This wasn’t my idea.
It was the editor’s, to be exact. She suggested I write a column reflecting on my years in high school.
Considering I was near graduation, I thought to myself, who would really care if I rambled on for another 200 words about my experiences at LO?
But I’ll throw in my two cents about the school board, and school district I just spent thirteen years in. All you readers get a say (most adults), along with Laura and Megan (again, adults), as well as school board members and officials (all adults).
Now, you get to hear a student’s perspective.
First off, I can’t complain much. I believe I am walking away with a good education and a solid foundation for college.
That is more due to me pushing myself to take those AP classes, instead of the schools pushing me. Whatever the case, it’s been a long journey, and I will be sad to leave my friends and a few beloved teachers.
However, I have seen my fair share of changes. Our class was the last to have 5th grade band, the last class to complete four years of block scheduling at the high school, and one of the last classes to have elementary Spanish.
I know I had a lot more opportunities, programs, and funds than will my seven year old neighbor, enrolled as a first grader in the district.
And that saddens me, to see what little she will have. Of course, classes before mine might consider my LO schooling experience lacking compared to their own.
But maybe that’s the trend’more and more gets cut every year, but each class doesn’t know what they’re missing, and they still excel.
There is one trend, however, I hope no student ever sees again. The split between school district and parents, the rift between parent groups and administration, parents dedicated to saving ‘this? turning against parents dedicated to saving ‘that,? teachers against superintendent, or the break between administration and the public, as well as this paper.
Don’t mind me saying, but grow up.
It’s disheartening, as a student participating in a school-sponsored internship with The Lake Orion Review, to see my own superintendent and board members, who are supposedly working for the betterment of my education, cancel their subscription to my work.
Are you really going to fight like this? Thanks for supporting your students, guys.
How is not reading the paper helping the students? Now you’re not going to hear about your own students? achievements published in the paper each week.
Don’t bother reading about the honored ‘Student of the Week,? or the athletes who win on the field.
But hey, that’s just me.
I would like to urge all who talk, whisper, yell, speak, gossip, chatter, scream, or converse about the state of the schools to remember what I believe to be the cardinal rule: It’s about the students. I understand there will be disagreements. Hey, I’m all for disagreeing’it makes my job much more interesting.
But what matters at the end, thirteen years later, is to get as many students as you can to walk across that stage with stars in their eyes and a future that is bright, founded by a solid, well-rounded education; not one plagued by controversy.