North Shore Country Day School - Mirror Yearbook (Winnetka, IL)

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THE PARENTS ARE APPARENT One of the nicest things about North Shore, and one of the things which sets it above other schools, is the way the parents take part in everything that goes on. Not content with being onlookers of school life, they play an active and important role in it. Everyone knows that mothers work on the lunchline, but few people realize what a job it is to keep track of who serves on what day and to get substitutes when some- one cannot come on a certain day. The members of the office committee ad- dress and fill envelopes. They work at the switchboard, take messages and keep the attendance lists. Some of the mothers put in hours of pa- tient work on the library and the Art Li- brary. One parent is editor of the Notes, and another has charge of subscriptions for the skating rink. The task of decorating Leicester was undertaken by parents, and the faculty teas, one every month, are given by mothers of the different grades. At Christmas time, the fathers pound nails and paint chairs for toy shop, and the moth- ers sew doll clothes and make scrapbooks. One of the most important parent com- mittees is the Costume Committee. For weeks before the opera the members of this committee worked out color combinations, designed sarongs, sewed stripes on the mounties ' trousers, and made ruffles for the bridesmaids ' costumes. The finished prod- ucts were as beautiful as any you ' d see on the Broadway stage. The cannibals ' outfits were true masterpieces. During the opera the mothers helped can- nibals on with their wigs, pinned on bustles and helped in hundreds of other ways. You get so used to seeing the parents around North Shore that you may take them for granted, and forget that in most other schools they are completely separated from most events. When you stop to think about it, though, you realize that without parent participation North Shore would be lacking a part of that famous spirit you hear about so much. 18

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STUDENT GOVERNMENT To make an ideal democracy, every citizen should have the opportunity to voice his opinions, and to take part in the running of the government. In a nation, or even in a city, this is impossible, particularly in war- time. But in a small village or a school like North Shore, where we have a small body of people, such a plan may be carried out. Here at North Shore, each student has the oppor- tunity to help run things, to help solve the problems that arise, and to do his share in assuming the responsibilities of the democ- racy. But before a student accepts this re- sponsibility, he must have an interest in the affairs of his government. With this idea in mind, our student coun- cil has tried in the past year to promote greater interest in school affairs. Even if it meant hot arguments and verbal battles, we wanted everybody to know the circum- stances, to take stands and debate points, and above all, to vote with judgment and sincerity. The plan worked. To begin with, we had excellent attendance at Town Meet- ings. People seemed interested in hearing other people ' s views as well as in giving their own. Everyone is familiar with the hot debates and arguments that took place. Not just a few people took part in these con- troversies ; nearly everyone contributed something. And finally, people seemed really to think about their ballots. This year still more jobs had to be handled by the students; jobs connected with the controlling of the school ' s wartime program. To mention a few of these new tasks, there was the Air Raid Precaution program, which was handled mostly by the Seniors ; the Jun- ior Red Cross ; the waste paper collection ; and the selling of Defense Stamps in the lunchroom. All these problems gave many more students the experience of government than ever before. So, at the end of the first war year in the history of the school, we hope that we have laid a firm foundation for a satisfactory war- time program which future student govern- ments may use and develop. 17

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TOY SHOP The policy of the Toy Shop this year was to make something out of nothing. Since the student government treasury was low, and the prices of materials up, we had to work on a very economical basis. Still, we felt that we ' d like to make the 1941 Toy Shop a greater success than ever before with car- loads of beautiful, clever, and interesting toys for the poor children of Chicago in time for Christmas. Because of this conflict be- tween hope and wherewithal, a plea was made for old, worn-out toys, bedraggled dolls and stuffed animals, scrap books, and even little thumb tack boxes and covers to glass jars. The students responded splen- didly to the plea, and soon the work was well under way. In the toy factories of the lower, middle, and upper schools, the task of turning into actuality the ingenious ideas that had been thought up in the Art Department was be- gun. The shop equipment was taxed to the utmost every afternoon as boats, animals, mechanical men and all sorts of contraptions rolled off the assembly line. The old, dis- carded toys, gathered in the basement hall of Dunlap, were laboriously repaired, painted, and generally rejuvenated into sparkling, shiny gifts. Other committees, meanwhile, were work- ing every afternoon on other jobs produc- ing and repairing games, scrap books, stuffed animals, books and dolls. The fancy paint- ing of some of the toys was done in the Art Department along with the deft production of miniature furniture from small boxes and odds and ends. A special committee of stu- dents made the annual cpiest for canned goods, and each student brought at least three cans. Each high school class had one evening for the parents to come and help. These eve- nings and the Christmas Toy Shop Party itself brought the activity to a glorious Looking back on the 1941 Toy Shop, the whole school can feel proud of the results. All in all, our toys and games were sent to seven different Chicago Charitable Organiza- tions, and each toy was greatly appreciated. 19