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Grade Schools

The Source

Lots of people would like to write this particular column. Lots of people could, but they probably won’t. Midwesterners are a modest group and tooting one’s own horn in corn country is regarded as a discordant blast. So I’ll write it. Some fifteen years ago I formed a touring group of actors made up of performers from Jacksonville, Triopia, Routt, Franklin, Ashland, and everything in between. Every winter I look at the almanac and decide which days will be the absolute worst weather then we load up our costumes and props to head across the frozen tundra of Illinois, doing usually four or five shows a day, each in a different elementary school. In recent years the group has become a part of the Lincoln Land Community College curriculum. It’s a joy. It’s tiring and hectic and sometimes maddening, but the joy of performing for up to a thousand little ones a day, four days running, gives my students an education impossible to glean from any textbook. Plus you get the additional kick of seeing the face of a restaurant manager looking at twenty hungry customers in tie-dyed shorts, really dumb hats and wearing stage makeup. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I used to modestly say, “I’m not an expert on schools,” but after having made 17 visits a year for fifteen years I’ll at least admit I’ve seen enough to make a few judgments about our local elementary schools. If your husband is in the driveway honking at you right now and you’ve got to quit reading the column, I’ll cut to the chase: I am totally impressed. Confining my judgment to only the Jacksonville elementary schools for the sake of space available, I can honestly say that when working with and watching the administrators and staff at Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, South, North, Murrayville, Our Saviors, Eisenhower, Franklin, Turner, Westfair, and the Early Years Program, I have met nothing but people who are absolutely the tops in their field. Let’s be honest, not all schools are created equal. Some have a natural advantage because of their degree of parent involvement and economic resources, but to a school…each and every one my touring theatre group visits….I continue to be blown away by the way the motto continues to be What’s Best for the Kids? ….despite budget tightening, despite crowded schedules, despite the hoary spectacle of mandated tests. In short, I’m amazed. I’m gratified. And you can see it on the faces of the teachers as they bring their little ones in to see our show. You can hear it in the way you’re greeted on the phone by the school secretary, you feel it when you talk to the local principal…how these kids do in school and thus in life is the overriding concern of every Jacksonville administrator and teacher with whom I’ve dealt. So…is my perspective skewed because I’ve spent my working life in education? I don’t think so. Hey, I’ve known lousy administrators. I’ve seen weak teachers. They didn’t just all blow away when our Lincoln Land theatre vans pulled into the school parking lot. And yes, there are probably things I’ve missed, but when you spend a month or two making the arrangements, you plop yourself into a school and disrupt its schedule, herd every student to the gym, corral their attention, and then try to bring them a little inspiration, you learn a great deal about how that particular school works. Try calling Jacksonville administrator to chat for five minutes. It’s nearly impossible. In the first place, it’ll take four or five calls to actually catch them when they’re not counseling a student, calming a parent, attending a curriculum meeting, or mopping up the results of the latest flu epidemic from the floor of the secretary’s office. There are jobs where you can sit back and cruise a bit, but elementary education, whether you’re teacher or administrator, is not one of those jobs. You live it, you breathe it, it becomes a part of who you are, and if you’re any good at all you take your problems home with you. God knows we have a lot to gripe about. Other media can shoulder that job for the moment. But I think it’s not only healthy but needful in the midst of hard times to stop and take an honest look at what we have going for us. The ball may not always bounce our way but in the case of Jacksonville’s elementary schools, we have gathered a very, very good team.