By Anjuli Niyogi, Opinions Editor

Mills has created compassionate leaders and lifelong friendships, but more importantly, Mills has prepared generations of bright, progressive individuals with more to come. Sixty years later and we are continuing this legacy.

Mills is famous for its stress-filled environment and competitive, rigorous courses, but years ago, things were done a little differently. For instance, in the 80s Mills had three levels of classes: Advanced Placement Courses, regular courses (now known as College Preparatory classes) and basic classes. These basic classes focused on providing students with less intense curriculum. In more recent days however, Mills has had a dramatic increase in AP classes, including the new addition of AP Environmental Science and AP Music Theory. Ms. Peel, a history teacher who’s been at Mills since 1988 believes that “academic pressure has always been present, although [she] thinks that the peer pressure over grades was not as prevalent back then.”

Over the course of this time, technology has also significantly developed its presence in everyday classroom settings. Mr. Phillips, a history teacher who has been with Mills for almost four decades explained; “the most technology we had in classrooms was a overhead projector connected to TSK80s computers, or what we called trash 80s.” Grades were also not automatically calculated like they are now online, but rather teachers had to compute final grades with just a calculator and grade book. Nowadays, everyone on campus has the opportunity to use technology habitually, from bringing personal laptops to use in class, to borrowing one for a complete year of home usage.  

The athletic facilities have also been renovated in recent years. The Mills football field used to have a large gopher population that would create holes throughout the Jim Cox Field, increasing the risk of injury for athletes. Fortunately a mesh undercoat was furnished beneath the field, eliminating these risks.

Furthermore, center court did not always look as fresh and lively as it does now. Forty years ago, it had decaying pine trees and students simply did not feel free to sit and socialize with their friends at lunch. Thankfully, due to recent renovations and new designs, center court is filled on a daily basis with spirit events and students during brunch, lunch, afterschool, and even before classes.

Mr. Phillips also continued on how spirit has transformed over the years. He described how “spirit can be measured numerous ways,” and that in terms of excitement for rallies and other events planned by Leadership, he has seen a significant decrease over the years, but still notes that the spirit of Mills is alive and thriving in many other ways. He explained, “there’s still a large amount of students who care about helping the community, even if that means doing extracurriculars outside of school.” Ms. Peel added how, “Mills has always been a great place to work because the students have always been respectful of their teachers and their peers.  They care about each other and are very kind and tolerant of differences.”

Mills has been through generations of students, teachers, faculty, and more, but our legacy as an open-minded body of caring individuals is one to be continued.

The following collage of Mills’ archived photos can be seen in Volume 60 Issue 1 of The Thunderbolt.