 Posted Friday, September 25, 2009 8:27 AM
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Well, I was at Prin 1971 - 1975, and it was never 900 students, so they are exaggerating there. A little more than 800 at its peak.
Yes, they teach Biology. I even took First Aid, because I was getting a degree in education, and the state of Illinois requires First Aid for a teaching certificate. Of course, we learned almost nothing, since we had to spiritually deny everything we learned!
Ann
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Posted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:58 PM
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Not taking any sides here ... just a note. The Baby Boomers across America boasted of their largest graduating high school class in 1971, I believe. Numbers of students would obviously drop over the next few decades.
Although I don't believe that is the only reason attendance dropped at Prin, I do believe it may be part of the explanation.
Also, in the 60's and 70's, many males were enrolling in college to avoid the draft. Many other schools' enrollment also declined after the end of the Vietnam mess. With the end of the war, the baby boomer population decreasing, and the 80's yuppies waiting till their 30's to have children, it's understandable why numbers of college students dropped.
Hmmm............
Hector
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Posted Wednesday, October 07, 2009 8:00 PM
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| Hector, I'm not taking sides either.  Your theory is interesting, but the official census figures do not support it. 1975 saw the peak baby boomer graduating class, and the numbers didn't drop significantly for another decade. By that point, the percentage of high school graduates enrolling in college was actually significantly increasing, and more than offsetting the small drops in numbers of high school graduates. I think the Prin numbers follow the general trend that there are simply fewer Christian Scientists in the world.
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:57 AM
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The Korean War baby boom generation basically ran from those born in 1954 through those born in 1965, the earlier dates of which overlap the WWII baby boom, so Hector is at least partially correct in his assumptions. I was born in 1957, and my elementary school had to have eight trailer classrooms when I was in 5th and 6th grades before our school district was able to open a new elementary school a mile from the one that I attended. This timeframe, (the late 1960s), was a time of tremendous growth in NW suburban Detroit near Pontiac where I grew-up. In addition to the one new elementary school which opened in 1970, our local school district had to open a new junior high school in 1969, as well as a new high school in 1971. Other adjacent school districts were also opening many new schools during this timeframe too. In any event, it is hard to argue over 4 years, though Hector is correct in his contention about draft deferments during the Vietnam War too. The Vietnam draft ended in the Spring of 1974 as I recall, when I was age 16. I still recall the worry among my counselors at the AU Summer camp in Colorado when the draft lottery was taking place in either the Summer of 1970 or the Summer of 1972. I remember anti-Vietnam War riots and draft card burning during this timeframe too.
I graduated from high school in 1975, and the first college that I attended was during the 1975-76 school year. I recall my parents touring me through Principia back when I was 15, which would have been either 1972 or 1973, as my birth month is in the Summer, and as I recall the school was crowded then. I also attended Daycroft in the 1971-72 school year, and the Desert Sun School for a short time in the 1973-74 school year. During this timeframe my parents also toured me through several other colleges including CU-Boulder. At the first college that I attended the dorms were overflowing with students. Nowadays that same university has had to close several of the older dorms as they now have a glut of dorm space, and this is a large public university too. If you figure that those baby-boomers born in 1963 started college in 1981, those born in 1964 started college in 1982, and those born in 1965 started college in 1983, as the baby-boom generation was dwindling, university enrollment should have begun to fall off by the mid to late-1980s. Plus there is the economic effect of the 1981-1983 Recession which I'm sure didn't help college and private high school enrollments either. In fact, in the public school district of my upbringing, they have now had to close a couple of elementary schools, and there has been recent talk of closing both high schools in favor of a single new facility, as enrollment has dropped for the district there too. In addition to a decline in enrollment at Principia, both the Desert Sun School and Daycroft went out of business because of serious enrollment declines, both immediately following the 1990-91 Recession too.
I would contend that several factors are in play in declining enrollments at CS schools concurrent with declining membership at CS churches. At least one or more of the factors is human demographics, another is economics. Birth rates among CS parents have been declining over several decades along with American birth rates of our long-established white European ethnic stock. The US as a whole has seen white Europeans decline in numbers to just over 50% of our total population. Among our African American, Eastern European, Hispanic, and Asian communities, CS does not enjoy as substantial a representation as the church does among those of white European background, whose birth rate has been in decline for some time. Add-in the economic effects of the two above-mentioned recessions with advances in the medical community peeling away CS church membership especially among those members of the baby boom and later generations, who are now producing offspring attending private schools and colleges, and it is little surprise that CS schools and colleges are suffering from declining enrollment, and CS churches are suffering from declining attendance.
I know for a fact that Principia has been the recipient of a substantial bequest recently, so they will likely be around for a while longer too.
Anonymous
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:22 PM
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| Around for who? If enrollment continues to decline, which most of us suspect it will, there's a certain point at which no amount of money will keep it open. Can a school with 200 college kids really sustain itself (at some point down the road)? There's a critical mass point where a college can no longer remain viable, class offering diverse, etc. I've read 200 is the enrollement point at which most small colleges that are shrinking close.
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:50 PM
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Just a few points. I was at Principia College 1971-1975. The last draft lottery was held in February 1972. I remember the teletype machine in the Concourse running off all the numbers. It had such an effect on me that to this day, 37 year later, I still remember the draft numbers of my cousin (41), my boyfriend (97), and a close friend (7). It was said then that anyone with a number less than 100 would be drafted. There were lots of discussions of the Mother Church support of conscientious objection, and also of moving to Canada.
Those with very low numbers did go through the physicals, but no one from our birth year (1953) was actually drafted. The draft officially ended in July 1973. (Which we claimed as a CS healing, of course!)
As for the size of classes, we had maybe 800 my freshman year, but it was higher my senior year (1974-75). I think around 850. My dorm turned the triple rooms into quads to accommodate the higher enrollment. Enrollment could have been even higher for the next few years -- I didn't take any notice once I had graduated. Linda may know, she was three years behind me.
Ann
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:13 PM
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| What is the current enrolment?
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:23 PM
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| According to the Prin web site: Q: How many students are enrolled at Principia College?
A: Fall 2009 enrollment was 526, including new freshmen, transfer, and international students. Do Go Be Man
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Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:08 PM
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| Ann, that clicks with me when you say that about not learning anything in first aid bc of having to spiritual deny everything! My husband, who went to class instruction this past August keeps in touch with everyone he went with. About 7 or 8 of them currently attend Principia. One of the girls was confused and frustrated after having a sociologist coming to speak from a battered womens shelter....saying she just went on and on and how she was trying to just deny the whole thing and how wrong it was to even allow her in Prin. Also, after the class she was so messed up because she was trying to "unlearn" what she heard? This site is really helping me out with understanding CS on another level thanks to all of you! My husband and I were out tonight and we stopped to get coffee......another question? to you CS and former CS. My husband quit coffee when he became serious about CS bc it messed with his "inspiration" and now out of the blue started drinking it again....bc he's redefining CS for himself. Do all CS not drink coffee? or was that just him. Anyway, he said something like how we were an illusion, not serious but we were carefree, laughing and talking. It struck me. I looked at him and said, if all is an illusion, what hope is there? I cant even believe it came out of my mouth....but we just went on and kept talking. Jesus' atoning work on the cross and what He did for me (us) as sinners is why I have hope.....bc of eternal salvation and Love. Then on the car ride home we had a wonderful talk. We used to not be able to talk about each other's walk in faith bc it wouldn't be good at all.....now it's changing we both had a talk about where we were, what Scriptures are speaking to us...and the such. I think we have a mutual understanding of Love and we genuinely don't want to hurt each other. Even this past week, since I have found this site and asked for prayers and been praying myself more, and asked for my school to pray (Liberty University Ministry) I have seen TREMENDOUS changes. Seemingly small on the outside but mountains have been moved and still are. Our prayers are working and God is hearing them. To talk AT ALL about the Bible and what we each are doing was off limits......it's changing....
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Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:00 AM
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I'm both amused and interested by the comments about CS members drinking coffee. I suppose that, like the Mormons, it's the caffeine that bonafide CS adherents would want to avoid. Does that make decaf coffee acceptable? Caffeine-free Pepsi, etc.? My Christian Scientist friends in England certainly drink several cups of tea daily, like most other Brits. I've never heard them apologize for it. It's an interesting matter to consider. Maybe some of the active CS members who frequent this website might respond. It brings up other points as well.
As noted elsewhere, I think there's been quite a bit of liberalization in the CS Church in recent years.
An elderly CS member that I know would never touch a glass of wine, but her daughter (also an active member) will have one or two modest glasses. (I don't believe in "overdoing" alcohol either, as I had an uncle who was an alcoholic. I'm a little surprised by the amount of drinking that some--not all--evangelical Christians do these days.)
As for being a non-smoking church, that's definitely to the CS denomination's credit. MBE was ahead of her time in prohibiting tobacco, since it was very common (even among mainline church people) in her day. In addition to being injurious to health, it's smelly, foolishly expensive, foul, repulsive, starts fires, burns holes in expensive clothes etc. Get the message from my soapbox? From my own spiritual viewpoint, I've decided that Christians shouldn't smoke anything legal or illegal.
In the CS church of my youth, there were two regular men attendees who smoked cigarettes. One was the husband of a practitioner, who should have healed her hubby of the vicious habit. However, the two miscreant tobacco addicts were never permitted to become members. I wonder if such would still be the case.
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