work was finished, Thus, only a few were affected where the whole mass of the children from 14 to 18 years were expec- ted to benefit, and it was realized that if any- thing of any worth at all was to be accomplish- ed, attendance must be made compulsory and the time spent in school deducted from the time spent at work at the rate of eight hours per week and at a minimum of thirty-six weeks each year, between the hours of eight o'clock in the forenoon and tive o'clock in the after- noon on all regular business days except Sat- urday afternoon. So, at the 1919 session of the illinois Legis- lature, two laws were enacted that dealt with part-time or day continuation schools. In text these laws were elaborations of each other, but in substance they provided for the gradual inauguration of a system of compul- sory part-time schools until September 1921, but not to be outdone by six other cities in the state which had already established or were establishing such schools, the work was started in Joliet in September, 1920. From an enrollment of seventeen on the opening day, the continuation school has grown to include the part-time education of almost 600 students. Besides the academic subjects including reading, arithmetic, spell- ing, language, citizenship and geography of which all students are required to take four hours a week, the general commercial sub- jects including shorthand, bookkeeping, type- writing and rapid calculations are also offer- ed to both boys and girls. Specialization is offered to the boys in the industrial subjectsg machine shop practice, auto-mechanics, car- pentry, and electrical work, while the girls are offered home economies, courses in sew- Page Eleven