Field History

How Eugene Field Elementary School Has Come To Be

Eugene Field School was “born” in time to greet the 1964-65 school year. There aren’t many left in District #21 who witnessed her conception. However, many of us remember her 50th anniversary party in 2015. Most regard her as a “matriarch” of the school district, which as School #6 in line of succession, she is indeed.

There was some thought that she wasn’t quite ready to function as an academic institution in 1964, since students would have no playground and the use of only one bathroom to begin the school year. However, watching the bulldozers create their future recess site became a learning experience for the children and before long Field School. was complete. Or so we thought! More construction followed in the early 70’s, when libraries were taking on new faces. Ours moved from its cramped quarters in the present Music Room to its expanded home in the “New Addition”, proudly sporting its new title of “Learning Center” and joining several new classrooms. And we weren’t finished yet. As a child outgrows his clothing, our school too, was bulging at the seams and in need of a face lift. In the spring of 1996 major work began on three new classrooms at the west end of the building, a new multi-purpose room, office area, and yes, an updated Learning Center with the updated name of LMC.

Our school has been under the direction of eight principals in 53 years, the longest term at fifteen years and the shortest at just one. Her classrooms have seen both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping, reading groups ranging from traditional to flexible, whole-group instruction, straight-age and multi-age formats. She’s seen old math, new math, and hands-on math. She’s seen science instruction go from a a textbook to a building called the Discovery Center, to the famous kits delivered to the front door. She’s proud of her students who at all grade levels can often outdo their elders on the computer. She reaches back in time and remembers a reading series where a helpless Jane stood by while brave brother Dick rescued a frightened kitten named Puff from a tree where she had escaped from a notorious dog named Spot. Present reading instruction is usually literature-based and thematic in nature, with females on an equal footing with their male counterparts, and, most important, all ethnic and racial groups represented. This latter aspect becomes a real-life situation when one examines the diversity of our school population. Many classroom and all-school activities now center around respecting each others’ differences, using them to learn about various countries and peoples and bring us together as the “Field Family”.

We are proud of our past and our present and look forward to our future in the 21st century. As in any “family,” people (whether they be students or staff members) grow and flee the nest. And as we bid them good-bye and wish them well, we welcome the newcomers of the next generation, eager to learn, to teach, and to carry on the traditions of Field School.