Skokie School in Pathfinder Magazine September 11, 1944

Five years ago I began teaching at The Skokie School in Winnetka, Illinois.  I had previously taught at both Greeley Elementary and Hubbard Woods School.  This year I completed my 28th year in the district.  

Earlier this year the Skokie Library sent me an email to inform me that a patron had given them the September 11, 1944 edition of Pathfinder Magazine.  A patron had sent it to them, confusing the Skokie Library with the Skokie School Library.  We get this a lot.  This magazine has a fascinating history:  - Pathfinder Magazine was established in Washington in 1894.  Here are some interesting facts about the magazine:

- Founded by George Dean Mitchell.

- He was a Republican and son of a Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania.

- The magazine featured rewrites of the week’s news.

- Included political articles and journalistic odds & ends for the family.

- Subscription cost was $1 a year.

- Became a national newspaper for young Americans.

- Supported by patent medicine advertisements.

- War news in 1914 boosted circulation significantly.

- In 1931, Mitchell fired his staff to economize.

- He wrote all of Pathfinder himself.

The September 11, 1944 article features an incredible story about progressive education in the Winnetka Public Schools specifically Skokie.  Check it out!

"Return of 25,650,000 high and elementary school pupils to classrooms this month brings the nation's educator's face to face with what may well prove to be their biggest problem-preparing pupils to take their proper places in a vastly changed world."

"The story of a small public school system which for nearly half a century has been on the growing edge of education and has become widely known throughout the world is worth telling. It is the story of the way a community, Board of Education, teachers and administration have consistently worked together in an attempt to make the schools as good as possible for the individual children and for the potential contribution each can make to the well-being and progress of the community and society at large."

The History and Significance of an Educational Experiment by C. Washburne & S. Marland, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (1963), p. Vii. 

If you want to learn more about Pathfinder Magazine, there is an interesting article HERE.  If you want to learn more about Progressive Education in Winnetka, check out this interesting article from the Winnetka Historical Society.  The district's website also has a wonderful collection of resources and backgrounds of each of the Winnetka schools.  Finally, if you are hungry for even more, please check out the Progressive Education Network's website.