SOUTHWORDS
March 1979
Future Brings Questions
by Katie
"Yes, I'll have two hamburgers, french fries, and a vanilla shake. Right. Room C-108. The name is Bob Barnes."
One number six Rosie. C-108. Bob Barnes.
As Bob waited next to the chute for his lunch, he thought about what his father had said about high school these days. Good old Dad, from the class of '80. "When I was at Maine South," he said, "we all ate at a cafeteria. We didn't have an ordering system which shipped your food to your study. And the food sure wasn't McDonalds! You kids are so spoiled."
The year is 2000. The setting: Maine South High School. What will our school be like in twenty years? The above case could be a possibility. Some students, however, had definite opinions on what Maine South will turn into.
"There will hardly be any teachers," one student said. "Robots will be teaching the classes." He also thinks that no one will eat lunch. "By 2000 all foods will be compressed into tablets."
A concerned student said that since there is so much vandalism now, there probably won't even be a Maine South in the year 2000. "If there is a Maine South then, some of the windows will be boarded up. All the other windows will be plastic instead of glass."
One student took a rather humorous approach to the topic: "In the year 2000 there will be no Maine South. Instead there will be a pacifier factory."
Lisa, '81, feels that enrollment will have declined by 2000. "The classes will be much smaller. There won't be as many electives either. By then students will have more freedom. There will be less discipline and less vandalism because of the decline in enrollment. In the cafeteria most of the food will be bought from machines."
"All the food in the cafeteria will be junk food," one student commented. "There won't be such a thing as health food or health food stores. Twinkies, shakes, fries and potato chips will invade the supermarkets and cafeterias."
What about sports? Dress? Transportation? There are numerous possibilities. The girls could be playing on the football team. Or a few guys on the badminton team. Several students contributed their ideas to these categories.
"I think students will go back to dressier clothes. The girls will wear more dresses and skirts. The boys will wear slacks and turtlenecks instead of jeans and T-shirts."
"With the big jogging and health kick nowadays, kids will probably be jogging to school. Gas will be so expensive that no one will drive unless it is absolutely necessary. There will be more public transportation."
"There won't be any more hassle over parking lot spaces. Teachers will be the only ones driving. The students will either walk or take the bus."
Sophomore Laurie thinks that there will be fewer teachers and fewer classrooms. "The classes will be taught by something like a video machine. There will be many students in each class. The subjects studied will be different than the ones we have now."
One senior also thinks that the classes will be run by video machines. "If you miss a class you can catch it on video in the library or at home on TV. The daily bulletin will be passed out as computer copies instead of being read aloud. There won't even be any homerooms."
What do you think? Will there really be video machines to teach us? Will we all be jogging to school and buying our lunches out of machines? It sure will be interesting to see what the future holds for Maine South!