Macomb High School - Spiderweb Yearbook (Macomb, IL)

Page 7 text:

PREFACE M«eec Since the beginning of the Macomb High School in 1868. never before lias an annual been published . As it drew time, however, when the Class of 1910 began to think of their separation, we knew of no better way of preserving the memory of our High School days and the faces of those who have helped to form our life here, than by publishing a year book. e talked it over in several class meetings, elected a staff, and in a few weeks have tried to get out a book which would not be a disgrace to our school. Although the Faculty considered the time too limited, and our financial prospects too uncertain, we kept on with the work, and have been rewarded at last by their co-operation.. To Miss Mary Hughes, who has ever been willing to help us with the literary material: to Mr. I. C. Burns, who has encouraged and helped us from the beginning, and to the members of the other classes who have always been willing to do what we asked, we owe much of whatever success our book may have. We fully realize the deficiencies in the way of the material chosen, and in the extent and general plan of the “Sphinx.” and earnestly desire that the interested public may accept our efforts with due allowance for all the obstacles which we have been compelled to meet. ()ur greatest and most sincere hopes are, that this number may be the first of a long continued line of annuals to be published in the future, and that each one may he better than the one preceding. ALICE IRENE CHAPMAN, Editor in Chief.

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THE MACOMB HIGH SCHOOL AN HISTORICAL SKETCH The Public School system now existing in Illinois was established by law in 1855. The law made no provision for High Schools, but authorized school directors to prescribe studies additional to the common branches enumerated in the law. It was through this door left open in the rear of our educational system that High Schools entered and became an integral part of our Public School System. School directors in certain localities soon began to prescribe studies that properly belong to secondary schools. I be High School movement had scarcely begun when our nation was plunged into a life and death struggle in the great Civil War. The movement for the establishment and the development of High Schools was brought to a sudden stand, while the entire energy of our people was devoted to the preservation of the Union. With the close of the war in 1865, our people again took up the cause of secondary education, so that during the half decade from 1865 to 1870 at least - 5 -