Rensselaer High School - Chaos Yearbook (Rensselaer, IN)

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quets have been held at the commencement season. These banquets have become the most profitable and pleasant functions of the entire school year. It is an event eagerly looked forward to by the undergraduates and an occasion of great delight to all the Alumni who are able to attend. And now I can not close this brief account of the High School’s growth without expressing the hope that its future may he even more glorious than its past, and that the city’s investment in this school enterprise may yield a profit, in value an hundredfold, by the return of this regiment of trained citizens to the work they are called to do, whether it he at home or in the fields abroad. I. N. WARREN.

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chemistry. The other room, the one now occupied by the Seniors, was assembly, session, and recitation room all combined. Public school entertainments reached their height at this time. The Dickens and Scott masquerade programs netted some five hundred dollars in the two years, and this was the foimdation of the splendid library which now adorns our city. In 1892 the new Grade Building was completed and the High School was given room for expansion, but not until 1901 did an event of unusual importance happen. For one thing, a class of twenty-five was graduated that year, by far the largest in the history of the school up to that time. The other thing was the introduction of organized athletics into the high school. It grew by leaps and bounds and became a dominating interest. During the fall months the school was crowded with husky lads, football aspirants. Non-resident students came in great numbers. The popularity of the High School was at its greatest. Everywhere Rensselaer was known for its success in athletics. The numerous trophies which now adorn the High School rooms tell also of conquests won in music, in oratory, and in successful field and track meets. The building was crowded to its capacity and the chemical laboratory was moved down town. Graduates increased in number until in 1907 there were thirty-eight. During the five years between 1905 and 1910, one hundred fifty-seven students, more than one-third of all the present Alumni, received their diplomas. During the past two years the High School enrollment has not been so large. This is due in part to the decrease in the number of township eighth grade graduates, but is mainly due to the rise of other good schools in our neighboring towns. Two things are needed to keep our school abreast of the times ; a high school auditorium and a gymnasium ; the one for the social and literary advancement of the school, the other to provide physical training. Football has run its course as a high school game and is giving way to other forms of athletics better fitted in their nature to the maturity of the average student. It is for this the gymnasium should be provided. Manual training and sewfing, both in the grades and in the High School, have become permanently established and in the years to come will receive more and more attention. Our school has every reason to be proud of its Alumni, and we want them to keep the same pride in the achievements of the High School. We are a member of the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, which fact permits our graduates to enter any university in the middle West without examination. And it is a source of pride to us that the reports from all these colleges where our students have attended indicate that the preparation of our students has been adequate. To keep this bond of union among our graduates tlu Alumni Association w r as formed a good many years ago, and with the exception of a few years their annual ban-

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R. A. PARKISON PRESIDENT DR. E. C. ENGLISH TREASURER