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mentals of power (an introduction to small engine repair, theories of power and how to harness it), beginning and advanced woodworking (an introduction to cabinet and furniture making), home economics I, II and III (an introduction into fashion and tailoring and food service), and typing.
The high school also offers a few—a very few—electives that don’t fall into the category of either vocational or college prep courses.
There’s building trades for disadvantaged students and reading to bring skills of poor performers up to grade level.
There’s the new combination personal typing/computer concepts. Every college students needs to know how to type and every student at RCHS should be introduced, at least, to computers.
There’s sociology/psychology, the only opportunity young men and women at RCHS have to learn a little something about social science.
And then there are the subjects Mr. Eastham has repeatedly attacked as worthless in his four years on the board—art and music. This year, band has been added to that listing.
It makes no difference, apparently, that the students in these classes learn to read music, learn something about the lives of the great painters, sculptors and composers, can recognize Handel’s Messiah, the works of Rodin, Georgia O’Keefe, Whistler, Michelangelo and Monet. It makes no difference that their lives are enriched, their horizons broadened. Apparently, art and music are two of the trappings of civilization that Mr. Eastham feels Rappahannock children can live without.
We say no. We say Rappahannock children need art, music and the rest of the “miserable smorgasbord of electives” as much as children anywhere—maybe more so. And we don’t think it’s an either/or question—either electives or academic courses. In Rappahannock now, they are one and the same.
We acknowledge that our educational system here is far from perfect. We agree with Mr. Eastham that improvements are definitely needed. It’s on the “how” that we part company.
We’d do it, not by cutting courses, but by hiring and keeping good teachers, maybe with an index salary scale, maybe with some form of merit pay such as a master teacher program much like the grading and compensation of college professors.
We’d do it by providing science labs where students can actually perform experiments, by providing classroom space for more math courses, academic English from eighth through twelfth grade, two languages and introduction to computers.
We do it by setting standards for graduation that require students to demonstrate they have mastered what is necessary to either find a job or continue on to higher education.
We do it by buying the groceries and setting the table for a feast of learning.
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