It has been a little more than a week since I have blogged. During that time, I have been planning a reunion for my high school class. I started attending Greenwood in kindergarten and finished high school at that same institution. Greenwood is an interesting institution in that it remains the only school of its kind in Missouri. Located on the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield, Greenwood has been a training school for prospective teachers since its inception 100 years ago. We always had a number of student teachers. If prospective teachers could survive our class, we knew they would make good teachers. When I was there, we had 15 boys and 15 girls in each class. Athletically, we always had really good teams and defeated schools that were much larger. The Greenwood of 2007 is much different. Tuition is much, much, much higher and by law they cannot dictate the number of boys or girls in a class. Sadly, that meant the end of the football program that had been so successful. Those in my class, however, still have so many memories of good times shared and lessons learned. I believe the arrangements we have made for the reunion will be well-received by all of us.
For some time, I have been giving thought to how the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) can help the students in the St. Louis School District to not only want to go to college, but help them financially to do so. Helping in high school is too late, so my focus is on kindergarten. The first kindergarten in the United States was in the St. Louis School District. Once a very proud and effective district, their performance of late on standardized testing has been deplorable. These negative results have caused the state of Missouri to take over the responsibilities of running the district from the elected Board of Education. On August 20, the MOHELA Board will have an opportunity to approve a program that will begin to move the St. Louis School District in a positive direction. MOHELA has hired my friend Ed Wtkins to help get corporations in St. Loouis to line up with MOHELA to finally achieve the goal of once again having a great school district in St. Louis. I will write more about this later if the MOHELA approves our plan.
I am too old to be having this much fun. Regardless, it is happening
2 comments:
Everything you are doing is SOOOO awesome!
I am so proud of you. You are making a huge impact
on the lives of others! You are never too old for God
to use you in amazing ways!
I'm so happy to know that you are having fun on this
new journey in life!
Love you,
Stacey O'Hara
WOW. Too old my foot! You're just getting started! Thank you for caring so much-especially about our city's schools. I spent K-4th grade there and know firsthand some of the good things that can come from St. Louis Public. Look forward to hearing the updates!
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