Today was the first day of finals. There’s a second day tomorrow. Then, that’s a wrap for semester one. Semester one, by the way, clocked in at a whopping 84 days, leaving us 96 days left for semester two. A 12-day delta between the two semesters seems a bit strange to me–I mean, if we had gone one more week of instruction it would have been an 89- and 91-day split. But what do I know?
I do know one thing and it’s worthy of my praise. That would be the North High JROTC program. Now, before I say some nice things about the program, let me also note that I have had some JROTC students in my English classes that were pretty lame. They talked too much, weren’t very respectful, and, for the most part, weren’t a good representation of the uniform. Others were great.
I think of JROTC today because they fed us. As teachers, we like few things–give us some peace and quiet, and feed us now and again. An “atta boy” would be nice, too, but it’s been so long. JROTC had 30 (maybe more) of their kids in the cafeteria after school doling out food to the teachers. This was all food they had brought, they had made, and they stood up straight, acted respectful, and piled many dishes onto our plates. It was a huge line of food–to go over the whole menu would be time-consuming. Needless to say, no one could have possibly gone hungry with the selections presented to us.
JROTC is a program at North High School. Master Sergeant Graham and Command Sergeant Major Duran have been at it for a long time, and they take in just about anyone who signs up for it. These are not hand-picked kids, or AP kids, or future collegiate all-stars (though some fit those billings)–they’re kids who have signed up for the class and experience of JROTC. Graham and Duran try to instill in them qualities befitting not just someone in the program, but of a human being. JROTC incorporates lessons in procedure, but also life lessons as well.
The last few years, on certain nights, JROTC has requested my wife to give lessons on public speaking, or speaking to a group, or anything that enhanced the students’ speaking skills. After all, she taught speech at North for 20 years. She was always glad to do it because the kids were so respectful, wanted to learn more, and knew that she was giving them information that would benefit them in the future. She would come home from that night, tired, but happy that she had helped out kids. She also noticed that she didn’t know many of the students, and that many of those students she didn’t know weren’t really the “cool kids” or the obvious kids on campus that you always see. But what was important, she realized, was that JROTC gave them that place to be on campus. Yeah, maybe they weren’t always the best kids in class (if they had been really bad I could have gone to Graham or Duran and the behavior would have definitely changed), but, in this type of group, this type of place, they were a family. That’s a big deal.
I have nothing but respect for the JROTC program at North High. Yes, it helps that I was fed today, but it’s really important for kids to feel that they have a place to belong in high school. High school is hard enough for students, and for them to call anything at school a “family” or a “place” means that something good is happening. There are so many levels of success in school, and in life, that we get blinded by grades and Common Core and every acronym that’s thrown around. A success for these kids today could have been looking teachers in the eye, asking what food they wanted, and providing it with a smile. Or, providing the food, or setting everything up.
The only bad part of the luncheon today was the lack of attendance. Fewer than half of our teachers showed up and SO much food was left over. On my way out, I thanked the kids and made sure to thank Sergeants Duran and Graham for doing this.
“Thanks for always doing this,” I said. “I wish there had been more of us to enjoy it.”
Duran didn’t hesitate in saying, “We’ll just keep on providing it, no matter what.”
That’s what most of us in education do. Sometimes people take us up on what we provide, sometimes not. But you keep putting it out there.https://youtu.be/bOoTfXa5TBI