Date:
3/2/2007 9:41:42 AM
Subject:
South Park Matters
|
|
|
Sherry and Miriam:
Thank you for your kind words and suggestions! I
have revised my letter and sent a copy via email
to the Enterprise, and to Bond Committee members
Jessie Haynes and Dr. David Teuscher. I have sent
a copy via USMAIL priority to the Board of
Trustees of BISD at the Harrison Avenue address.
Please feel free to post, distribute, share, and
otherwise use this letter in any way you feel
would be helpful to the cause of SAVING SOUTH PARK.
Grace and Peace,
David
*******************************************************************
It has recently been brought to my attention
that the Beaumont Independent School District has
in the past several months considered proposals
to abandon or demolish the building known as
South Park Middle School. It appears the hue and
cry resulting has now brought forth a revised
proposal to replace the building with a new middle
school.
I am saddened beyond words that some
would
think the building which I have all my life known
as South Park High School could be replaced by a
name tag attached to some other building or with a mounted
memorial plaque.
I ask your indulgence while I explain
why
South Park High School that very building
matters.
I am by calling and training a Pastor,
for
the last twenty-three years serving in Canton,
Ohio. I am also a life-long learner by virtue of
the community known as South Park and the icon of
education which South Park High School has been
and is for me. Many miles and many years have
passed since I was a student at South Park High
School. Yet there is not a day when I do not give
thanks that I was born in Beaumont and reared in
South Park. I have lived in many places but
Beaumont is my home town and South Park is still HOME to
me.
I attended Giles Elementary for
Kindergarten,
and Pietzsch Elementary for Grades 1 6. Then
it
was on through MacArthur and finally into South
Park High School. Even as a kindergarten student,
all my friends and their parents knew we little
ones would one day attend South Park High School.
The adults in the community would always point to
that building and remind us that we were expected
to learn now so that we could learn there later.
It was as though the whole community had wrapped
its hopes and dreams for its children in the
opportunities that education offered and in that
building whose very architecture proclaims it a
classic place of learning. Whenever we would
visit South Park High School, even before I was a
student there, someone would point to the plates
on the door sills which declared that they were
manufactured by the South Park Trades School or
point to the industrial arts building or the home
economics cottage or the labs in the main
building or the charts and graphs and books that
offered the lessons of life within those hallowed
halls. We met the folks who would later be our
teachers in the grocery store, at the park, in
church, and at the football games. The message,
if sometimes unspoken, remained consistent:
“South Park High School is the gateway to the
world. Education is not a guarantee for success
in life, but with the education you receive
within that building, you will have so many more
choices.” Our eventual arrival as students was
always anticipated well before our matriculation.
We were expected there and expected to thrive in
the opportunities offered by the community through South Park
High School.
I leaned to construct and measure
and
evaluate the box, as well as other shapes, from
Lera McFarland’s Geometry and Algebra. I learned
to think outside the box from Alice Cashen’s
English and Humanities. I learned the discipline
and delight of music from Howard Hutchinson’s
orchestra and Willie LaGrone’s band. I learned to
love words and use them precisely from Ethel
Emmons in Latin. I learned to appreciate other
cultures from Beatrice Buller. I learned grace
under pressure from watching Dr. J. Ross Jones
serve as our Principal. I learned heroism from
the men and women who shepherded us through the
gas explosion that took off the top of the stack
and rained bricks across parts of three school
campuses. Other South Park students will list
other names whose lessons taught them well, but
all of us learned from all of them that there is
always so much more to learn. South Park High
School is for many of us who studied there and
for the community that sustained it the
springboard from which we jumped into a life of
education.
While working toward my Masters degree
at
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, one of
the lessons I learned was that historically when
one people wished to destroy completely another
people, the victors were instructed to tear down
the vanquished’s cities and “leave no stone on
stone” so as to deprive the conquered of
any
hope of reconnecting with their community or
culture. I visit Beaumont infrequently, but when
I do I am amazed at just how many architectural
icons have been razed with no stone left on
stone. Gone are Hotel Dieu, the Kyle mansion,
Giles Elementary, Pietzsch Elementary…..the list
goes on and on. They are the faintly remembered
victims of neglect, insensitive “progress” and
misguided notions that all things new are better than anything
old.
In this age of technology when we have
more
connections but fewer relationships, those
symbols which draw us into and create the
relationships which upbuild community are vital
to us all. And whether or not you acknowledge it,
the South Park High School building is very much
that sort of icon. South Park matters to me. It
matters to Greenies. It matters to Beaumont. The
State of Texas historical marker indicates it
matters to Texans. It is a part of many personal
histories, but it is also a part of Beaumont’s
communal history. It matters as much as a King
Edward Hotel, the old public library building, the Crockett
Street District.
Saving the South Park High School
building
may not be the expedient thing to do. It may not
be the most efficient thing to do. If simple
expedience or efficiency were the only lessons of
life, we could tear down all public buildings,
install a computer in every home and wire up the
world to the matrix. But virtual communities are
no match for a real flesh and blood, heart and
soul community. The long term efficacy of
education requires the real thing not a virtual
reality, and a real community needs its icons stone left
on stone.
Saving South Park will require your
best
efforts. It demands creativity, imagination,
intelligence, and the determination to accomplish
a near-herculean task. But if your educational
heart, your springboard, was anything like mine,
you will jump at the chance and embrace the
opportunity you have to upbuild, rather than tear down, the
community.
Sincerely,
C. David Morgan, SPHS Class of 1969
Pastor, Calvary Presbyterian Church
Canton, Ohio