Groveton High School - Tigerama Yearbook (Alexandria, VA)

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I stand here today with verbal swords, behind moats, atop crum¬ bling walls to deny the seige and raise the tlag high on Groveton — to replace the shroud of humility with the shining banner that this institu¬ tion so rightly deserves, To notice, from this position where I can be heard, the greatness that is ours — not as is typically trumpeted: a cross-secl ion of America nor a mixture of students of d ifferent econom¬ ic backgrounds, But I celebrate today Groveton, the institution of learning of high stature and quality. We have each leaned on Groveton in our trials through these last four years. We students have been picked up at least once by a teacher who saw our steady stride falter, grabbed us as we stumbled, and gave us that swift kick to make us get moving again. Groveton has been good to us — and not that sweet, sappy good that coddles and helps you through but in the end stifles ambition and drive — but the good that leaves all of us free today as greater, stronger people than the September of our freshman year, ready to cut the tie to Groveton and grow some more. To really know — really know why Groveton is so good, you have to sit in one of its classrooms (maybe several.) If only I could put it down in words so other schools might benefit, But I ' ll tell you a little about my own experience. At Groveton, good teachers, of which there are so many, have quick, keen minds that understand their students and how to get them to learn, The emphasis in their classrooms is not on cramming the brain full of useless trivia, but reshaping, as Marvin Hupart says, behavior patterns, or rather than teaching, as Doc Kosek says, causing us to learn, You rarely find a teacher at Groveton lecturing data mindlessly to you, but they will have discussions or talk to you rather than at you about things that their students can tell interest them. And they put in long hours after school, and at night after they leave — and none of them, none of them at all get paid a salary near the value of the effort, knowledge, and dedication with which they perform their labor, And all of you in my class know too that public education — Groveton High School — does work and works well too. I do not deny that we are unique, Some public schools are bad. But we prove that there is nothing inherent in state funded learning that makes it bad. For Groveton cannot be said to have any advantage. In fact, most would consider us struggling against obstacles, So I charge all of you with this, In your celebration, your joyful recounting of the greatness of your senior year or this day, or the fun you had with your friends that crazy water day, or the prom, orjust talks with your best friends, remember the Groveton that is the great institution of learning, Tell people about it, Don ' t ever let anyone, anywhere, any¬ time get away with belittling Groveton or the quality of learning within its walls, Tell people that public education is worth saving. Hold your head high and never be embarrassed or ashamed or wistful that your school is not immediately recognized as prestigious by its name, Celebrate Groveton for Groveton Realize how lucky you are to have gone here. Excerpted from the 1982 Valedictory Address by Christopher Cannon