Lawrenceville School - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Lawrenceville, NJ)

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ll D Someone in the party questions the number of students in a class. 'gWhy, she says, was twelve the number selected? This question can best be answered by handing the inquisitive person a copy of the LAWRENTIAN for Ianuary, and pointing out just a few lines set down by F. V. Hancox, of Lawrenceville English Department and Chairman of the Secondary Education Board: The question of the proper number of persons in a school class . . . is a matter of keen debate. Many schools, in an attempt to rationalize necessity, argue that twenty-Hve is the ideal. Many others, realizing the advertising value of 'opportunity for concentration' announce that four and no more is the magic number. But the middle of the road is always safer and saner than either curb, and so Lawrenceville has adopted a twelve-in-a-class policy. Also Mr. Hancox adds, twelve-in-aclass gives a variety to the discussion, and still permits this discussion to take place. Therefore, it is the logical number, just as the Conference System is the logical system. And logic is what governs the School. Lawrenceville's carefully selected number of an even dozen is heartily approved of and may be easily defended. We accept it, and for a moment we look toward the thirteenth chair. To understand the feeling of the masters, we go to the logical man, and find Mr. I-Ieely buried in a mass of papers in his office. We manage, with considerable difficulty, to extract him for a moment, and he expresses his sentiments and those of the entire faculty: Nirzezeen

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IIPD table as the boys. sharing with them the very place where in other days he used to seal their doom. The digressions which so rarely used to visit a classroom are now welcomed and discussed, and no one sulfers from the discussion. Thus, at the point which the Conference System most touches, we are impressed by the completeness and entirety ol' its success. It is the natural uway for teacher and pupil to get together, and bring out the best in each. Continuing our walk through the buildings, we are next struck by the beauty ol' the exalted Memorial Hall and the Fathers' Building. The interior of the revered Ml D WF! Mem Hall looks far different from the once austere and forbidding edifice which used to frown down on the School. Pop Hall looks as it always has, only more so: new, dapper, and efficient. XVe stroll out of spotless Pop Hall, feeling as though we had seen all there was to see. and there before us we behold the foundation which will eventually support the Administration Building. Here the faculty will be housed, apart from the noise of period changes and exuberant Laurentians. This building will be modeled after the style of the Iohn Dixon Library, virtually becoming the library's twin sisterg and so popular a pair of twins will in all probability never again come to the little town about live miles away from anywheref, Eigfzteen

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The Conference System is not an experiment. A half dozen years of use at Exeter have proved its potency in increasing student interest and in raising scholastic per- formance. There is every reason to believe Lawrenceville's experiment will be the same. Here the system is too new for final judgment. But already it has produced desirable results. The beauty of the conference room is a constantly influential atmosphere. Teachers have decorated their rooms to express their tastes and personalities. As for the students, they have felt and enjoyed the informality, responded to the new relationship ol' common effort. They have taken part more freely in group discussions, l i l BEFORE have asked more questions, have carried discussion more frequently beyond the classroom walls. And they have been stimulated to wider reading, a result of the new technique which is leading also to the building up of departmental libraries. The value they set upon the scheme is evidenced again in the extraordinary care they have taken of rooms and equipment. The Harkness gift has given Lawrenceville a limitless opportunity. It is gratifying to see that boys and masters are so fully responding to its stimulusf' Twelzty