Background: Latin's facilities.
the theater productions, was on the newsletter
staff and ran a paperback book exchange
with her classmates. When not involved in
her various activities, Parris and her friends
would attend the boys' games or meet up at
Mitchell's for Green River milkshakes and
fries after school. "We had a lot of fun, but it
was all very innocent. We didn't dare to get
into too much trouble."
Judy Yohe (later Kritzberg) arrived at Latin
School in 1962, just out of college, to teach
math. She was part of a new generation of
teachers who were gradually being hired to
teach to the changes in the curriculum. "I
didn't have any experience, but they needed
people with math degrees to teach new math
so they gave us a chance."
For Kritzberg, who came from the
University of Pennsylvania and had attended
only large public schools, the environment
at Latin felt quite restrictive. "Students
didn't have many choices or much freedom.
I think it was hard for kids who were
different or didn't fit in with the cliques.
They felt confined," she said.
On the positive side, Kritzberg appreciated
the relationships she was able to build
with her students in a small school setting.
"Within a year or two I had taught every
student in the school," she said. "In a sense
it was less formal than today, because I knew
everyone and everyone knew me."
By the mid-1960s the board of trustees
and Graham were embarking on plans for
the school's future that would eventually
transform the intimate, very formal and
highly disciplined Latin School that the
first generations of students and teachers
had known. A new building, unprecedented
growth, societal shifts, a changing student
body and an evolving academic program
would have a major impact on students,
faculty and parents at the end of 1960s and
into the '70s and '80s. n
Girls from the Class of 1961 ready for a dance.
LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO
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