When Palatine High school first opened its doors in 1875 it was almost completely different then it is now. This year is the 150th anniversary of PHS, and the school looks back at what life was like before many now common day activities.

One big thing that has changed is technology. Technology has become a major factor in many schools, including Palatine. Every student takes notes on their iPads using notability, and searches up questions online regularly.

“We didn’t have iPads when I was a student here, [we had] good old fashioned pen and paper,” PHS class of 2010 Brent Fisher said. “AI is another giant difference, but that was just in the last couple of years since I was a student.”

Most students carry phones on them to all their classes, wear smartwatches, or something else along those lines. This gives them almost instant access to the internet and unlimited answers.

“Well probably the biggest change is phones, right,” PHS alumni English teacher Erin Lindstrom said. “And the use of phones, that did not exist during my high school days.”

Some alumni comment on students’ lives and how student commitments have changed in the past years. How their activities are longer, and harder. Saying how the homework load has probably gotten easier, but the students don’t have the time to balance all of it with everything else they are doing outside of school.

“In some ways I think it might have been harder, but there are different hard things now,” Lindstrom said. “I think kids are trying to balance more activities and jobs and things like that than maybe when I was in school.” 

Palatine High School has changed in countless ways—not just the physical building and technical advancements, but also in the daily lives of its students. The one thing that’s stayed the same is the school’s mission: to prepare the students for the future.