I attended a reunion about a week ago...
of a part of the "Fremont Family"...
a group of staff & teachers I worked with...
for parts of the 21 years I taught...
our school was on the "wrong" side of the tracks...
we had a terrible reputation in the "district"...
[though completely undeserved...]
but we were resilient and thrived as a community...
we always got the short end of the stick...
the least money, the "worst" teachers...
and we were the district's "whipping boy"...
but yet, when outsiders came in for a while...
they always commented on how undeserved our "rep" was...
and left agreeing that, Fremont does it right, our school motto...
when I started, after school had begun in the fall of 1984...
my band students had been "banned" from visiting elementary schools...
due to "bad & out of control behavior in the past"...
[that first group was "the wild bunch"...]
however, by the spring, we'd come to terms enough...
that the principal gave us a "last chance"...
& we were allowed to go "out to the elementary schools"...
the elementary staff people couldn't believe the change for the better...
and the dye was cast for the next 16 years...
our staff, part of the "Fremont Family"...
along with the kids & their families...
really liked & respected each other for the most part...
together we created activities...
and learning experiences for our students...
when I started, there was a very small staff turnover...
as years passed, things didn't always go smoothly...
and sometimes, administration "issues", sent people away...
that was very true in the last year I taught...
over 50 staff members, many "long timers"...
left after the end of school that year...
I was the only retiree of that number...
so on May 31, a bunch of us gathered again...
for a Fremont Family" reunion...
some people I hadn't seen for 5 years or more, were there...
and as I enjoyed the familiar faces of my youth...
I also became aware of those absent...
due to distance or death...
in that environment, seeing dear people...
you almost expected to turn around...
& see those you'll never see again...
and found the pain of loss right on the surface...
we hugged, caught-up on news...
and seemed to fall right back into our roles...
it was like so many of the get-togethers we used to have...
and we decided to do it again, next year...
as I was leaving, I stopped to reminisce about a Disneyland trip...
the person I was talking to was remembering being a chaperon..
[one of the many times she & her husband had given up their time to do that...]
and what a bad luck trip it had been...
[the trip from Hell, I believe she called it...]
she said,"well, SH needed us...
& we liked her & respected what she did for the kids...
so there was no question, of course we went...
we all did that for each other...
that's why we were a family..."
I couldn't have said it better...
so here's to all those "Fremonsters" out there...
[that's what the kids called themselves...
when they went on to high school...
they became, "Franklinstines"...]
it was quite a time...
one that is no more, much the pity...
for I think our schools...
& the kids need a "family" like we were...
more now than ever before...
they finally succeeded in breaking up the Fremont Family...
and you won't see the like again for a very long time...
"...he that outlives this day and comes safe home...
will stand tip-toe when that day is mentioned...
...we few, we happy few...we band of brothers...
for he today that sheds his blood with me...
shall be my brother..."
[Henry V, Act IV, Scene III, Wm Shakespeare]
4 comments:
I never taught at Fremont but I did do grief support groups there for several years while working for Hospice. I found that the kids were pretty tough...but incredibly sweet on the inside once you got to know them. It was almost as if they were "expected" to be tough and had a reputation to live up to!
I enjoyed going there and always meeting a new group that would test my patience but always won my heart. Their personal losses were heartbreaking and their stories still touch my heart today.
Thanks for sharing this post.
I didn't go to a "tough" school. It was a small school in an eastern Kentucky county, and for the most part we didn't have problem kids there. What we did have in common with your experience at Fremont, though, was a group of teachers who were dedicated to the kids in their charge and invested in their success. It was the 60's, there weren't a lot of resources available, and there weren't the "field trips" and other enrichment activities schools have now. But, we had a small library, a music program and a school administration that wasn't obtrusive and let the teachers do what they had been trained to do. It was a good school.
I watch the school system in my city now and wonder what happened and how it went so wrong. There's a whole building of "administrators" (and they have one of the best buildings, too - we have school buildings being condemned, but you won't catch the administration staff sitting in a crumbling structure). What these administrators do is anyone's guess except eat up large portions of the school budget and get in the way of the teaching staff, which is harried and undersupported. They play "musical principals" for no apparent reason, shuffling them between schools, and upset the cohesion of the staffs at the schools until good teachers quilt in frustration. I makes me wonder how a county school with a population of 1000 students when I was in school did it with two principals, two secretaries, and a 3 person school board. It just shows that most of those people sitting in that administration building are not needed. All they do is get in the way.
It sounds like you and the teachers at Fremont did it right. Too bad you weren't allowed to continue.
Oh, yes - the school board I mentioned above was part time and unpaid except for the superindentant of schools, who worked full time for the school district and drew a salary, although not a great one. Now that I think of it, there were 5 members, 4 elected members and one employed superintendant. Their main function was to make up a budget, pay the bills and stay out of the principals' way so they could run the schools.
It was such a simple time then.
...M&CM, thanks...so many people on the East Side have a hard life...they are, the salt of the earth...the ones who drove me away, were the middle class who felt entitled & had to be catered to...
...Calico...couldn't have said it better...
my greatest joy at the reunion was seeing a fellow teacher,who's been battled the big C for years...& won...
& is now waiting for a kidney transplant...with a smile on her face & a great joy in living!
somehow all my struggles look so small seen from her position...
so many of us have battled the big C... a few of us are still here...
too many are not...
unfortunately, a cancer cluster is not unusual in a high stress situation where known
cancer causing elements exist in the physical plant...
[the floors, wiring,etc...]
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