University of Virginia Library

Problems, Problems

Problem: drugs. Not so, says Mr.
Needham, who explains the rule:
"Any student discovered involved
in the use of drugs will be expelled
without appeal." Hard line perhaps,
but he says it works, in spite of the
reality that drugs have indeed
reached the town. The long-haired
kids who hang out along Main
Street, when they are not off on a
trip to High Street in Portland,
maintain sources other than the
subdued prescription counter at
Vaughan's Pharmacy. The outsider
cannot be certain any of them are
North Yarmouth Academy students.
If none are, here is cause for
separate wonder.

Problem: protest. No again,
assures the headmaster, recounting
in humored tones a recent hunger
strike arising from inconsistent
treatment of several students
caught drinking - some were
booted, some were kept. The strike,
it seems, collapsed quickly when
new-fashioned activism gave way to
old-fashioned hunger. The only disruption
occurred in the stampede
back to the dining room lest lunch
be missed. The "cause" went back
to the closet.

There must be a good sign in it
for Mr. Needham, who looks to-contrast
for evidence of successful
handling. Look at Deerfield, held
together for most of a century by
the mystic force of The Old Man,
Frank Boyden, golf cart wizard.
Since his retirement the so-called
progressive approach has flopped to
the mind of one who still trusts the
patrician ethic of Latin curriculum
and coats and ties for young
gentlemen.

It was at Deerfield not long ago
that a town parade, in which students
were annually required to
participate, was halted while a livid
chief of police entered school dormitories
to rip off NLF flags raised
by the kids. Drugs, too, are a big
part of Deerfield's scene.

But not at North Yarmouth,
says Mr. Needham, who was Jack
Kennedy follower from the early
days after the war. During the JFK
reign, he went down to Washington
to help his friend with Latin
American problems. It then
becomes understandable why,
about six years back, Mr. Needham
was a Boston man looking for a job.
The school in North Yarmouth was
it.