All I can say is...wow

Yup, I'm working at the high school across the street.

This is a very weird place.

Yesterday half of the school was gone. To a cattle-judging clinic. Today and tomorrow there are a bunch of kids out - they are showing cattle in Rapid City, or helping their parents move their cattle to another pasture. All of these absences are excused. WHAT? Unheard of! Preposterous!

But why?

These high school kids have purpose and direction. They know what they want to do with their lives, and are - happy. Yes, HAPPY. Not for them the teenager angst, rebellion, drugs, suicides - nope. Their pants are cinched tightly at their waists. There's no graffiti, no gangsign.The bathrooms all have doors. Some lockers stand open, and are not gone into or broken. They know how to wear their hats - and to take them off inside. They are doing what they love and daily learning more about it. The classes they take are classes like marketing, Agriculture research, economics... oh, yes, and literature and history and geometry and trig. Everything they learn relates to the world around them. This weekend we have two kids going to the tryouts for the State choir. We have a band that practices every day after school, and really rocks the football games - and two (count em - two) performing choirs. All in a school of 150.

You could say that it is the smaller classes and personal attention that makes a difference. And that might be true to a certain extent. But the teachers here WANT to be here, love the area, know what they are teaching, and work together to interrelate instruction at all levels. Everything they learn relates to what they already are, and where they are going, what they want to be. Some are going to be lawyers and doctors - some of course vets and ranchers. But all are eager to learn, come to school every day, most early so that they can get a head start on their first class.

Class times and even class change times are quiet; the kids are intent on where they are going and what they are doing next. No one stands in the halls or takes off without signing out - and a good reason. Kids that DO start to slack off or go astray immediately are called in to the principal's office along with their parents, and everyone puts their heads together to figure out how to make this child's life better, how to help him to get what he wants and where he needs to be. Teachers volunteer to tutor kids on their 'planning' - off-time - periods. And the whole goal is to educate children; not to one up each other, not to prove their worthiness, not the teachers, the administration, nor the children. Everyone already knows that they are worthy - so they help each other.

"Feel I'm slippin into the Twilight Zone..." this is reality, not fantasy, and no exaggeration. I could tell you more but I am eagerly looking forward every morning to getting up and going to be a working part of this. And you probably wouldn't believe it anyway...