La Salle Peru Township High School - Ell Ess Pe Yearbook (La Salle, IL)

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4 ELL ESS PE I GE 16

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ELL ESS PE THE BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL COUNSEL ' The Bureau of Educational Counsel, now in its fourth year of activity, is attracting considerable attention throughout the country. The reason is that it represents a new and successful experiment in student personnel activity. From the beginning, the aim has been the careful study of the individual student with general emphasis on the study of behavior and the development of personality. The unique features as compared to student personnel departments in other schools and colleges are: individual attention to all students, major emphasis on the superior and average student, and a working program based on mental hygiene principles. The accompanying chart illustrates the procedure and organization. Every student is given an intelligence test, after which he is interviewed by a counselor on the subjects of scholarship, health, hygiene, interests, vocational plans, and behavior. Through the review of psychological and social data, the student's resources and limitations are discovered and guidance is better effected. The type and degree of guidance required for each student vary. With some it is confined largely to educational or vocational guidance, whereas with others the emphasis may be on ethical or social aspects or on health' problems. However, the real goal of guidance is not to dictate detailed plans that a student must follow, but rather to help one to a better understanding of his assets and liabilities so that guidance on the part of a counselor becomes self-guidance by the student. In this student personnel work the Bureau has the advantage of skilled advisory service from the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research of Chicago. Students may consult with expert psychiatrists and psychologists who visit the school regularly. Requests for such interviews have increased each year and it is a noted fact that these requests come largely from the superior students. From an achievement point of view, the current year has been an important one in the development of the Bureau. On the service side, the individual at- tention to students has been enlarged and intensified by the appointment of an assistant. On the research side, the achievement is in the form of a fifty-two page report covering the activities of the Bureau for the first three years. Among the statistics found in the report for the years IQ23-T926 the following are quoted: Total number of psychological examinations . . 41 Total number of psychiatric interviews ...... 104 Total number of student interviews . . . . 2796 Total number of other interviews .... I4O Total number of home visits ......... 270 Total number of other visits ......... 207 Total number of interviews and visits . . . 34I3 PAGE 15

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ELL Ess PIE THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL AND jUNIOR COLLEGE BUILDING 1- HE cut opposite shows the general appearance of the new addition to the high school plant to occupy the site of the former manual training building. The addition, which will extend on Chartres Street from Fifth to Sixth and along Sixth Street west, will house the new Junior College, several High School departments,and a civic auditorium. The new building was made possible by the J splendid contribution of four hundred thousand dollars by Mrs. Adele M. Blow and Mrs. Eda Matthiessen of LaSalle, and by the two hundred thousand dollar bond issue of the citizens of LaSalle, Peru, and Oglesby. A g The civic auditorium, which is shown at the right of the cut, will be the largest in the county, seating 1420 persons, and will enable concerts, dramatic perform- ances and conventions of all kinds to be held in the Tri-Cities. The stage of the auditorium will be wide and deep and well equipped with all the appliances and devices of modern' stage-craft. The plans of the auditorium also include an organ loft. The auditorium will be so arranged that it can be easily shut off by sound- proof doors from the main building. The basement floor of the new building, as shown at the left of the cut, will house the manual training department. The second floor will contain the ad- ministrative oflices and high school classrooms. The upper story will house the junior college and the scientific laboratories. To the biology laboratory a green- house will be added. . ,. The building, which will be fire-proof, and as far as possible noise-proof, is to be built of red brick with conservative cut-stone trimmings in the Tudor-Gothic style. It will present a pleasing appearance from all directions and approaches. The construction and equipment of the building have been carefully studied along the most modern lines of educational engineering. The heating, Ventilating, plumbing, and electrical wiring will be modern and provide a structure that is absolutely safe. The architects are the well-known firm of Childs and Smithof Chicago, who have built school buildings at Ann Arbor and Jackson, Michigang Sheboygan, Wisconsin, LaGrange, Illinois, and other places, and who are advisory architects for the McKinlock Campus of Northwestern University, Chicago. The plans for the new building which the Township Board of Education and the architect have evolved are based absolutely upon considerations of economy and efliciency for the future. The building is also planned so as to form a unit and not offer any obstacles in the way of future additions for many years. When the old Township High School building is abandoned, and as the needs of the High School and Junior College increase, the present building can be extended along Sixth Street to the athletic grounds and then south to Fifth Street, forming a quadrangle built on the same lines of construction and of the same material. Work was begun on the new structure in October. On September 27, 1926, the tearing down of the manual training building was begun. The excavations were started October 21. W PAGE 17