New Trier Township High School - Echoes Yearbook (Winnetka, IL)

Page 17 text:

new courses: Science IV, Far Eastern His- tory, Photography, and Auto Driving. New Trier's very popular Auto Driving course was begun when Mr. Gibson, return- ing from the war, realized the potential bene- fits. Local dealers have annually provided new, dual-control cars, thereby greatly de- creasing the school's expenses. New Trier is one of the comparatively few schorils which offer both classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction to driving pupils. Mr. Gibson is assisted in teaching this course by Mr. Cram- let and Mr. Molinsky, both of whom are reg- ularly in the Boys' Gym Department. The insertion of this course into school'curricu- lum has been very profitable, reducing acci- dent rates as much as 50923 in some areas of the United States. Even when students are already familiar with driving fundamentals, they profit greatly from this course, because their highway courtesy is awakened and any bad habits are replaced with safe ones. The Bookstore of New Trier was situated originally in the Girls' Club Office, after which it was moved to what is now Mr, Car- penter's office. As the demand for supplies increased, it became necessary to find larger quarters, and the Bookstore was moved to its present location. It has always maintained its goal of efficient, speedy service, and in doing so has well succeeded. Students are em- ployed to sell supplies before and after school, under faculty supervision. Selling at a very small profit, the Bookstore donates all its proceeds to the Student Activity Fund. '01 '05 '10 '15 '20 '25 '30 '35 210 '45 'Sl NUMBER OF GRADUATES- NEW TRIER HIGH SCHOOL 1901-I9-5 596 563642521622 590 581 I 500 , 724 , 53 2 52 500' 1 49 . 405 400' 5 36 ' P 3 14 3 2 27 300 ' 247 0: 200l 115 111 100 1 '04 ' 4239 'l 95m f , 7 . 15 1424182 . g O ' Q Page I I

Page 16 text:

eager to quit. These students usually raise their scholastic standards' to a point where they become valuable members of their class- es. A great saving for the taxpayers is an- other result of this program, in that courses are not repeated nearly as often as they would be otherwise, The failure rate has been reduced from 16W of the school to tlfk, which in itself should signify the suc- cess of this experiment- ' The first summer school was conducted in 1917. Its primary purpose was to repeat those courses which had been widely failed. Throughout the years, however, summer school at New Trier has come to have other purposes. Although repeating students do account for a fair percentage ,of summer school attendance, the majority of students take courses which would not otherwise fit into their programs, and to finish other courses so as to make room for heavier pro- grams in the normal school year. Through taking summer school courses, some students accumulate the necessary graduation credits in three rather than the customary four years. Many incoming freshmen attend summer school to familiarize themselves with the school plant, and to take the required course, Minors IF, so as to lighten their fall sched- ules. Many non-academic courses are also offered at summer school, including baseball, art, driving, gymnastics, and several others. Page I0 Since the school's opening, the curriculum has encompassed a great variety of useful courses. ln 1901 almost all the regular aca- demic courses were offered, as well as a few subjects then considered rather radical. Commercial courses were first taught in 1902, Home Economics in 1904, and Music and Physical Education in 1906. Spanish was added in 1910, and Greek dropped three years later, when it was generally eliminated from college entrance requirements. French, Latin, and German had been taught from the first. In 1921 Zoology and Botany were com- bined into Biology, and, also at this time, the first formal course in Public Speaking was of- fered. A senior English course emphasizing dramatics and the theatre was added in 1924, and Sociolo y was also added. The Home Economics lgepartment increased the curric- ulum by the addition of a course in Home Management, now called Consumers' Educa- tion, in 1926, and Hrst offered Interior Deco- rating in 1933. Courses in Radio and Indus- trial Arts were added to the curriculum in the 1930's. Great Books, a course inaugu- rated by the University of Chicago, was first offered to New Trier seniors in 1945, and is now very popular. An Aeronautics course was widely studied during the war years by boysranticipating Armed Service careers, but at the close of the war the course was dis- continued- 1947 saw the addition of four

Page 18 text:

Very shortly after New Trier opened its doors, the faculty members set aside a table under the front stairs where they could all assemble at lunchtime to eat the sandwiches they brought from home. One teacher soon made arrangements to have a hot bever- age served along with the sandwiches, prepared in the present site of the janitor's room. Boys soon seized this opportunity to make money, and enterprisingly sold such wares as coffee, soup, and cocoa to the fac- ulty at lunchtime. In 1912 a lunchroom was built, seat- ing about 300 people. Its kitchen was approximately one-third as wide as the serving room of our present cafeteria. These facilities were considered unusually good. Many of the school's activities met in the lunchroom, making it altogether a very busy place. 1916 brought the present system of double lunch pe- riods, when the student body's steady growth neces- sitated the change. In 1923 the lunchroom was found to be quite inadequate for this growing school, and was enlarged to accommodate 1,000. At this time the faculty dining room was also built. Unfortunately, this enlarging was not complete until the school opened in September, 1923, and so, for six weeks stu- dents and faculty alike reverted to the former lunch- time fare of sandwiches and milk. For daily use, about 800 chairs are needed, but on special occasions the lunch hall has seated up to 1,000 people. Among these memorable times are the occasions when Mad- ame Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a guest at the Mother-Son Banquet of 1936, and two years later when Madame Eduard Benes, whose husband, Czechoslovakia's former president, had just been ex- iled, was guest of honor at the same affair. Such parties as the Community Boy Scout Rally, and simi- lar banquets, have also brought capacity crowds to the lunch hall. In 1948 the room was again changed, to make adjustments for the Music Building. All the windows on the west side were blocked out, and a corridor cut off from the north. Several art students worked for a long time on the attractive and colorful murals which now brighten the west side of the room. New Trier's history has not been without its thrill- ing moments. People in high school in 1918 vow that they will never forget the Armistice Day Assembly in November, which was, in many cases, the outstand- ing event of World War I- Another exciting moment was when the student body purchased an ambulance to be used in the same war. Also very memorable was the school's 25th Anniversary Pageant in 1926. Among the guiding lights of New Trier in its very early days were two outstanding woman teachers, Miss Elizabeth E. Packer and Miss Olive Grover. Both were on the original faculty of seven, and both aided tremendously in forming the school's early ten- dencies which now, in its fiftieth year, make it so out- standing. Throughout her career at New Trier Miss Packer served at various times as Greek and Latin teacher, dean of girls, and acting superintendent. In 1942 she retired from the teaching profession, and is now a resident of Montclair, New jersey. Miss Packer still recalls that blizzardly first day of school when she led the students in singing. Miss Grover headed New Trier's Art Department from the Page I2 school's opening in 1901 until her decease in 1935. Both from artistic and personal standpoints, Miss Grover figured very prominently in the history of our school. One of New Trier's features so appreciated by township residents is its adviser system, which has existed in some form or other since the school's earli- est days. Superintendent Henry E. Brown instituted what he called the sponsor system, whereby each faculty member was assigned to twelve to fifteen stu- dents, selected from both sexes and all classes. These sponsors' duties consisted primarily of distrib- uting and collecting report cards. In 1912, when the home-room system was gaining popularity over all the United States, it was tried at New Trier. The teachers were now responsible for separate classes, and for checking attendance as well as the report cards. In this trial period, different methods of choos- ing the groups were used. At varying times they were selected on basis of athletic ability, scholastic standing, and other such groupings, but such meth- ods were abandoned for the present heterogeneous selection. Superintendent Frederick E- Clerk started the first real adviser system in 1922. Each adviser remained with a group of about thirty students for its entire high school career, and four years later would repeat the procedure with a new group. In due time the advisers took over the functions of guidance, and responsibility for each new advisee. Two important features of this program are the home visit system, whereby advisers visit the homes of all their charges shortly after their arrival at New Trier, and the in- tramural sports program, giving each student an op- portunity to participate in sports when the varstiy school teams might be too competitive to assure this widespread participation. The guidance testing department was added to New Trier in 1948, with the approval of the Board of Education. The testing program, under the direction of Mr. Carl Lundquist, involves testing for Q11 placement of freshmen and new students: Q21 school progress and adjustment: f3j personality adjust- ment, Q41 vocational planning: and Q51 college en- trance. Testing of incoming freshmen and new stu- dents is required so that the high school may have as accurate and complete a picture of each student's capacities and abilities as it is possible to obtain. These data are used to assign students to various classes at the subject-levels at which they are most likely to succeed. Through the guidance testing pro- gram, much information, mostly personal opinions and abilities, has been obtained about each student. One event which underscored the excellence of New Trier High School on a national basis was the feature story in the Education Edition of Life maga- zine, of October 16, 1950, which was entitled A Good High School, and, in its six pages, depicted many of New Trier's outstanding advantages. With such an illustrious beginning, we now look forward with proud anticipation to the great progress the future years will unfold for New Trier Township High School.