One of the most stressful aspects of moving from the Middle School to the High School this year has been the culture shock. Sure, I was expecting the basic, "Oh...So that's how they do it here," as well as the time it'll take to get acclimated to the layout, the numbers of students, the way people are spread out all over the place.
Wait a minute. Maybe I wasn't expecting that. I've only been there a day. It was a day where I did most of the talking because I have a design project with a deadline I have to run with my students. So today as a procedural day. Do this, read this, take that, we'll get to that later, here's how you navigate that...It was that kind of day. Not my favorite day by far as it's generally sedentary, especially when you have to move through a number of things in a finite time.
But just in this day, and in the meetings yesterday preceding today's opening, I get the feeling that this high school, ranked in the top 10 in the state by at least two different measures, isn't much different from the HS I went to (because, ha! This is the HS I went to).
Don't get me wrong. The HS where I now work--the very same HS in whose halls I first kissed a girl--is fantastic at getting kids into programs, making sure they meet the grade, etc. The rankings aren't lying, so far as I can tell.
But the kids still move somnambulantly, gravitate into their cliques, and tolerate most of their classes, while idolizing or vilifying the rest.
Is this ever going to change? What is it about the architecture, the system that morphs us this way? Or is it not really the system but rather just human development. I'm guessing it's somewhere in the middle. But I'd like to spend some time figuring it all out. Cause for the life of me, I don't feel like having to relive HS all over.
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2 comments:
Enjoying reading these- always proud to see that a few of the smartest of my friends/connections/etc are working on these problems.
I'm told there are windows there now, they would've helped snap me out of somnolence a bit. Right up there with caring about what I'm doing and dark roasted coffee.
Thanks Bill,
It has been a rough first week. But it's getting easier. I've to learn a lot of skills I've forgotten over the years in Creative Expressions. But I'm looking forward to the challenge and reconnecting with old (literary) friends.
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