Warren High School - Echoes Yearbook (Warren, OH)

Page 10 text:

ECHOES EVOLUTION OF WARREN HIGH SCHOOL As I walked through the halls of our High School building, I often wondered how it used to look and ofthe changes which had taken place since it was first erected. At last I became so interested that I inquired of those who remembered how it looked in its early days and found some very inter- esting information. Warren Senior High School was built in 1884 and is the third building on the site. The entrances at first were on the outside and in winter sheds were built over them. These were later altered to the present style. The front stairs were originally on the east side starting near the door of Room I. The side stairs were straight having no platform as at present, and started at the side entrances. The front part of the hall was open with cloak rooms on each side. The assembly room was in front over as far as Rooms 10 and 12. The originalbuilding extended to the heavy iron girders of the present assembly room. Room 10 was at first divided, the back part being the laboratory. What is now the hall extending back to the physics laboratory was the Superintendant's oflice. The library was over this. This later became the laboratory and a recitation room. The four rooms on the first floor were grammer school rooms and the two corresponding over Rooms 3 and 4 were also grammer rooms. The library took the place of the Superintendent's office and was later moved to the small hall between Rooms 11 and 13. The laboratory was then moved to the basement under Room 3. When the addition ,was built the assembly room extended across the building. Later, when more classrooms were needed, it was div ded making three recitation rooms on each side as it is at the present time. The addition gave the 'present laboratory and commercial rooms. When domestic science was first introduced, it was placed in the basement under Room 5 but later changed to Room 2. Room 20 was originally the sewing room but was changed last year to Room 1. ' This year mezzanine floors were built giving the teacher rest room, millinery room, and offices. Room 13 was at one time used as the office. It was later moved to the present normal room. The normal school at the beginning of this year occupied Room 4. Then it was moved to what was the oHice and enlarged. Various subjects have been taught in nearly every room in the building. A Another change recently made was the addition of new lockers in the upper hall. The hall was none too large before, and now it is rather crowded when our present school of 495 pupils are changing classes. It is rumored that if many more additions are built the size of the scholars entering the school will have to be limited. Neither the very fat nor very tall will be allowed to enroll. Another great change which has taken place is the salary of the teachers. The first superintendent of the school er- ceived the enormous salary of S700 per year and the super- intendent who followed him only received S600 per year. So while our present day teachers are complaining of their low salaries, let them think of these teachers before them. The above facts are significant ofthe enormous expense the school is to the city. So while we are looking forward to a new Warren Senior High School building, let is not be too critical of the old. We must pick out its good qualities and overlook its defects. For after all, it is not the building but what is inside, which can make the ideal school.

Page 9 text:

ECTHOES A DEFINITION OF EDUCATION. The education of its youth is the greatest task, the finest 'i i'a e and the keenest test of any generation. It is not therefore, that every generation has embodied if ed a conception of education in the-form of a Beauty, strength, intellect, complete living, fag ' to environment, are some of the successive out- . f ' wphasis in these historic statements. Uewey, of Columbia University, in his hook, I idKEducation, has framed the most compre- A for education known to our generation. , 'efation as freeing capacity for continuous rfl social aims. This statement is ,tgp f1.,...a.nental fact that self-expansion comes ' ' cpression and that other equally funda- ',: arrive at a conception of self only r ' r of others. er the number of homes and schools where , . ated childhood, we realize how far we tight road when we understand the first word J. .,, Dewey's definition. To set free an individual in oruer et.. t he may achieve his larger and better self is the very beginning of education. A man, walking through the Woodland, found a plant that had, in forcing its way up through the leaf-mould, grown through an old leaf which strangled the plant. The man tore the leaf away and set the plant free to grow. He was a true teacher. A boy, re- sponsive to the distant strains of the national anthem, arose in the midst of a lesson on decimals and stood at attention, free to express his expanding self. Where such freedom of expression exists, there is teaching and a school. Where that opportunity is not created, there is no teaching and no school. The true teacher is a liberator, not a creator. He is unable to set free a power that does not exist. The processes and materials of education must be 'adapted to the inherent abilities and capacities of the individual. For centuries school administrators and teachers assumed that there is an average child and all children must conform to a certain average ability. All were forced through the same curri- culum and, failing to meet the standards of the supposed average child, were turned aside as hopeless. Now, we know there is no type-child to whose standards all others must be brought. We no longer attempt to educate a child through the lock-step of deadly uniformity. We want to know his inherent individual capacities' and, beginning with them, help him to the fullest possible expression of them. The school must, therefore, know the child's differing powers and abi- lities and provide a wide variety of types of opportunity for growth. V The school is concerned with those fundamental interests that, when properly set free, will continue indefinitely. The little spasms and spurts of effort and interest are not the real concern of the school. Nor is the school especially in- terested in the individual apart from his contribution to the common good. This definition of education sweeps through the past and brings us all the best from that long journey. But it also looks far to the future and will for many decades be an in- spiration and a challenge to a renewed effort to make our educational practices square with our educational ideals. H. B. TURNER, Supt. Warren School! A

Page 11 text:

FJEXKUIYUJJLS CTYCH Z I