(The image here is of J.C. Ferguson, the namesake of our campus.)
If you have taken time to read the "About" section of this blog (See that little tab at the top tight hand corner?), you know what this blog is about. If not, please take a moment before reading further into this post.
For those who have asked me why we are doing this blog, I have explained that it is my attempt to give voice to the emotions of our faculty, staff and students as we consider life without Ferguson Junior High School. Our school is closing in a few months and we will all be finding a new place to practice the craft of teaching.
Here's the thing, though. It isn't job insecurity that has us all a little down sometimes. Our district's policy is that we will have a job -- somewhere, teaching something. The difficult part is that just like a divorce changes a family forever, this will forever change what has evolved into a wonderful place to work, with wonderful people to share it.
To be clear, our campus is being merged with nearby Ousley Junior High School. Our 7th graders will move enmass, and very likely, many of our faculty will join them.
Now, here's what I'm thinking as we near the end of the fall semester: this is not the first time that Ferguson Junior High School has closed. Not many of us are talking about that, though.
The original Ferguson opened in 1962 at a different location. In 1987, it closed and our district's Venture School took over the building. In 2001, in our current location, Ferguson was reborn. What we are now is the product of its phoenix-like rising after that reopening. In June 2015, it will close again and, ironically, Venture will once again occupy a portion of our building.
Good things come in unexpected packages. Unquestionably, we will have a lot of "last" moments between now and June 2015. But I am certain that the faculty which inhabited Ferguson in 1987, felt the same emotions that we are feeling now. Yet, look what became of that historical move.
As a human being, I am the product of every bump and bruise that life has dealt me and I am the creation of every blessing I have ever enjoyed. The fact that we have what we celebrate today is the result of someone else's pain in 1987. Life goes on and we have no idea the great things that await us around the bend.
I refuse to focus only on the end; it is only a new beginning cloaked in shadow. What I see now, only dimly, will become much clearer as time unfolds.
Harrison McCoy
AVID 7 and 8
If you have taken time to read the "About" section of this blog (See that little tab at the top tight hand corner?), you know what this blog is about. If not, please take a moment before reading further into this post.
For those who have asked me why we are doing this blog, I have explained that it is my attempt to give voice to the emotions of our faculty, staff and students as we consider life without Ferguson Junior High School. Our school is closing in a few months and we will all be finding a new place to practice the craft of teaching.
Here's the thing, though. It isn't job insecurity that has us all a little down sometimes. Our district's policy is that we will have a job -- somewhere, teaching something. The difficult part is that just like a divorce changes a family forever, this will forever change what has evolved into a wonderful place to work, with wonderful people to share it.
To be clear, our campus is being merged with nearby Ousley Junior High School. Our 7th graders will move enmass, and very likely, many of our faculty will join them.
Now, here's what I'm thinking as we near the end of the fall semester: this is not the first time that Ferguson Junior High School has closed. Not many of us are talking about that, though.
The original Ferguson opened in 1962 at a different location. In 1987, it closed and our district's Venture School took over the building. In 2001, in our current location, Ferguson was reborn. What we are now is the product of its phoenix-like rising after that reopening. In June 2015, it will close again and, ironically, Venture will once again occupy a portion of our building.
Good things come in unexpected packages. Unquestionably, we will have a lot of "last" moments between now and June 2015. But I am certain that the faculty which inhabited Ferguson in 1987, felt the same emotions that we are feeling now. Yet, look what became of that historical move.
As a human being, I am the product of every bump and bruise that life has dealt me and I am the creation of every blessing I have ever enjoyed. The fact that we have what we celebrate today is the result of someone else's pain in 1987. Life goes on and we have no idea the great things that await us around the bend.
I refuse to focus only on the end; it is only a new beginning cloaked in shadow. What I see now, only dimly, will become much clearer as time unfolds.
Harrison McCoy
AVID 7 and 8