Rockville High School - Retrospect Yearbook (Rockville, IN)

Page 7 text:

e- Memories - -e ROCKVILLE HIGH SCHOOL Courses in domestic science and manual training were introduced soon after the new building was completed. After the first World War more emphasis was placed on physical education and health, and commercial subjects and instrumental music were stressed more in the curriculum. In 19h0 the three story building which had been used only as a grade school since 1909 was torn down and a modern one story grade school took its place. During the past two years two more classrooms, a gymnasium, and a lunch room have been added to the grade school. The high school curriculum has developed from the single college preparatory course to the point where students now have a choice of five subject fields; college preparatory, home economics, business education, agriculture, or industrial arts. Both the grade and high schools now have been granted first class commissions by the department of public instruction. Many changes have been made in the educational program in Rockville during the past 75 years just as man? changes have been evident in almost every other field during that period of time. However, the statement of 1875 that the citizens of Rockville are proud of their schools and are in full sympathy with every effort to make our Public Schools second to none in the State is just as true today as it was at that time.

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m- Memories --h--- c-$ . SCHOOL The citizens are justly proud of the fine school building erected and thoroughly furnished at a cost of over $36,000; and are in full sympathy with every effort to make our Public Schools second to none in the state. The above statement appeared in the Rockville Public School Catalogue for the 1875-76 school year, the year in which Rockville High School held its first graduation exercises. Ella F. Coffin, Jessie B. Mulhallen, ahd Louis H. Whipple were the members of the first graduating class. In 1875 Rockville had one of the few high schools that had been organized in this part of the state and for that reason several of the students came from a distance and secured room and board in the community during the school term. The course of study consisted of two years' work in literature, mathematics, history, rhetoric, Latin,physiology, and geography. In 1886 a third year was added and drawing and physical exercises were introduced. The course was extended to the present day length when four years were required for graduation in 1896. In the early years of the twentieth century Indiana passed a compulsory school attendance law. This law resulted in an increased enrollment in high school and in the modification of the curriculum so as to care for the needs of students who did not wish to take a college preparatory course. The increase in enrollment necessitated the construction of a new high school. This class of 1909 was the first to graduate in the present high school building.

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The Rockville Youth Center was established in 19h5 through the welfare Office by Mrs. Mildred Hardesty and Miss Alice Brown, who called a meeting of representatives from various clubs and organiza- tions in Rockville and presented the idea of a youth center to them. From these representatives, smaller committees were appointed to get funds and supplies and to find a building to be used for the center. Each class from the seventh through the senior class elect two youth center council members-one boy and one girl. The council plans monthly'dances and other social events which are held in the center. Those who are members of the council this year are Maurice Fisher, Ann Hardesty, Max Swaim, Nancy Clary, Richard Gordon, Doris Cooper, Shir- ley Holler, and John Overpeck. During the past year a new plan has been adopted, whereby TUes- days and Saturday afternoons are for junior high students alone; Wed- nesday, Friday, and Saturday nights are for high school students, and Mondays are reserved for dancing lessons, which are sponsored by the Tri Kappa. The Youth Center is very fully equipped with recreational facil- ities, including a pool table, ping-pong tables, a piano, card tables, a phonograph and popular records, a dance floor, and many other games and fonm: of entertainment. There are also booths bordering one wall. Mrs. Hubert McClain has acted as hostess for the Youth Center for the past two years and has done a fine job in meeting with the council and helping to plan parties, dances, and other activities for the Youth Center.