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

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LOOK EAC

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1060 Nliw 'l'RIliR graduate would find it hard to picture graduating from the New 'lirier of fill years years ago. To him, New 'lirier is a me- lange ot modern buildings, out-of-room per- mits, ability groupings, and special bulle- tins. llence, the New 'lirier of other years, the foundation of today's dynamic institu- tion, would be hardly recognizable to him. For New 'l'rier, its students, and its tradi- tions have undergone changes in every ref spect. The more obvious changes, especially the immense structural renovation of the past decade, speak for themselves. Yet other, more subtle changes, fads, and stu- dent attitudes characteristic of particular eras in New Trier's history are perhaps less obvious and more interesting. To give an 4 idea of New 'lirier as it was, five faculty members who are New 'lirier graduates have volunteered information recalled from their own high school experiences. They are: Mr. Miner Coburng Miss l,aura Dur- ging Hr. llichael fireenbaumg llr. Don- ald lckesg and Kliss .lean Kixhliller. From their recollections comes a picture of a New Trier High School very different and yet strangely similar to the school of the pres- ent. The New Trier student of the early l000's had no need to cope with the prob- lems of a unified student body. Because of small enrollments, it was common for one student to know every other student in his class, and for the class to Het as a social as well as an academic unit. A further unify- ing measure was the all-school assembly which began each school day. Students were assigned permanent assembly-seats which facilitated quick taking of the roll. There were no adviser chairmen in those early days, for the adviser system had not yet been initiated. A tardy student knew that he was to report straight to the dean and volubly explain the reason for his late arrival. Similarly, on the first day of school, program cards were distributed by the attendance ofhce rather than the adviser and were brought back there for correction of the inevitable mistakes. Although lack of advisers lent a degree of impersonality to the administration, the close-knit class groups achieved a type of friendliness and ffontinued on Page 61

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A Look Back CContinued from Page 41 camaraderie which large numbers render impossible today. just as the administrative system of the old New Trier would seem quaint to the student of the present, so would the modest physical set-up. In 1915 the old tower building, recently torn down, was the only school building. At the top of this tower was a tiny room with a peaked roof where English classes met, a far cry from the modern tower room which now serves pre- cisely the same purpose. VVhere students now use functional and spacious facilities, earlier students did research in a library no larger than the attendance office. lluch later, in 1951, New Trier-ites used the old auditorium where the seats faced each other and not the stage. And the huge front lawn, now restricted to students, was the site for boy 'scout camp-outs and later a special gathering place for seniors. VVhile actual distances within the town- ship have not changed, the student of an earlier era managed to make the long trelc to school without benefit of automobile transportation. Those who did not live in the more remote suburbs walked to school in all weather. Others, whose homes were Drzxs Rexmrml o I he Kingfs I rf'r,l'le, 1928. 1 1 .wr Ji xi - 1 NDI I