WHEN WE WERE NORMAL
A Historical Augmented Reality Walking Tour
Class Photos Phasing Out
LOCATION: SECOND FLOOR, MIDDLE OF HALLWAY, EAST WALL
The practical side of education - drafting lesson plans, hiring a good staff, etc. - is only one part of the equation. The environment the students are taught in is another essential aspect that members of the Fitchburg community were concerned about. Small controversies have come out as a result of the attitudes of Fitchburg residents towards the educational experience their children receive.
Encouraging a social atmosphere in the classroom was important to the community, evident in a piece written by John Cushing and published in the Fitchburg Sentinel. In the article, Cushing expressed his concerns about the recent trend in student photos: Cushing sent this clipping to Sanders (left), who responded to him not long afterwards (right).
When we think about the current trends of student photos, we can observe that Cushing’s ideas on student photos have been adopted. Now, it is again common practice for a group photo of each class to be taken in addition to individual ones. But we can also observe that those ideas took some time to catch on in Fitchburg.
The 1963-1964 Edgerly school yearbook features pictures of individual students, but no class photos. Though nowhere near the heyday of class photos of the early 1900’s, these individual students may be on to something only realized in the selfie era of today. We can only imagine what Cushing and Sanders would have to say about Instagram.
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