I recently passed the eighth anniversary of my arrival on these shores. I followed the advice to go west, young man, when I was not really young, but young enough to still cope happily with a new family. At the time they comprised one new wife, and three small children the youngest of whom was still in nappies (diapers).
Well she is now a ten-year-going-on-thirty-year-old, and the eldest is just about to enter high school. I have watched them grow, and nurtured them as well as their Mom and I are capable. We are proud that we have three straight "A" students to show for our efforts, and even prouder that we have three children who are curious, intelligent and welcome in other people's homes.
I have always had a fascination with education. Partly because I actually am one of those strange people who remember their own school days fondly, and partly because with a teacher for a wife, and three children, it's hard not to become involved and yes, to make comparisons.
As some of you know, I am usually willing to draw parallels between my experiences back in the old country, and my new life here. Never with criticism in mind, although if criticism is deserved it will be forthcoming; more from a genuine desire to understand difference, and how those differences can inform us all.
I have been fortunate enough to see not only the difference between schools here and schools in the UK, but also between different school districts here in the US.
I'd like to say, right here and now, that I feel that US schools have a lot going for them. Despite the regular articles we read decrying the parlous state of education in the United States, there are some things that America gets very right, and this piece is prompted by my concern that some schools may be in danger of losing the very best that they offer.
In England, kids go to school and adults don't. I believe that both sides of that equation like it that way. Parents do occasionally visit the schools their children attend, Parent Conferences, the School Play, that kind of thing; but generally home is home, and school is not. Along with most of my peers, and even though I was a good student, the thought that my parents were going to school filled me with horror. For many parents the experience was similar. They generally do not go to school so when they did it brought back memories, not all of which were pleasant.
So imaging my surprise to find that here, in my new home, parents did not only visit school regularly, but they were an integral part of many school activities. Not only do parents attend, grandparents too, and in many communities, half the town still go.
They go to football, baseball, basketball games. They attend talent shows, plays, music recitals in their hundreds, and sometimes thousands. When Jenks High School played Union High School for the State Football Championship a few years ago, they filled the stadium of the University of Tulsa for the game. That was forty thousand people attending a high school football game. Whatever folk might think of the prominence of football, and the lack of much in the way of academic support, that is still a remarkable statement about the place of the schools in the affections of the people.
High school football matches in the UK are attended by Dads, occasional siblings (under protest), and the elderly guy who lives down the road, and is walking his dog! In England they do not have Marching Bands, Color Guard, Cheerleaders and the entire panoply that happens here. Our local high school has a wonderful football stadium that must seat around four thousand. In England there are professional football (soccer) teams that would bite their hands off for facilities like that. The school has a Wellness Center and a Performing Arts Center that seats around fourteen hundred. The real shame about that was that when they recently performed "Grease", the small-minded among the faculty sanitized the production to make it Baptist family friendly. My personal view is that if they are going to do that they might be better choosing a different musical, but hey, this is Oklahoma (now there's a thought!).
The local community pays for much of this via sponsorship and boosters. In return those facilities are well used, the PAC and football stadium are regularly full. Owasso recently won the State 6A Baseball Championship recording a perfect 36-0 season. When they returned to town the entire Police Department went out to escort the team home. Lights, sirens, the lot. This stuff matters!
The integral nature of the schools and the local community is a shining example of an ideal to aspire to. The UK could learn much from this. I am not going to spend time here concerned with academic performance, or teacher pay, or the insidious attempts to introduce Creationism into science lessons, or any of the many facets of public schools that need attention. In this piece I am concerned only with the good things that happen, and that we might be in danger of losing even those.
The local high school is the heartbeat of the local community. In many places it beat loud and strong and I therefore find myself wondering why some of the main events are being moved out of the district.
This week, last week and next, in school districts up and down the country, high school seniors are graduating and attending their Class Commencement. It is a time-honored tradition, and yet another wonderful event that UK schools generally do not do. When we were at school we kinda got to the end of the year, and left. No ceremony, no caps and gowns, just a last day and we were done.
Graduation is, however, the event of the school year. I love it and all that it represents. I like the traditions, I appreciate the Seniors handing the torch to the Juniors, it is a passing from one life stage to the next, and although it marks the end of childhood for most, it is also a beginning and that is reflected in the speeches we all endure!
So I am wondering why, in this district with all the facilities I mentioned above, the high school feels the need to remove this event from the local community, and stage it fifteen miles away. I wonder why the seniors held their Prom not in the school they have attended for the last four years, but at the Oklahoma Aquarium twenty miles outside the district; and why the seniors had to pay about forty bucks for their tickets.
Two of the main events of the school calendar, events that traditionally half the town would turn out to support, transplanted. One to the Maybee Center (Oral Roberts University), and one to a private facility.
I wonder who in the district thinks this a good idea. Who is driving these events outside of Owasso. I wonder who thinks the glamor of the Maybee Center, or the exotic surroundings of the Aquarium is worth the cost of the community becoming detached from these events.
Fifty miles south of here is another school district in a smaller community. It is the school my wife graduated from. Both her sisters graduated from there, so did their Mom. Granny didn't graduate but she did attend the school. Two years ago our niece had her commencement and yesterday was the turn of her younger sister. Valedictorian, National Honors Society, Class Vice-President and a final GPA of around 4.4.
The graduating class was around seventy. That is about half the size of Mrs Twigg's Class, but that is another story. The event was held on a beautiful Oklahoma evening in the rather antiquated football stadium and again, half the town was there. The ceremony was simple but the traditions were ancient. This town has graduated it's students in this place for many decades and many in the audience had no direct interest in the proceedings other than an involvement in their town, their school, their graduates. They are proud of them and they like to show it.
This same high school holds the Senior Prom in the gymnasium. There is a procession as the Seniors arrive in their fancy cars. They walk to the entrance through streets lined by the people of the town for their evening. It is a rite, and everyone from the Mayor to the local newspaper is there to escort them in.
We are losing that in Owasso. As the district has grown so has the involvement apparently diminished. Sure we have a big 6A school, and yes we graduated six hundred students. Well I think we did because the town really wasn't invited. and we didn't see the Prom either.
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