Prom at the Dawn of Time

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5. Look top left (don't be distracted by his friend's hair)

Can you identify your teachers’ younger selves?

Put your guesses—and envious comments about their outfits—in the comments below (use the numbers). A few bonus shots are included, from grade 9 class photos, homecoming dances, and even a departed faculty member that a few 11th and 12th grade students might recognize. Apologies for the image quality and mismatched sizes… some of these are from the vaults.

AISG’s 2018 prom, “The Premiere,” takes place Saturday night from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Guangzhou Mandarin Oriental, and many AISG students are excited. But our prom is hardly a true premiere—prom is a tradition that’s been around for ages. Believe it or not, it’s even older than your AISG teachers. That means that, some time in medieval times or at least the 1990’s, many of those stern figures at the front of your classrooms put their hair up and dusted off their tuxedos to celebrate their own high school proms.

Prom originally began in the late 1800’s at universities in the Northeastern United States, and the event gradually passed on to high schools in the early 1900’s. When prom first began, only seniors could attend; however, as time passed, underclassmen were invited as well. According to the Washington Post, the term “promposal”was first used in 2001, but prom invitations began increasing in flash and flair in the late 90’s.

There are several AISG teachers who attended high school prom and thankfully, were willing to share their experience with the Beacon. Mr. Baier said, “I can’t compare my high school proms to the ones today. I went to the AISG prom last year and it was definitely a lot fancier compared to the prom during 1988 when my high school prom was held. There was also none of the promposal stuff, thank goodness.” (A source close to Mr. Baier reveals that his prom stories may have been heavily censored in the interview.)

High school soccer coach and middle school teacher Mr. Tyner doesn’t need to censor. He explained that he had the first dry grad, meaning that his was the first prom without alcohol. Previously, “my school had wet grads, so parents would come and watch kids drink excessively. This caused too many problems, so it was closed during my prom… There was no sponsored drinking event, but we still had so much fun. Since it was a Canadian school there were no prom kings and queens, but we went to a curling rink and had events such as wearing the sumo wrestling clothes, gambling with fake money … and I won a VCR.  This lasted until 6 o’clock in the morning.”

The female teachers also shared some prom memories. Ms. Dean remembers it as a very big social event. She claimed, “When I was in high school I went to school with more than 2400 students, but only seniors went to prom. Prom was fun, dinner first and the school didn’t want students to go out partying. So the PTA hosted after prom, and there were prizes with the Monte Carlo theme. Every student got fake money to gamble and watch movies until five in the morning, and to hang out with friends.” About her own prom, Ms. Archer added, “Prom was only for juniors and seniors at my school and underclassmen would only go when juniors and seniors asked them out. I liked hanging out with my friends as a big group, but I hated wearing dresses. At my high school, we had prom court instead of prom king and queen.” To earn the princess positions on the court, students needed set skills, including intellect and style.

Many teachers, those interviewed and others, agreed that prom was worthwhile, because no matter how fun the event was, they look back—sometimes with nostalgia, and other times with laughter —on the night as a momentous one in their transition from high school to the next phase of their lives. So, to AISG students who complain about the price tag or the stress of finding a date, think about going next year… the price tag may one day seem very small compared to the memories.