Back to School Again

Last Saturday I returned to the building from which I graduated high school, Shenandoah High School, in 1960. The building was a high school from 1911 to 1961 with few changes. The building is now Shenandoah Elementary School. The Alumni Association that honors graduates at an annual banquet may be the oldest in the state, recognizing graduates of the classes of 1939 to 1961. Of the 1,117 graduates from the school, there are approximately 270 who are still living. The Alumni Banquet is one of the big social events in the town of Shenandoah. It has been held every year except for the years during World War II and two years during the Covid pandemic. A modern-day high school gymnasium would hold three or four of the small gymnasiums in which the banquet is held.

I was honored to be the banquet speaker this year. Preparing for my speech during Teacher Appreciation Week brought back many wonderful memories some of which I told in stories at the banquet. By modern-day standards my family would have been termed poor although we did not think of ourselves as being poor. My father had no formal education and could not write except for his signature, and my mother had a couple of years of elementary school and could read and write. As I look back on my education I have come to recognize the importance of my parents as my first teachers. The lessons they taught by words and by example have been most important to me: Give every person who pays you a full day of work; treat others as you want to be treated; be kind and respectful, among others.

My days at Grove Hill Elementary School for the first seven years and my remaining five years at Shenandoah High School opened exciting vistas for me to history and the world. Among my favorite subjects were Latin and Plane Geometry as they demonstrated the structure of language and reasoning. I was an excellent speller, and I can still outline a sentence.

My teachers were caring. Mrs. Lena Kite who was the first guidance counselor made what I thought at the time was an outlandish suggestion that I should apply to go to college. I told her I did not think I could go to college questioning my own abilities and knowing that no one in my family had ever been to college. Mr. Kite encouraged my interest in history, and it was in his class that I reduced Harry Strickler’s 442-page book, A Short History of Page County, to six pages that I still have. Mrs. Boozer taught the government class in which I could never learn enough.

Probably fewer than half the children who started school with me actually graduated. By today’s standards the schools were poor. My teachers were inspirational and pointed me in the right direction. That is why I told my fellow alumni at our annual banquet how much I continue to appreciate my teachers not just one week of the year but always! Teachers made a huge difference in my life as they do in the lives of our children every day!