JOHN BURROUGHS SCHOOL
R EPORTER APRIL 2018
A 94-Year Friendship
INSIDE
Eric Newman ’28, a student at Burroughs on opening day in 1923, remained connected to the school throughout his life. Burroughs has lost a dear friend and link to its past. Eric P. Newman ’28, an eighth grader on the school’s first opening day 94 years ago (October 2, 1923), died on November 15, 2017. He was 106 years old and had remained closely connected to the school throughout his life. A NEW SCHOOL, A PROGRESSIVE IDEA
In 1921, Eric and his parents and sister moved to the Clayton home where Eric lived most of his life. His father, a surgeon, and his mother, a musician and writer, filled their new home with books. Their neighbors also were well educated and shared their educational values. Two families who lived nearby, the Stixes and the Eisemans, were among a small group of parents who were founding a new school. Another neighbor, Louise Goddard, planned to enroll her four children in the school. Conversations in the neighborhood often drifted to the school that was about to open. The founders were aware of a new spirit in education that stimulated children — boys and girls alike — to intellectual endeavors. As one of the founders, J. Lionberger Davis, wrote in 1922, “We have a fundamental need in St. Louis for a progressive, yet balanced, secondary school which will offer to our boys and girls opportunities for self government, whether they come from homes of rich or poor, provided they are willing and anxious to learn to think and eager to serve.” “My parents began talking to our neighbors and considered whether I belonged at the new school,” said Eric in a 2002 interview. “Of course, I didn’t know
Opening Day October 2, 1923
“When we arrived at the school in 1923, the building was not finished. We were handed shovels and wheelbarrows and told to shovel dirt to finish the sewer lines. But generally speaking, the original building, with its stucco, was bright and new and beautiful.”
I didn’t realize the goal of progressive education. I was just a guinea pig that was going to absorb whatever was handed to me. And what was handed to me made my life so exciting that I’ve never gotten over it.”
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Morning Assemblies
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Mentoring Handbook
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The Math Curriculum
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Profile: Maddie Brandt ’11
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Great Performances
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Dance Marathon
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Back to The Hague
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Alumni News
ERIC P. NE WMAN ’28
anything about it one way or another. I just went blindly into what was thought to be something new. I was interested in practically everything and had no specifics as to what I wanted to do.” So, with his mother’s encouragement, Eric left the public school that he attended and enrolled at Burroughs. He and most of the other students caught the storied No. 04 streetcar, bearing the sign in front: “Special: John Burroughs School.” It would take them past open fields in
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ERIC P. NEWMAN ’28
PUBLISHED BY JOHN BURROUGHS SCHOOL FOR ALUMNI, PARENTS AND FRIENDS