With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
THAT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA
OCTOBER 19, 2022
During my early years at Regis Jesuit High School, I served as a co-moderator for Student Council. I believe I held the position for my first 6 years at the school, 2 years apiece with individual colleagues. My first co-moderator is a professor at a very prestigious university. My second is a professional photographer. My third is a high school administrator. Counting me, 50% of us went on to high school administration. From this fact, I draw 2 conclusions: first, being a student council moderator is a pretty good stepping stone to becoming a high school administrator and, second, the other half of us made the right choice with our lives.
The student council I moderated was, primarily, a programming group that put together dances and blood drives and the like. We staged Homecoming Week and Mission Week and tried to make sure that the students were having fun.
Being a student council moderator in an all boys context was very interesting at least from the perspective of gender. I found it a challenge to motivate young men towards creativity in planning homecoming themes or in designing decorations or t-shirts. This is not to say that all young men were not capable of these activities and that all young women have more of a predisposition to them, it is to say that, in my experience, this observation held true.
Regardless, I can say that it was not always easy to get the students of student council energized about our activities.
Except for pep rallies. Man, did the boys love pep rallies. They loved getting their classmates riled up, they loved introducing our sports teams which, somehow, always involved bringing the spotlights from the theater into the gym to highlight the sports stars. They loved the cheering and the frenzy.
They loved the damn pep rallies.
I often thought the amount of love they had for pep rallies was in direct response to my revilement of them.
I hated the damn pep rallies.
My disdain for them may have been solidified by one of the worst decisions I ever made as student council moderator.
There are moments I look back on over thirty years which inspire but one thought: what the hell were you thinking?
The plan went like this: bring the boys (all 750 of them) into the gym. Turn off all the lights. Shine the spotlight on one of the student council members. Announce that he was about to throw Big Macs into the stands. Switch the lights back on. Let the throwing commence and the chaos begin!
Great plan, right?
With the boys seated, I flipped off the lights and a low murmur started to build. It rolled, louder and louder and became more intense and frenzied and I immediately realized that plunging the students into darkness was a very bad idea, indeed. Before the spotlight even came on to light our student council, Big Mac maniac, I switched the lights back on entirely forgetting that these particular gym lights took a full minute to cycle completely back to life. At that very moment, the student council kid did what he was supposed to do: when the spotlight hit him, he started firing Big Macs into the stands with ferocity.
And the screaming started. Boys were shoving one another to get a hamburger, they were yelling and laughing and jostling and lunging.
Being a teacher means being helpless sometimes. I sure learned that lesson that day.
No one was injured. The students had fun. I had a long talk with the principal.
No harm, not much foul.
But I still despise pep rallies.
