In between the laborious struggles of petitioning for supplies and funds for all parts of the normal school, even down to requesting funding for pencils and decent wages for his staff, Thompson pushed for his students to be more well rounded. He believed that learning went much further than what was written in a textbook and because of this the school gained observational buildings, sport teams, and history pageants.

 

All students were required to partake in all three parts of a plan that Thompson believed would be just as beneficial as any in-class training: athletics, dramatics, and social events. Thompson believed such involvement would make more well-rounded individuals who would in turn be better educators and mentors to their future students.

 

Thompson fostered a tradition of putting on plays on campus. With few men on campus in its early years, women often had to play the men’s parts. By 1916 attendance was approximately 300 women and 100 men.

 

Tennis stood out as the favorite campus sport and members of both sexes competed in the event supporting a co-ed environment that Thompson considered so valuable.

 

In her 1920 graduation address, Lillian Anderson, a graduate of the Normal School, shared how Thompson and the entire Fitchburg Normal School focused not only on teaching its students the history and technique of being a teacher but also the importance of being open to new ideas and systems of schooling that might better suit the student’s ability to learn. “The Fitchburg normal school believes that every human being has work to do in this world, and that education should help find it”.

 

Thompson believed that school should extend far beyond the classroom and to accomplish that, he wanted to “do away with the idea that school life is apart and different from real life.” So, at the Fitchburg Normal School, students prepared for all of life's tests carrying with them the lessons that Thompson imparted.