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

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ELL Ess PE tional authorities. But all these requirements have raised the standards of teach- ing in the hi h school. The Junior College is housed in the top floor of the new high school Building. The common element: of all trades and professions, of all vocations of life, are taught, and it is conceived that if these are thoroufhly learned, success in every fiel through the experience of that field is assure . The people of the township in their support of the school have been very generous. Many citizens, and especially the members of the Board of Education, contributed lavishly of their time and services to the perfection of the standards, the efficiency and the equipment of the school. But the most conspicuous ex- ample of the generosity of the public has been that of the Matthiessen family, which, in 1903 gave to the school the old manual training building, cancelled many thousands dollars worth of high school bonds, contributed the building lots and money for the erection of the social center building, gave the property and building of the Hygienic Institute, donated the athletic grounds of 11 acres, the outdoor swimming pool, gave money for additions to the Recreation Build- ing and for the reconstruction of the main school buildings, donated the fine library of the school, established the Bureau of Educational Counsel, which is designed to give expert attention to the individual needs of the students, pre- sented many valuab e oil paintings and etchings, and in 1926-1928, through the late Mrs. Adele M. Blow and through Mrs. Eda Matthiessen, culminated its munificence by the donation of S400,000 for the erection of a new model high school and iunior college structure on the west side of Chartres Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets. To this imposing list of gifts, Mrs. Eda Matthiessen added an Aeolian pipe organ and a Steinway grand piano and two original oil paintings. Numerous minor gifts have been made by individual citizens, but especially to be recognized are the gifts of the graduating classes, which for thirty years annually have devoted all money gained in their activities and plays to fine gifts of various kinds for their alma mater. The Social Center, which is supported from the township high school funds, aims to extend the advantages of the high school equipment to the general pub- lic and especially to the youth of the community. The social center department is conducted by a director and a man and woman assistant. To its activities several members of the faculty contribute part of their time. The athletic department of the school is designed for the health and recrea- tion of the students. It is the aim of the department to bring physical education to all, to make health and sport and recreation a means to an end, and to con- sider it neither as an end in itself nor as that feature about which an educational institution should be organized and to which everything else should be sub- ordinated. It endeavors through football, basketball, volleyball, swimming, tennis and scores of other indoor and outdoor activities to bring to all the stu- dents the social values, the civic values, the psychological values, and the rec- reational values of life. Page Nineteen

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ELL Ess PE History of the La Salle-Peru Township High School 44 QQ ar as THE first session of the La Salle-Peru Township High School was held in September, 1898, the construction of the original main building having been started in 1897. There have been four superintendents: Mr. Stratton D. Brooks, Mr. C. A. Farnam, and the late Dr. Thomas J. McCormack who was super- intendent from 1903 to 1932. Dr. McCormack has been succeeded by Dr. Fred Gray Stevenson who formerly taught at the University of Michigan. Mr. T. C. Kohin has been assistant principal since the foundation of the school. There were six teachers on the faculty in September, 18985 in the second year the faculty was increased to nine. ln October, 1932 the faculty numbered 58, exclusive of the superintendent and the ofhce staff. The oflice staff consists of the secretary of the board of education, the registrar, two clerks, and the bookkeeper and stenographer. One of the distinctive features of the instruction of the ,school is the employment of student assistants in oHice practice work. The number of students so employed is 61. Eight of these students are also em- ployed part time in the social center as assistants. This creates a flexible and con- tractible staff of employees for a vast number of activities. The janitorial staff, with firemen consists of six people. The increase in the attendance of the Township High School has in recent years been notable. At the start, as with all new high schools, the attendance remained stationary. The establishment of township high schools in Granville, Spring Valley, Tonica and other places for some years kept the local attendance almost stationary. But from 1917 to 1923, the attendance increased 72 per cent and from 1915 to 1923 the increase was 100 per cent. ln the last three years the increase has been very rapid, one hundred students or more having been added each year to the school roll. In September, 1929, the enrollment was 946, and in October, 1932, it totaled 1481, in March, 1933-1500. ln 1924, in response to urgent solicitation on the part of the public, the Township High School Board of Education established the La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, an institution designed to give to the young people of the local community the advantages of the first two years of college or university train- ing. The entering class numbered 32, the total number of students now enrolled is 266. There are training classes for teachers and preparatory classes for nearly all the various vocations and professions taught in the universities. The col- lege has been signally successful from the educational point of view, its graduates have done well at the universities which they later attended, and the report of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools compli- mented the institution upon its high standards, its careful work, and the success at the universities of its graduates. The establishment of the Junior College meant a considerable increase in the number of teachers in the school for the reason that the number of classes and hours taught by Junior College teachers is limited by the State and Na- Pagz Eighteen

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E LL Ess P11 XVOUNG CLANCY HACKMAN w 4 1 1 EH- . - 2. DIMOND CARUS KliliGAN Board JOHN YOUNG, Oglcsby, Prefident. . W. CLANCY, L11 Salle ,..,,..,., H. E. HACKMAN, Peru ...,....,. XuNCENTJ.IhMOND,LdS8HC .,.. EDwmRDI1.CARUs,LaSaHe ...... Of Education KATHERINE KEEGAN, Peru, Serretmj' ..., Pxlkqt' Tuwzty 1921 1917 1917 1931 1931 1924 1935 1936 1936 1934 1934 1934