Examiner column for November 27.
The holiday season is always magical in schools as we look forward to days off and special holiday events. But the most meaningful school-related holiday tradition is the return of former students to the halls they have outgrown.
I am eager to welcome back former Senior Seminar students because their reports of the benefits of earning Advanced Placement credits are so convincing to current seniors.
Chetin mentioned that his AP credits had allowed him to take four courses a semester at the University of Virginia, freeing up time to play club lacrosse and become involved in student government. Others have used AP credits to double major, or spend a semester abroad. I love these testimonials.
But students don’t return to endorse the AP program. They return to measure their new selves against the memory of who they were in high school.
Do you remember how self-conscious you felt during those years? Whether the school president or the class computer geek, every single high school student feels out of place. It is a complete myth that high school constitutes “the best years of your life.”
Returning to where you felt pretty crummy about yourself has the salutary effect of making you feel pretty good about having graduated. Often former students find it hard to believe they found high school difficult or threatening. “If only I knew then what I know now,” they often tell me.
As they share their thoughts with current students, most keep up the pose of college as a recreational wonderland---full of parties, interesting classes, and diverse people.
That stereotype is precisely what current students want to hear. Sleep-deprived from their 7 a.m. school start time, college sounds like some fantasy they don’t dare hope will ever come true. High school students currently spend seven hours a day in uncomfortable classrooms with sub-par ventilation, sitting at cramped desks.
How is it possible, they think, that anyone can earn a bachelor’s degree attending classes fewer than fifteen hours a week? Will they really be granted a degree if they schedule no classes before noon?
As with everything having to do with high school, returning is complicated. Former students feel nostalgia, yet rejoice in their freedom. They can’t believe they adhered to all those rules, yet agree the rules were necessary. Every one of them speaks of how well prepared they were compared to students from other regions of the country.
Only Matt advised current seniors not to believe all the college “hype”: “I spent a whole year anticipating how great it would be to leave home, and now I can’t wait to come back. I love college, but I really miss the food and the comforts of home. Appreciate what you have while you’re still here.”
Matt’s advice was an honest and refreshing counterpoint to the “carpe diem” philosophy of most returning students. His voice rang true, counter to stereotype.
But whatever mixture of feelings these graduates express to current students, it’s especially sweet that their entrances and exits are not regulated by the harsh jangle of a school bell. Home is quite nice when you can come and go as you please.
Having returned from "going home" to N.Y. for Thanksgiving, I can relate to your column. In N.Y. I went to see the musical, Avenue Q, which is worth seeing if you haven't. In the play the action is all about recent college graduates struggling to "make-it," "survive," and realize as the play puts it that their struggles are "just for now." It is poignant to hear the cast (in the form of muppets) sing about how easy they had it in college with dorms and plenty of meal plan food. I suppose each stage of life is filled with some current angst, nostolgia, and fear/hope for the future.
Posted by: Bob F. | November 30, 2006 at 11:42 PM