The 1960s and 1970s: The Vietnam War
The decades following World War II ushered in an era of widespread social change and political upheaval. Hewitt students fully embraced the counterculture movements of the sixties and seventies. As the school approached its fiftieth anniversary, headmistress Janet Mayer wrote about "winds of change" sweeping across the nation. The police had violently raided the Stonewall Inn, the Ohio National Guard had opened fire on a peace rally at Kent State University, and President Richard Nixon was rejecting pleas from the anti-war movement to withdraw American troops from Vietnam.
As time progressed, opposition of the Vietnam War grew within the Hewitt community. On October 15, 1969, Hewitt students, faculty, and staff participated in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, a massive demonstration against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In the fall 1969 edition of the ninth-grade quarterly The Sparklet, one student reporter described the events of the day:
An article from the ninth-grade quarterly The Sparklet describing the student-run moratorium on October 15, 1969
Despite the prevalent anti-war sentiment at Hewitt, faculty nonetheless encouraged discussion and debate about the reasons for war. In the same fall 1969 edition of The Sparklet, one student anonymously printed a short article expressing her concerns about pulling American troops from Vietnam:
An article from The Sparklet which argues
that terminating American presence in Vietnam could result in the spread of Communism
Anti-war protests continued to increase as the conflict wore on. By the fall of 1970, Hewitt's publications were frequently printing short stories, opinion pieces, and political cartoons that demonstrated a politically-aware student body. The winter 1971 publication of Venturer featured junior Nora Gardner's "The Last Battle," a short story about an American soldier's experience in Vietnam:
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Keith was thinking how he was going to have to adjust to Vietnam in order to survive. Yet he felt pressured for time, something he had never felt in Chicago. He thought that the damnable quality of the war was that the government used his time, his life, to fight for their victories. He was being asked to believe in a war that he had had no part in starting. In the sudden face of death his life had acquired a new meaning. Perhaps, before, others had found some significance in him, yet he had been unaware of having any particular merit. He had been too busy traveling the path taken by countless others, a path toward self-realization, traveling blindly, searching with an energy that encompassed many thoughts and experiences. The government was now utilizing this energy for its own purposes, and Keith could not now think of the sudden value of his life, but only of survival.
Articles published in the final editions of The Sparklet, which became Lodestar in 1974, reflected an adolescent account of the national mood. The editorial of fall 1970 mourned the "tragic deaths" of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, both of whom "represented on a broad basis the views of the younger generation," rather than the separation of the Beatles. The times had changed relationships between the generations, and the youth were adamantly asserting their beliefs.
Student political cartoons and collages from Hewitt's upper school publications. For specific information about the individual piece of art, click on the image.
Students fought for their voices to be heard, even on issues pertaining to school life. They protested the formal uniform regulations, a decline in drama activity, the strict smoking policies, the community's indifferent attitude toward athletics, the lack of Blue/White competitions. As the new head, Miss Mayer knew she needed to listen to students' concerns and process their input. In November 1970, Hewitt held its first Student Council-faculty meeting. One writer for The Sparklet noted, "Many things were settled that had just been talked about before." The war years at Hewitt established the indelible atmosphere of student agency and activism that prospers today.
Page by Valerie Blinder