This morning I was perusing yesterday's Throwback Thursday posts on Facebook when I came across a series of high school photos from Prairie View High School in Linn County, Kansas--ones I had taken for the yearbook back in the late '70's and early '80's posted by a PV alum. I came back to those as I was scrolling through some of the contentious articles about current education funding and accountability of students and teachers. It occurred to me that those pictures are here for people to enjoy today because of a school board in a rural Kansas district that put students first in their decision making. I don't know if any of the folks on that board had much preparation for the job, but it didn't matter because they were there to see that their children received the best learning opportunities they could figure out how to provide.
I was hired at Prairie View under the condition that I clean up the journalism program, even though I had no prior experience in the field (not even in high school), did not have journalism certification, did not know how to use a SLR camera, and had never been in a darkroom. That doesn't sound like the board made a very good decision, does it? It's not easy to get specialty teachers, though, in small, rural districts, and what I did bring was an established record in the classroom and with extra-curricular supervision.
What sold me on the challenge was the principal's promise that he would fill the classroom with the school's top students, who would do the job even though they would receive only elective credit, since I did not yet have journalism certification. Why would they enroll, and why would the school do this? Humiliation, the students told me. They were upset with the quality of their school publications, and the principal promised them that if they would help I would work with them to produce publications they could be proud of. What teacher could ask for a more highly motivated group? Basically, they just wanted something that they could share with family and friends. We stumbled and we made some mistakes, but we published some fine newspapers and yearbooks, bits of which are now popping up on Facebook.
And throughout, the school board offered our program more than we asked for. My second year I had to argue with the board when it wanted to remove advertising from the yearbook and fund us completely as a way of rewarding us for a successful first year. My thinking was that students would lose some valuable learning opportunities if they no longer had to establish and maintain a budget, sell advertising, and create the ads themselves. The board listened and agreed and came back the following year with a better deal. This time they would buy additional photography equipment and darkroom chemicals if I would treat the course like a lab, with all students having to pass using a SLR camera as well as developing and printing pictures. With 25 students having to use a single, small darkroom, this was a challenge, but we did it--and continued doing so during the rest of my tenure there.
These folks were thinking about career skills before such topics were trendy. Instinctively, they opted for what would benefit the children in their care. What teacher could ask for more?
