Thirty Third Week, Friday's "Medfield Historical Minute"

A Medfield Historical Minute...

This "Medfield Historical Minute" is brought to you by town historian Richard DeSorgher.
A little something to read and learn to give you a little break during this time of boredom during isolation due to the Coronavirus Crisis. A different "Medfield Historical Minute" will appear each day during the Crisis.

"In 1933 Medfield High School principal Alton Hartford called for a change in school curriculum saying that the current curriculum, with traditional subjects like algebra, geometry, Latin, French, etc., caters to those who plan to attend college. In Medfield only about 27% of the high school students go on to further their education. The large increase in the number of high school students in the last twenty-five years has brought in a large percentage of students who do not need and cannot really profit much by the study of these traditional subjects. These students, in the present-day school, are very likely to be misfits, not because they cannot learn, but because they do not find the courses offered interesting to them. They simply cannot foresee any possible occasion in later life when such studies will be of value to them.” Principal Hartford called for “serious thought” to the question of revision of the entire course of study to take care of the large proportion of the pupils who are not destined for college."