Wells High School - Correlator Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 16 text:

. . what do Wells szfzuiefzzfs think we should lfllfll? . . . vating courses in other high schools, and read materials on curric- ulum making, the unfolding interests and needs of students, and the changing social scene. In order to Work more efficiently and make the study more specific, the faculty subdivided into eight levels, according to the grade and semester in which the bulk of the teacher's program fell, and proceeded to meet in separate rooms. The chairmen of these groups represented their respective grade levels at central meetings of a vertical committee and coordinated the findings and research of the Whole. The following teachers constituted the vertical committee: 9B, Mr. Maurice Paton, Who became chairman of the central com- mittee 3 QA, Mr. Henry Swets, head of the social studies depart- mentg 10B, Mrs. Margaret Wilkinson, administrative assistantg 10A, Mr. Raymond Wallace of the Program Ofiiceg 11B, Miss Marian Lovrien, head of the English departmentg 11A, Mr. Harold Haggard, amanuensis of the groupg 12B,. Mrs. Grace Wall, Whose clerical practice class found plenty of chores to do for the com- mitteeg and 12A, Miss Olehne Olsen, secretary of the committee. 10

Page 15 text:

. . . what :lo Wells teachers think we should learn? . WELLS EXTENDS THE CURRICULUM For Seven years Wells High School has focused its efforts on a life-centered curriculum, yet Wells people feel they cannot rest content. They realize that in the nation's present crisis it would be unwise to freeze educational output. There can be no ceiling on advances in the training of youth. This year the school and the community embarked, as a com- mittee of the whole, upon a project of further curriculum extension. One could hardly call it revision: for our experience curriculum, as it stood, was very different from the conventional school course of study. From the beginning of Wells, seven years ago, the develop- ment of the high school student as a person and a citizen has taken precedence over pages covered , and everyone at Wells realizes that the only true measure of what one learns is what one does. The initiating body in this cooperative curriculum extension project was naturally the faculty, which proceeded early in the school year to re-evaluate our present curriculum, examine inno- 9

Page 17 text:

. . . and wlaat do Wells INl1'61ZfS think we should learn? . . . First business of the vertical committee was to interrogate school resource people' fDr. Thomas Jackson, director of our health center, Miss Marguerite Nafe, cafeteria manager, Miss Ruth Benjamin, librarian, Mr. jesse Brewer, chief engineer, the auditorium-arts committee, the civic association, the parents, or- ganization, the adjustment office and sponsors of activities in intramurals, clubs, music, home economics and industrial artsj regarding their contribution to the present curriculum, Then form was prepared in which all teachers listed what, according. to the experience and observation of each, are the characteristics, interests, and needs of Wells students. As a convenient forrri under which to tabulate, the familiar functions of livingl' around which our curriculum is organized were used: human relation- ships, economic consciousness, thought and its communication, health, leisure, work, and spiritual and ethical character. Data collected by these means were evaluated by the eight Working committees, and reduced to a very simple check sheet by the central committee. 11