This June our school will have finally completed a four-year long saga of education. A saga that included not only an education, but laughter, tears, stress, good times and bad, memories, and all the other adjectives that typically go along with graduation. But enough about the seniors. How will our school be affected after they leave?
With a graduating class of its own, our school is hardly new anymore. In fact, with a newer high school that opened up last year on our campus, we haven’t been all that new, anyway. Now, when people ask our students where they go, it’s becoming more and more likely that they will actually have heard of CSI High School for International Studies. Four years have passed, and with that, the school’s reputation has soared.
Now, what will students, parents, and faculty be able to say at open houses, in interviews, to others? The legacy of the Class of ’09 will be rightfully awe-inspiring, but that legacy is also meant to be a precedent. Without the seniors, will the juniors rise to the challenge of becoming role models for the rest of the student body? Will the sophomores be able to handle the stress of junior year? Will the freshmen grow into their own and delve even deeper into the community that is CSI?
Our answer is a resounding yes. The seniors may be gone, but we’re a real school now. An emotional, closely connected school no doubt, but a real school nevertheless. With each graduating class that passes through the new halls of the Jerome Parker Campus, the legacy of our school merely extends further.
A real school, as many have complained in the halls, would never do half the things our school does. However, with all the requirements of a “good school” fulfilled – acceptance into “good” college, high standardized testing scores, limitless opportunities – how can we deny that by being “good” we also fit into the “real” category?
Many argue that a “real” school may not do SMART goals, or have advisory, or require capstone and portfolio projects, but then again, a “real” school may not have produced the students that will graduate from here. How many “real” schools can boast of our accomplishments? Everyone knows them: it’s hard not to have a list of facts about our school in the back of your head at all times for description to curious friends and neighbors who have never even heard of it.
So are we a “real” school now, truly? Of course. Technically we’ve been a real school since day one. But this year more than ever, from moving into a “real” building, to having more PSAL sports teams, more clubs, more class offerings, a senior trip, a prom, and most importantly, a graduation, we have come of age in the world of high school.
