As the 2025-26 school year comes to a close, The Forge reflects on past senior editions. This month, the June 1 edition from the 1916-1917 school year reflects on the beginning of the U.S.’s involvement in World War I.
Entitled “Word of Advice Is Given to Students,” an article on the front page of The Forge highlights the importance of staying in school for young students during the tense time of war. “There are plenty of able-bodied men to fill the ranks of the fighting force but the supply of intelligent, educated men who are trained to think and to think straight is limited and is likely to be exhausted before the fighting force.” The article states.
The U.S. entered World War I in early April of 1917 against Germany. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, officially declared war in December of the same year, beginning the United States’ year of fighting.
Transforming the home front into a supportive base for the war, the rise of patriotism began in the classroom. As shown in The Forge, students in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), a program that prepares students for after-graduation life, primarily training cadets to fight in the military, began to prepare and train harder, and students created groups to educate themselves and others on wartime efforts.
While the June edition highlights student life during the war, it also maintains The Forge’s mission to speak for the students, not straying from reporting on student’s on-campus life in the arts, in sports, and school-wide politics. On the very same page, there is an article entitled “Annual Junior College Play, “As the Leaves,” to be Given on Friday Evening,” shows the continuation of regular student life. One that continues on into today’s newspaper and student life.
The Forge, which at the time was only in its third year as a paper, reflects the life of students at SBHS nearly one hundred years ago. Providing insight into the vast and various changes in student life, perspective, and behavior, the written transcripts of the school and the community show how different yet at the same time how similar SBHS was then compared to now.
