School Climate/Culture

Nicholas Matuszewski

School Climate/Culture

Educ. 361

9/12/2011

Blog 3: School Climate/Culture

            It’s hard to describe the culture/climate of my elementary, middle, and high school because they were all basically the same due to the fact that they were all in one connected building. Grades K-6 were in the elementary part of the school and grades 7-12 were together in the high school part making middle school virtually non-existent. My school consisted of K-12 starting from my 3^rd grade year because of the high school burning down when I started Kindergarten. I was in a dimly lit basement of a Lutheran church for 1^st and 2^nd grade and only had the luxury of playing on the nice big playground at the elementary school when we went there for lunch.

            Once I was in 3^rd grade the high school was almost finished being built. There were a few months where we had some class time with the 4^th graders. I don’t ever remember there being any students during my elementary days that weren’t Caucasian. There were many Native Americans that lived in the surrounding areas but they attended other nearby schools. Not being exposed much to other cultures but our own really blinded us at a young age on other races. We knew nothing much about other cultures and races making only what we hear from older people what we believe to be true. It’s a good thing that much of this went away as we got to high school but I am sad to say that many negative things were still said and I get angry sometimes just thinking about how growing up like this was.

            The one thing that stands out to me about elementary school was how popular the rat tail was. This was having a long tail in the back of your hair. It’s funny to think back at this knowing how cool it was back then but how goofy it looks now. Elementary was a lot of fun but did get out of hand once in awhile like when the rivalry of Laona’s two little league teams got a bit out of hand during recess at school. Boy did we get in trouble but after it was all said and done we did what any other 5^th and 6^th grader would do………laugh it off.

            Since my school is a bit non-traditional I will call my 7^th and 8^th grade years my middle school years. These years felt like pre-high school years. We were in the same area as the high school students but the one thing that separated us from the high school students was sports. We participated in the homecoming celebrations and other festivities but were still looked down as the wimpy kids who don’t belong.

            The 7-9^th grades hung out together during lunch time in the gym. This was mostly because nobody was old enough to drive to go anywhere and we weren’t allowed on the playground area when the elementary students were there. Since we were in a small town with not many places too even go, we really had no choice but to pass time conversing with others in the gym. The first African-American student I went to school with was when I was in 8^th grade. This was the only time in my entire schooling in Laona that I had anybody that was a different race as a classmate. This didn’t last long though because his family moved after the school year ended.

            Being in the same place as high school it was a bit weird in 7^th and 8^th grade. It kind of felt like we were just stumbling through these years to get to 9^th grade and officially be in high school where your grades, education, and class matter. We tried hard to fit in but realized that if we just did our own thing and stayed out of the high school student’s way it worked out best. It was a relief to finally be done with 7^th and 8^th grade and officially be high school students.

            When we finally reached high school we felt like we were on top of the world. We thought we were awesome and the coolest kids around. What we realized was that high school was hard and required a lot of work. Competition between the grades was always great when they happened. It was amazing how much everyone supported each other for sporting events or any other event that may happen both good and bad. My cousin was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease (a very beatable form of cancer) and after he started losing his hair our whole basketball team shaved our heads to support him. His treatments kept him from participating in the two sports he loved basketball and especially football during his junior year.

            Our enrollment was so small that we had to co-op with another school in some sports to have a football, baseball, softball, and wrestling team. We had great camaraderie when we played with this other school and it also made for a good rivalry in the other sports we weren’t with. We also had a tradition at the end of the school year where we had a softball game that involved selected people from each high school grade and a team of faculty. This was always great fun, very competitive (especially against the teachers), and played on the last day of school.     The teachers in high school were all very nice and more than willing to help you if you needed it. It was a very friendly environment and seemed pretty much like a small community. I have to admit that there were a few not-so-good teachers who were smart but couldn’t teach worth a darn. There were two really good teachers that were great in high school, Mr. Gile who taught Math and Mr. Wolf who taught Science. I was sad when Mr. Wolf left to go teach at East De Pere because the person who filled in for him when he left wasn’t smarter than a 5^th grader, no lie. It was a Physics class and we didn’t even open the Physics book once. The education I got attending Laona High School was for the most part really good but it fails to even come close to the type of education a student can get in a bigger school.