Links to early yearbooks and newspapers above.
Recording the history — a perpetual work in progress
You may be in on a well-kept secret. 2024 represents the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Crossroads. The school was, and is, a rather unique institution, not only in St. Louis, but throughout the entire country.
We started as just a middle school in a part of town called LaClede Town. Now, two locations later, the school continues to thrive, with grades seven through twelve. It is a school that somehow has retained much of the warmth, care and informality of the earliest days of the school.
It’s a very different world now than it was in 1974. The school started one month after Richard Nixon resigned. The personal computer had not yet been marketed. The number one song of the year was “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand. The Arch was nine years old.
Crossroads started with fifty students. Along with parents, they were pioneers, testing a new school, to see if it worked and beat the odds to succeed (it clearly did).
In the first year, our five teachers were all in their twenties. In large part, we made it up as we went along. A commonality among our teachers was that we had been “burned” by our experiences when we were students in middle and high school. We wanted create a community where everyone could be heard and respected.
Refreshingly, the current co-directors of the school, Mark Norwood and Sarah Pierson-Wolff, embody the values, practices and humor that have always been central to the school’s establishment and longevity. As the school looks forward to another fifty years and more, the school community recognizes that something that is missing from the school is a recorded history of Crossroads. It is for that reason that we are writing you.
In this fiftieth year, we want to assemble a document, both in hard copy and digital, that captures reflections from students, teachers, parents and others connected with the rich history of the school. We’re not interested in “this happened and then that happened.” Rather we want to collect vignettes, recollections and reflections from those who have been and still are part of the Crossroads community.
When we talk about this kind of project, some people feel very comfortable and enthusiastic to participate. Others don’t like to be reminded of the days of middle school and high school and want to keep their distance. We’re going to try to be sensitive to each person, however they might feel. If you want to engage, please let us know. If you want us to leave you alone, let us know that as well.
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