Hope from a college town

Over spring break, which is now sadly coming to its final stretch, Brooke and I went to gramma's in south bend. Gramma actually was a high school french teacher, and made a good friend while teaching - Joel. Joel has become a part of our family in his own funny way...he helped my brother and I make numerous summer movies with such titles as Adryon of Compost Pile... he''s a spanish teacher still now (about my parent's age) at John Adam's High School in south bend. Wanting to get a different view of a high school in a different place with different demographics, Brooke and I arranged a morning visit. About 1200 students attend this school...but man...I have never seen facilities like this. My high school had 2000 students by the time I graduated, and we did have very nice facilities, but nothing like this. It's sorta like being in an airport, or a subway, or a mall...the gym is beautiful, the classes are spacious with several windows in each room. The cafeteria has separate round tables with disconnected chairs, with a few booths, and a "food court" with different meal options. This is a public high school which, although immaculately designed, still, according to Joel, has many of the same problems that we do at Humphreys (just on a smaller scale). He doesn't like the principal...and they still have problems with student apathy and skipping lunch, etc. However, when we walked along the beautiful hallways not a single student was seen skipping. Hey, maybe they're just better at hiding.
We sat in on one of Joel's spanish classes, a mix of 3rd and 4th year spanish students (there's even a 5th year class because some got to take spanish in middle school). How he manages to teach two classes in one period is a mystery to me. It was obvious that Joel is a great teacher. He is enthusiastic, with his main goal being to keep the students engaged and include everyone. The students were not amazing-not all were interested, some were chit-chatting during the spanish conversations, and some purposely tried to get off-topic by the typical clowning. Yet, all he had to do was say "shhhhh" and they chatter subsided enough to continue the lesson. It was what a classroom should be. After 1st period, Joel had two of his students walk us over to the precalculus teacher, a 37 year veteran who at first sight seemed strict and emotionless, but while talking to her (the students were taking a quiz) we found her to be warm and helpful, giving me (without me even asking) tips on such important details as homework policies, grading, quiz-giving, notebooks, warm-ups...things that I desperately want more input on.
We did get to meet a few of the other teachers, some who remembered and knew my grandmother. In particular, the latin teacher, an eccentric older man with long gray hair (who Joel said sometimes talks to him so long between classes they have been late getting to their next class) said that working with teachers like gramma is rare...she was energetic, passionate, kind, and genuine. I, of course, had to let her know what past colleagues thought of her.
It was good to see another high school, to be the observer, to see good teachers at work, to see students still engaged and working on a half day of school 2 days before their spring break...what makes these students so different than ours? While the student body is about 48% anglo, there is a good mix (as seen in the 2 classrooms I observed) of blacks, hispanics, asians, and other foreign exchange students (one girl in Joel's class was from Argentina). I forgot to state that this is a magnet school for international students...and that the students are mix of children from lower-income families to students of professors at Notre
Dame.
I do feel refreshed. I feel ready (enough) to tackle these last final 2 months...although I didn't get near what I wanted to get done done. But heck, I don't feel like I wasted it at all. I got to spend to spend joyful moments with Gramma, Pacca, Joel, Aunt Onnie, Uncle Sam, Donna Lynn, Mom, Dad, Manchester, and Brooke. Joel, gramma, and other teachers have given me both hope and pride in what we do...I've got to try to get some of my classes under control, and now I have a little bit more will to try something.