One of University City’s most respected and best loved educators, Dr. Fred E. Brooks, has announced his retirement as principal of the Nathaniel Hawthorne school at the end of the current school year.
Dr. Brooks has been principal of the school since it was built in 1931. Before that he was a mathematics and English teacher at the University City junior high school, beginning in 1921.
While teaching at the junior high school he attended St. Louis University School of Law and earned his law degree. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1925. Still attending school evenings and summers while teaching during the regular school day, Dr. Brooks obtained his bachelor’s degree in education from the State College in Cape Girardeau, his master’s degree from Washington University, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1948.
He is the author of many articles for professional educational journals, most of them in the field that has been of special interest to him, educational law. He has been listed in “Who’s Who in American Education” since 1950 and is a Thirty-Second Degree Mason.
Through most of his teaching career Dr. Brooks lived in University City where he and Mrs. Brooks raised four sons. They now have a home in St. Louis County and a vacation home in Florida. Two of their four sons are principals in other county school districts and another is a teacher. The fourth is a career army officer.
There are 16 grandchildren, 10 boys and 6 girls. Under Dr. Brooks the Nathaniel Hawthorne school has been among the leaders in University City and across the country in adopting the “ungraded concept” for school organization.
Dr. Brooks pointed out that it was several years ago that the primary unit plan was instituted, to erase grade level distinctions in the early grades. Now the trend is in the same direction in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.
“Several years ago we taught children as groups,” he said, “but you don’t teach ‘classes’ any more. You teach children as individuals. Formerly the tendency was to give the entire class the same ‘dose’ of education in a lecture and the entire class moved one step at a time, all together. Now we know much more about children than formerly. We know that they should not move along at the same pace. We are doing a better job of educating each child as an individual,” he said. “The children themselves have not changed a great deal over the years,” Dr. Brooks said. “They are just as eager to learn as they always were. What has changed is our knowledge about children — we know so much more than we used to know about the needs of children and how to meet them. “If there is any problem that is growing today it is how to meet the emotional needs of children,” he said. “Life has become more complicated. There are more broken homes. Children have more frustrations. It is in meeting the emotional needs of children that we must do much more, and we are moving in this direction with better and more thorough testing and with more frequent and more effective counseling.”
As those who know him would assume, the vigorous Dr. Brooks does not plan an idle life in retirement. He plans to do some college teaching, to travel extensively, to study, and to write.
“Dr. Brooks, in his character, his personality, and his career, epitomizes the truly dedicated educator of the kind University City has been so fortunate to attract and hold over the past many years,” Dr. Martin B. Garrison, super-intendent of schools, said. “He has had a profound influence on an entire generation of the people of our community and University City is much the richer for this.”
To Honor Dr. Brooks
A committee of alumni, parents, and friends of Dr. Fred E. Brooks, principal of the Nathaniel Hawthorne school in University City, has scheduled a tea from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, June 5, at the University City Senior high school, 7401 Balson avenue. An entertaining program is planned. Refreshments will be served. Dr. Brooks has been principal of the Hawthorne school since it opened in 1931. Before that he taught at other schools in University City.
