Bryan W. Alaspa 1When a high school dies
March 30th 2010 13:12
So far there are just rumors. Personally, I saw a kind of off-hand comment left on someone’s Facebook profile page and I have yet to hear anything from anyone in any kind of official capacity. However, it seems unsurprising that my alma mater, Luther North High School, is closing its doors very soon. There just haven’t been enough students in recent years to keep the doors open very long.
I was a graduate of the class of 1989. I knew from pretty early on that it was going to be the high school I went to. I went to a small Lutheran grade school after a disastrous couple of years in the Chicago Public School system. I have written about how I am unable to do simple math before and I sometimes want to blame the Chicago Public Schools for that. It was easy to blame them back then.
When I went there the halls were full. I remember developing the skill of swimming like some kind if bi-pedal salmon against the oncoming tide of students walking toward me. No matter where my class was, it always seemed like I was trying to go against the flow of the foot traffic. Maybe that serves as a kind of metaphor for my entire high school experience.
I always tended to make friends with kids who were older than me. I became best friends with a guy who would become the senior class valedictorian a year before I would graduate. This made senior year rather interesting as I suddenly had to look around and find friends who were my own age.
Not all of high school was great. My own experience is as full of angst and terror like everyone’s. However, I know people who have an intense and burning hatred of every moment they were in high school. I do not. There were just too many good memories that counteracted the bad ones.
I wrote, just yesterday, about how the best job I ever had was working for the school itself. It was such a great job. In many ways I was the most powerful kid in the school, although any abuse of such power would have gotten me fired so fast my head would have spun off and rolled down the hall. Still, it was at least fun to pretend that I had such powers. I also got to know a lot of teachers a people because my boss, the Registrar, was the kind of guy the teachers liked to hang out with. It was interesting to hear them open up about things that a normal person would talk about.
Sadly, the economic times have hit the school hard over the years. It’s tough to send your kid to a private school when you are looking at losing your house, your 401(k) has vanished and healthcare costs have not only gone through the roof but are currently about to leave the known universe. When you look at the economics of things and see the improvements made in many of the Chicago Public Schools, well, you just have to make a decision.
My graduating class was small, only a few hundred people. During my 20th reunion, last year, I heard that the entire population of the school was now about that same number. I knew then that things were going to change. I realize this hardly shatters the universe, but it is a little sad. I will be sad to see the school close its doors. Still, I have the memories and I choose to remember the good ones.
I was a graduate of the class of 1989. I knew from pretty early on that it was going to be the high school I went to. I went to a small Lutheran grade school after a disastrous couple of years in the Chicago Public School system. I have written about how I am unable to do simple math before and I sometimes want to blame the Chicago Public Schools for that. It was easy to blame them back then.
When I went there the halls were full. I remember developing the skill of swimming like some kind if bi-pedal salmon against the oncoming tide of students walking toward me. No matter where my class was, it always seemed like I was trying to go against the flow of the foot traffic. Maybe that serves as a kind of metaphor for my entire high school experience.
I always tended to make friends with kids who were older than me. I became best friends with a guy who would become the senior class valedictorian a year before I would graduate. This made senior year rather interesting as I suddenly had to look around and find friends who were my own age.
Not all of high school was great. My own experience is as full of angst and terror like everyone’s. However, I know people who have an intense and burning hatred of every moment they were in high school. I do not. There were just too many good memories that counteracted the bad ones.
I wrote, just yesterday, about how the best job I ever had was working for the school itself. It was such a great job. In many ways I was the most powerful kid in the school, although any abuse of such power would have gotten me fired so fast my head would have spun off and rolled down the hall. Still, it was at least fun to pretend that I had such powers. I also got to know a lot of teachers a people because my boss, the Registrar, was the kind of guy the teachers liked to hang out with. It was interesting to hear them open up about things that a normal person would talk about.
Sadly, the economic times have hit the school hard over the years. It’s tough to send your kid to a private school when you are looking at losing your house, your 401(k) has vanished and healthcare costs have not only gone through the roof but are currently about to leave the known universe. When you look at the economics of things and see the improvements made in many of the Chicago Public Schools, well, you just have to make a decision.
My graduating class was small, only a few hundred people. During my 20th reunion, last year, I heard that the entire population of the school was now about that same number. I knew then that things were going to change. I realize this hardly shatters the universe, but it is a little sad. I will be sad to see the school close its doors. Still, I have the memories and I choose to remember the good ones.
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