We come from a school with no auditorium, we practice in my classroom, sometimes the bus barn concrete floor, and sometimes in a neighborhood school's auditorium that has closed its doors. It's a challenge, but my kids are resilient and just adapt to our surroundings well.Weareproudofwherewecome from and what we can produce with so little. I share my kids with FFA, track, tennis, and golf as well as basketball playoffs. We all work together and make it work because it’s what is best for the students. —Benjamin High School one-act play director Cody Propps
I could write about the ongoing fight for public education in Texas.
I could say plenty about the groups who are yanking books off library shelves.
The demoralizing effect standardized testing has on teachers and students. Yeah, that too.
But then I spend an afternoon in Knox County, Texas, and get the infusion of hope that I need.
The three rural schools in this small county were all involved in their UIL district’s one-act play contest last week, and I drove a little over two hours to catch the performances. Mind you, many of these students are now familiar faces to me, as my newspaper job has included coverage of these schools’ volleyball, basketball, and softball teams, too. Watching these same students on stage or involved behind the scenes has endeared them even more.
Directors Karen Longan of Munday, Terra Martinez of Knox City, and Propps challenged the comfort zones of audience members with scenes from “The Red Suitcase,” “Lost Girl” and “Cicada.” All three directors have close ties to the county that has raised them and their families. Longan graduated from Munday and is now in her 51st year teaching at her alma mater. Martinez, also a Munday graduate, has taught school 18 years, fifteen of those at Knox City. Propps is the youngster, the young man who grew up in Benjamin and came home to educate, elevating the theater program while also taking his volleyball teams to the next level.
Most people who read this column live in small communities such as these in Knox County, Texas. You have educators who are wearing multiple hats and uniforms and working late hours and weekends to do the job. Yes, they will technically have their summers off come June and July, but even so, the overtime that has been involved during the other ten months more than justifies the eightweek break.
In March, April and May in a small school you can find the school librarian handling the tape measure at the district track meet. You may see your child’s science teacher working the fundraising concession stand if he’s a sponsor for the Senior Trip. The janitorial and maintenance staff are getting up extra early and going to bed late to get facilities back in shape after contests and games. An administrator will need to help chauffeur students from an FFA judging event in Clarendon back home to compete in the UIL Academic Meet because all of his staff are back home helping with extracurricular and academic activities.
These days I am searching for hope on the beaten down landscape of Texas education.
Last week, I found it in on the rolling plains of Knox County, where lots of folks deserve to take a big bow.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
