Sheffield High School Class of 1956

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A photo taken from this angle 50 years ago  when we graduated would show that SHS looks no different today except for the covered bus loading area.  

Does this mean that the high school of today is the same as that in our time?  In many ways, the answer is "YES."  The teaching faculty is still about the same size even though the student body is a bit smaller.  There is a good mix of older and younger faculty with a youthful but experienced administration.  Teachers lead the way in learning by maintaining their continuing education and striving for advanced degrees.  Students have the support of teachers and faculty.  That's what we had, too.

In other ways, the answer is "NO."  Rightly or wrongly, word began to be heard by those of us who had moved away from Sheffield that some hard times were beginning to be felt at the high school and "things just weren't the same."  I, for one, didn't take the time or make the effort to talk to people who would have the facts, after all, I was out there trying to make my own mark and spending all my time and effort to do just that.  I just had these impressions--after all, no class could be better than ours.  Now that I have achieved what Buck Locke calls "Old Geezerhood," I have begun to investigate these claims.  I have talked to folks in The Shoals.  I've "googled" the Internet.  I am corresponding with current teachers, and listening to past teachers in the system--not the least of which is our own Peggy King Bishop.

I must admit that my first negative impressions came from sources who/which were not on the scene but, rather, from my parents, a Tuscumbia school teacher (who, by the way, is not prejudiced against Sheffield) and websites that publish outdated comparisons (but not too outdated).  The more I learn about the programs, physical plant and people of SHS, the more I feel that the same fierce desire to be excellent in all areas of the high school experience exists today.  

The problems seem to come from the changing demographics of the student body and (maybe I'm stretching it, here) from the changing community mores--such as parental disavowal of holding their kids accountable and their willingness to punish anybody else who does.  A young professor at The University of Alabama who teaches graduate programs in education strategies in the Culverhouse School of Business told me that many college students who are in the poor performer group bring the attitude, learned at home, that the school owes them an education without their applying any effort.  This is seen in all demographic groups, not just in the economically disadvantaged or non-whites.  A website that publishes student performance and compares schools in geographic areas, greatschools.com, posts the results of testing 11th and 12th graders with the Alabama High School Graduation Exam in 2002.  It breaks down performance according to the demographics of the students and compares performance of the school to the overall average for the state and schools within a 25 mile radius of the subject school.  It was this site that influenced me to think that we have an opportunity to influence academic excellence at SHS.  SHS performed near the bottom of comparisons with neighboring schools and the state.  I visited the State Board of Education website where the 2003-2004 figures are available.  Here, the numbers are quite a bit better.  Only Sheffield boys don't do a lot better than State of Alabama boys in math, for example.  Comparing demographic groups, such as non-white or economically disadvantaged, SHS students had lower "fail" rates than the overall state figures (by less than half!).  

This same sources of data tells me that until the prospect of not graduating motivates students, they do not perform well on that exam.  Eleventh graders did poorly in the greatschools.com report and did poorly in the State Board of Education's published reports.  Since the next year they do well, they aren't dumb, they are just not motivated!  Whose fault is this?  This is a complex question that we mentioned on the main page for the mentoring project.  

One thing that SHS  has done to attack this issue is to start the "Mentor A Child" program.  It has gotten off to a great start with enthusiastic participation--so much so that there are kids on a waiting list to find a mentor.  Sadly, though it is quite successful in the elementary grades, there are no high school students being mentored due to lack of adult volunteers.  Quite independently, Buck and I came to the conclusion that mentoring would be a key to achieving academic excellence at SHS.  Buck is trying to raise support for the kids in the form of soliciting volunteer mentors from the Shoals area and trying to persuade the local officials to allow some of us, SHS alumni who are willing and able, to provide Internet mentorship.  

I feel that some parents need mentoring, too.  I can't imagine the parent who is so depraved or misguided that he or she would not want his or her child to have an opportunity to be as good as he/she possibly can be and to be successful in a good career!  I can imagine parents who are timid about disciplining their children or who might feel intimidated by the homework on which their kid might ask them to help.  At least for the ones who want to learn parenting skills that will support success in schools, an opportunity to get training, advice and support would save a few students and maybe help unify families. 

So, what does SHS need from The Class of 1956?  I think we need to support the programs and people who are doing the job right and getting SHS on the right track right now.  

Other SHS alumni groups have donated monies to the Sheffield Education Foundation--no strings attached--for use as the Foundation board see fit.  The community, and, no doubt, many of you classmates there in the Tri-Cities, support the SEF in the same way by attendance at "Sheffield Sings," a fundraiser originated and driven by Mary Settle Wright and her husband, Joe Cooney, and benefited enormously by the contacts, organizational skills, and talent of the SHS alumni husband-wife team, the Bakers, and a host of volunteers who work to stage this annual event.  The Foundation board dispenses Foundation monies wisely and well as incentives for students and teachers and as investments in programs at the schools.  A monetary gift to the Foundation would be a nice tribute to our teachers.  More money to do more things is always good, if the decision-makers are basically on the right track.  If we want our class to be recognized in perpetuity, we can carve out a specific "trust fund" within the SEF--but it had better be a sizeable fund in order to beat the $10,000 per year that the "Sheffield Sings" brings in.   A separate trust fund could be administered by the Foundation board in accordance with the specific desires of our class.

Our most significant impact on academic excellence, in my opinion, would occur if we, as a group, got behind the mentoring programs for the students and parents.  Gina Mashburn is the guiding force at the high school for the one that is already in existence and supports students now.  She needs to get our support in the form of volunteers to mentor or advice from some of you who have seen or had experience with successful mentoring or counseling programs for high school students in other parts of the country.  

Programs exist for family counseling on a variety of topics from substance abuse, anger management and abusive behavior to pregnancy.  I am not aware of one that is oriented primarily towards teaching parenting skills that would help the child in school.  PACT of Decatur, headed by Tiki Hubbard and assisted by Linda Thrasher, formerly a teacher at SHS, comes close to this goal and does have a parenting skills unit in its programs agenda, but the overarching concern of this program is the prevention of child abuse.  This program is not available in the Tri-Cities, but, even if it were, the primary focus might be a turn-off for the non-abusing parent who feels unequipped to deal with his or her kids in a manner that would teach accountability and reinforce what the student is hearing from teachers at school.  

Sheffield City Schools has inaugurated a parenting program for families with troubled students.  At present, it does not enjoy enthusiastic support or voluntary participation by the parents who need its services most, so family courts direct serious problem cases into this program.  In its present form and with its current set of "clients," this, too, doesn't seem to be an attractive program for the honest, concerned parent who just needs to learn how to guide their kid.

 If academic excellence is our goal and lack of parenting skills is one of the barriers, we might get Class of 1956 classmates who were/are counselors, teachers, motivators and parents of successful children to work with whatever authorities exist there in Sheffield to support and help improve this program and to serve as mentors to parents who are identified as being sincerely concerned about their students.    Mentors would be useful in such a program to provide individual insecure or frightened parents some day-to-day advice, counsel, support and a shoulder to lean on.

Not wanting to sound superior, I believe strongly that those of us who are not in Sheffield and want to help can provide something like mentorship to students or parents there by means of the modern communication miracle--the Internet.  I think that all the screening that would be done on a local mentor can be done on those of us who would be willing to volunteer.  I think that the contact with the student can be structured so that all communication is available for review by any oversight agent that the school might require in order to prevent inappropriate Internet contact.  Contact of mentors with the parents would be less likely to be frowned upon by SHS administration.  Therefore, if the Class of 1956 agrees, we could be an effective lobbying group to discuss this with SHS administrators in order to set up a "win-win" program.