Lawrenceville School - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Lawrenceville, NJ)

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IIPD lmpressed, we leave the oflice and wander aimlessly about the campus. We even stop to question some of the fellows who are scurrying past us. This is an interesting pastime, and we are not long in discovering that the student body is with the system to a man. Never was more whole-hearted approval lent by any group so large, and certainly never by such a discriminating group as 494 Lawrenceville students, when they consent, it means something. On our way across the Circle, we are given a few moments to think on our own, and we Hnd the answer obvious. Even if we had not seen and been impressed by the DURING new classrooms, building, and method of instruction, we would certainly have been swayed by the fact that student and master both unite in approval of the system, and this union leads to others. Chief among these, outside of the common aim for scholarship, is the relationship between master and boy, of which Lawrenceville has more reason now than ever to be proud. The boys are no whit awed by the faculty, for they have been seated around a table with the gods and found them human. They fearlessly ask questions and express opinions, and find themselves receiving counsel which has definite value. Boys and masters laugh and joke, the system has accom- Twenty-one

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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

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plished the impossible. VVe see ahead a long string of years stretching out before usg we see Lawrenceville climbing to even greater scholastic heights than beforeg and We see more boys, in unbelievable number, coming and going until the new polished tables are mellovved, and glow with age, and the chairs are long since replaced. And, seeing this, we do not feel sad, for all the boys We see are friendly with their masters, and are learning how to learn here in a way that few other schools can teach. To Edward Harkness-the collective thanks of Laurentians past and present. F AFTER TIl'671ly-Zll'O