According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, there are five elements that, when woven together, create an optimal learning environment for students. Fundamental beliefs, assumptions, shared values, norms, behaviors and tangible evidence should work together to provide high schoolers with the best opportunities to thrive educationally and socially. Which prompts the question: does KHS exemplify these five elements?
When going off the definition above, the answer is yes. KHS has proven itself an exemplary school in the state of Missouri multiple times since its founding in 1865. Just last year, KHS was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School alongside eight other schools in Missouri. However, after hearing this news, I couldn’t help but wonder if we, some of the most problematic students I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, have truly earned it. After some reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that we actually aren’t the problem.
I believe as a student body, we have sound morals. Deep down, we all value our high school experience. Even if some say they don’t care, there’s bound to be even the smallest amount of pride when students hear the varsity football team won another game. Most of us do well in school, and have the test scores to prove it. Many students attend spirit events and scream the Battle Cry to ensure our grade level’s reputation is something to be proud of. When you look at the character of our school, we appear exceptional.
Where the problem lies is with the individuals. For every good thing I stated about the student body, there are always the select few who refuse to embrace it. Now, this isn’t a personal attack on anybody. Everyone is welcome to live their life as they choose. However, if in doing so, you negatively impact other students, then that’s a problem.
In my opinion, the most important element of an exemplary high school culture is patterns and behaviors. How would I describe the behavior of students at KHS? Complicated. Let’s face it, there will never be an accurate representation of our student body. Everyone is different, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is the “KHS student” who has been glorified and become the expectation of everybody who attends our school. Being a good student doesn’t mean school has to come naturally to you, or that you should be involved in every extracurricular available and look good doing it.
Good culture comes with accepting and embracing differences to ensure a positive experience for everybody. So — where did we go wrong? If only there was someone or something we could blame for the vastly unfortunate influence that stereotypes have on our school. Good news, there is… kind of.
According to Science Direct, stereotypes are based on a cognitive mechanism called illusory correlation. This means humans tend to connect two events without any real evidence that they’re connected at all.
So going back to the glorified high school student, the idea of there being a “superior” way to make your way through high school is completely made up. At some point, someone decided that because someone looked or acted a certain way, that was why they found success or popularity, and now look how we turned out: a student body that values made-up stereotypes over true acceptance regarding differences. And let’s face it, the majority of people who fit these stereotypes are peaking as you read this.
So… does KHS exemplify a good high school culture? Yes… and no. We definitely meet the criteria, and I don’t believe it’s our fault we’re unable to go above and beyond. Human nature will always hold us back from true acceptance of what our student body really looks like. There will always be those who meet the criteria of the glorified high school student, and there will always be the ones who don’t. While I don’t believe this can ever be reversed, I do believe that once we recognize this flaw, we will finally be able to start working towards exceptional progress regarding high school culture.
