From a time when we were little, up until now, we’ve listened to our parents and grandparents talk about their highschool lives at least once or twice. It seems that the stories always start with something like, “Well back in my day..;” and then proceed to drag out a long embellished story about how they had to walk uphill both ways everyday to school in the shivering cold or the blistering heat. As the story comes to a close, you start to wonder about high school now and really realize the drastic difference. How much has high school actually changed over the years?
Stafford High School has been around for a long time. It was first built in 1926, and then rebuilt again in 1952. Consequently, a few teachers at Stafford High School were students here before. Mr. Tyler Limbrick, a Psychology and World History teacher at Stafford, talks about how different school life was for him. “The use of technology is probably the biggest difference between us. We definitely could not have cell phones out, and we didn’t have laptops like you guys do-I think you guys are way more connected and plugged in,” Limbrick says. Technology has advanced so much, we now see everybody enticed within their phones and Chromebooks, way more interested in learning about the latest trends, than learning about the World Wars.
Some students even see a difference between then and now. “I think that back in the day high school was like ‘the thing,’ when in reality high school is just kind of boring. You just show up and then you leave.” Says Laila Sargent, a Sophomore at Stafford High school. High school is always hyped up on TV and even stories we hear from older people.
Most people have some fond memories from high school that stick with them forever: core memories that are always accessible. “We used to have something called The Cookie Room, the journalism teacher Mrs. Gill would sell fresh baked cookies out of her classroom, so instead of the snack carts that we have today, we would go to her class and buy cookies, ” Mr. Limbrick says. Stafford now has snack carts that stroll around the school with a variety of things to munch on, like chips, candy, and maybe even some cookies, but definitely not freshly baked cookies.
There are so many memories that people reminisce over. Memories that they want to be reality again. Mrs. Nina Brown, a counselor at Stafford High School would love to bring back a blast from the past. “I would want to bring back the talent shows. I love seeing students perform. I love seeing what students do, besides just being in classrooms. There are a lot of people out there who have talents,” says Mrs. Brown. Bringing back talent shows would make something for everybody to be excited about, the viewers and performers. It would bring so many people together.
Now we just have Instagram and Tik Tok, apps where everyone’s talents can be broadcasted for others to watch with a click on their phones. If we bring back talent shows then, Music teachers discover singers and instrumentalists, art teachers find their painters and sculptors, and English teachers uncover their writers and poets. A talent show would embrace differences and shine light on the amazing things that every student can do, without being portrayed on a screen.
There will always be similarities between the two generations, and nothing ever goes away forever. There are some things that can always be brought back at any time, like talent shows, for people who have talents to find comfort in others who share their passion. Even class activities in the computer lab could be brought back, instead of everyone being divided on their own devices, but the world is progressing and school life is moving on with it. High School has changed a lot and it is going to keep changing forever.
