A Blast to the Past: Havergal 2020 vs 1920

Another year has almost passed and with it another decade. We’ll miss the 2010s, made iconic by One Direction and the launch of the Mars Curiosity rover. It’s almost time to say hello to the roaring 20s again. It’s hard to imagine life behind the ivy-covered walls as anything other than the way they are now, but Havergal is constantly changing. There were definitely some similarities and differences between HC 2020 and HC 1920.  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a student at Havergal one hundred years ago? 

I went digging in the archives and found a lot about what Havergal was like in 1920 from the perspective of the students. The principal at the time was Ellen Knox herself. Every year in the Ludemus, she would write a letter to the students addressing what had happened that year and share some of her wisdom. Even now, Havergal students echo her famous quote, “what will you do?” In one letter (found on the first page of 1920-21 Ludemus), she talked about how Girl Guides had just become a new part of school life and that the girls loved it. Although we don’t have Girl Guides at school now, it definitely would have been a fun addition to Havergal. I also found that the abbreviation of Havergal wasn’t HC, but H.

Surprisingly, Havergal students had very similar views on studying as many of us in the present. Even a hundred years ago, students studied frantically the night before their exams. One student not so fond of geometry wrote a poem for the Ludemus titled The Results of Cramming:

Geometry, Geometry

An awful dream thou givest me,

On that sad night before exam

When I my head I tried to cram

With angles small and angles great

With lines that curved and lines quite straight

Everyone has their own morning routine before heading to school: wake up, brush teeth, eat breakfast, or something along those lines. Boarders at Havergal in the ‘20s also had a strict routine they followed each morning. At 6:45 am they had to be out of bed before hurrying to have a bath and get dressed for the day. At 7:20 am, everyone had to be standing at their door, neat and clean, waiting to be inspected by the don, Ms. Senior. Ms. Senior would check their hair, uniform, and overall appearance to ensure everyone was prim and proper. After a careful inspection, the breakfast bell rang at exactly 7:30. After breakfast, students tidied their rooms and were graded by their cleanliness. If the room wasn’t up to standards, the student would expect a “fail.” After the rooms were tidy, students had their morning exercise, which consisted of a brisk walk around the Havergal grounds. One student recounts that teachers forbade them from talking or holding hands, as it was considered to be an improper sight. If you were caught doing such things, you would likely get a “Girls, not in daylight!” from the headmistress, wrote  one student. What an exhausting morning before a day of classes!

Havergal is definitely well known for its sports. When I was applying for Grade 7 and asked people what Havergal was like, I usually got the response, “It’s really sporty.” Now, as a Grade 11 student, I can definitely say HC has lived up to that reputation. In the ‘20s, our sporty reputation may have been very similar. Considering most girls’ schools didn’t have a sports program to begin with, Havergal was pretty amazing— it had a whole department dedicated to sports which included a president, vice president, secretary, and even a sports tea hostess. In 1920, Havergal started playing games against other schools and was victorious in every game they played—an extraordinary feat (hopefully we can live up to that in 2020!). The teams available at Havergal in that year were basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, cricket, and tennis. Although that may not seem like a lot when we consider the options we have now, having that many sports available was very modern in the ‘20s.

Overall, being a student at Havergal a hundred years ago was definitely very different, but when reading the words of the students of 1920, there is a sense of familiarity. What will students in 2120 think of how we run things? 

If you are interested in finding out more about Havergal in the past, all the Ludemus books dating back to the 1890s are available to look at in the RC.