I wrote the following narrative last year talking about prom season. This weekend is tough for me, as they make me stay up all night long–which is no longer easy for me and, of course, I will worry all weekend long until I get to see the kids safe Monday morning. Following are my thoughts from last year, but in the end, please talk to your kids and have a plan on how to deal with situations that could arise. Prom is a great tradition that we want to maintain safely.
Prom Season Begins!
Traditions come from somewhere. Some traditions are started because of a family memory or just an activity that everyone enjoys. Some are hyped up by marketing execs and some are religious in nature. The scope of a tradition can be anything from food, to a holiday or, think of this one, throwing rice at a wedding. Well, okay, update that, we all have to throw birdseed. because rice was not good for the birds. Anyway, back to why I am writing this short, traditions.
Prom is just around the corner and I thought about where a high school prom comes from. I mean the tradition is certainly there. But how did it become a tradition celebrated every year? I don’t have much time for research, so History.com it is.
The idea of a prom goes back to a right of passage for teenagers back to the ancient Greeks, which evolved from there to debutante balls and formal dances as a step into adulthood. From there, colleges picked up the effort until the tradition moved down into high schools. Of course, marketing and the teen consumer took over, and all of the formal traditions of prom began in earnest. Well, enough of a mini history lesson, because the real point I hope to share is about the season and communication.
This week, even though I say many times, I am lucky enough to be the principal at Springfield High School, I will be more of the nervous father all week to around 450 kids as we take in the tradition of prom. I am excited, of course, but the father in me sometimes makes this a tough week. So I share and ask this favor of all of you out there as we celebrate the season. Talk to the kids about your expectations. This Wednesday, I will sit the students down and talk to them about this weekend and what it means. I will share first about celebrating the night, no matter what is going on. Enjoy the opportunity to be young. If your date does not say the right thing or something goes wrong with the evening, don’t stress. Enjoy the moment, enjoy your friends and enjoy being young. Don’t argue if someone is late picking you up, don’t worry if your hair is not perfect, and no matter what, NO DRAMA. Be young.
The next thing I will turn to, though, is more serious. Make good decisions. Be young, but take care of each other. Don’t take unnecessary chances when it comes to any behavior that will, and does, cause harm. Be the person who says, not for me and move on to the fun things in the night, so that you can be young one more time. Don’t take chances and end up in DRAMA or worse.
Parents, enjoy the pictures and the fun of getting ready for prom. Take the stress in stride and say a little prayer for me as I say a little prayer for all of you. In all of this excitement though, take the time to sit down and have a heart to heart about being safe. Discuss how to handle a bad situation and let your child know that you are there for them, if needed. Remind them that this is a great time to be young, but it is a right of passage to adulthood and with adulthood, you need to make good decisions.
We are in Good Hands!
One of the things that I really enjoy doing is traveling. When I travel and meet people, it inevitably comes up, “What do you do for a living?” When I receive this question, I really try to figure out what type of answer the person may want to hear, as my answer can spark old memories. Ultimately, if you answer, “I am a high school principal,” sometimes that does not go the way you want it to. You often get “oh hard job” or the “When I was in high school my principal…” but most of the time, it is some form of “kids are different now.” This, of course, for me starts my soap box of yeah but … they really are the same too, … and leads to, … we are going to be okay as we are producing some great talent. Following is a quick share on several of our phlebotomy students who qualified to go to states in Columbus and did quite well.
Instructor Vickie Lammie shared the following and provided the photo. We are in good hands.
The students participated in the following competitions: Loren Lammers participated in medical math. It was a twohour paper test where Loren competed with 19 other students from all over Ohio. Loren placed fourth. Nasja Ratcliffe-Evans competed in job skills, where she demonstrated how to perform CPR on a patient. Nasja placed fourth out of 20. Sianeh Jornyoun also competed in job skills and placed seventh. And Savana Coates placed eighth in job skills. All of them represented themselves and our schools very well. I am so proud of each of them.
