One Counselor’s Opinion of the High School Experience:

The last seven years I have had the opportunity to hold the position of guidance counselor at our local high school. Prior to returning to Rhea County High School and arriving at my current view of the high school experience, I was employed as the State of Tennessee Rehabilitation Counselor assigned to Rhea County, and I spent another half dozen years as Coordinator of the Supported Employment Program working with one of Rhea County’s United Way agencies. Before that, I worked a dozen or so years with TVA in nuclear security where I had the opportunity to work in every nuclear facility, two fossil sites, two hydro sites, one metro local and the Muscle Shoals Reservation in Alabama.  Five years prior to TVA I was employed with Rhea County as one of the first early Special Education teachers. I had the opportunity to work in many of the old school houses in south Rhea County including Frazier, Evensville, Graysville, Rhea Central, Spivey, Walden’s Ridge and the Old Washington schools. Prior to relocating to Rhea County, I lived in North Dade County, a portion of the Greater Miami area suburbs where I was employed with the sixth largest school system in the country. This was my first teaching experience, and I was responsible for writing curriculum, program implementation, teaching and teacher training in a new vocational exploratory program at the middle school level. My employment experience prior to entering the teaching field consisted of several years as a life/fire insurance underwriter and apartment manager for a 204-unit complex in south Dade County. That was my first real employment after graduation from Florida Atlantic University. During my college career I was employed with Publix Markets as a meat cutter trainee and worked up to the journeyman level, having started around the age of sixteen. Most recently I have started two small successful business ventures and been employed as an adjunct faculty member with Cleveland State and Chattanooga State Community Colleges teaching a variety of courses in business, education and psychology in Rhea County.

Many times the high school counselor is questioned by teachers, students, parents and the administration for specific answers to questions and problem situations. The wise counselor answers these questions from a position that does not make a decision or pick a specific answer for another individual. One of the posters in my office says it best, “If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” The same is true with life’s questions: teaching students to be able to solve their own life issues is valuable for a lifetime.

Of all the questions that are asked, there is one that students and parents need to hear clearly the answer to: how does the high school work and how can it impact my life? Here is one counselor’s opinion based on years of personal life lessons, working in the real world and attempting to help students successfully navigate and survive their high school tenure. This article is written for all high school students. More specifically, I am concerned with our local students and their individual success in life as they develop into learned adults and productive citizens. Our continued way of life is dependent on them, who they become, how they develop and what values they add to our community. Employers I have worked with over many years have asked for three things from their prospective employees.

Ironically, these three things are the exact same things that can and will make high school a valuable experience for students: attitude, ability and attendance. Basically, employers want an individual who really wants to be there with an open mind to learn the job and who will show up every day to complete the work tasks that need to be completed. Employers are always looking for, and cannot seem to find enough of, these type individuals.

“High school is practice for the real game of life.” This is my personal observation and advice for students. From grade nine to grade twelve is the “last game practice” a student will get prior to the “game over” message. High school is a time to try out that new club, join a sport, check out changing interests, plan job shadow day, and learn to get along with other students and that one teacher who seems so difficult in class. This is the time to stretch themselves, learn, develop and make their personal world work with other students, teachers and parents. While in high school, they have the opportunity to develop as young adults, learn new things about the world they live in and, most of all, get to practice how to be the best person they can be. After high school, whether they walk across, quit, or run away from the graduation stage, the real life game cannot be reset. I challenge students to find someone they know who did not complete high school and ask what they would give for a second chance at the high school experience.

Ninth Grade -- “The Freshman Year”

Sometimes more appropriately known as fresh meat for the high school grind, this is probably the one year a student must adjust him/herself the most. My theme for grade nine is “survive and thrive,” mostly because those who survive actually do end up thriving. Most local students enter RCHS from three feeder schools: Dayton City, Rhea Elementary, and Spring City Middle schools. Each previous school location was very much like three different families, each group most comfortable with their old school, rules, students and teachers. What a great time to be open to another new experience. Now they are one group and the new RCHS freshman class of 200- Rhea County High School.

What does one need to graduate from RCHS?

Fairly simply, twenty-two credits, meet the Gateway test requirements and remain within the local attendance regulations. There are two tracks that a student may choose: the technology track or the college track. There is one other choice: the dual track where a student meets the requirements of both the technical and the college path. This is a rare case in that these students only have one elective class to choose from during their four years at RCHS but have fulfilled requirements for both tracks, generally making them a better-rounded individual.

 All students must complete four years of English, three years of math, science and social studies and one wellness course. These are sometimes called the fourteen core requirement courses. Levels of course presentation differ depending on the track. For example, the college track requires specific courses that prepare students for college and consist of honors or standard level classes and include four English credits, three sciences with two labs, three maths consisting of algebra I & II and geometry, two consecutive languages, one fine art, a U.S. History, a world geography and one semester each of economics and U.S. Government along with one wellness credit. An additional five credits are needed as electives.

The technological track also requires four English classes, three math credits including algebra I and algebra II, three science including biology I, one U.S. History and a world geography credit, one wellness credit and a semester each of economics and U.S. Government. Tech-track students are required to earn a minimum of three credits in their chosen tech area and one related technical credit. An additional four elective credits complete the total required for graduation. Our program of study is set up to have all freshmen complete one semester each of career management and keyboarding; this is counted as the related technical credit for tech track students and counts as one elective credit for the college track students. A very important reason for this particular plan is to allow those students who start out college track students to be able to successfully change to the technological path and remain on target to graduate with their class if they are not able to complete the higher-level math and/or language classes. It is one hundred percent better for a student to change from the college path and graduate on the technical path than not graduate at all.

At the end of the freshman year of high school, students will have earned six of the required twenty-two credits. Students who have not earned six credits have several options to make up those credits. Summer school will allow a student to earn one credit in either math or English. After-school classes may be offered whereby a student can earn back a needed half credit. Most important, though, is for that struggling student to get a successful handle on what is happening and take whatever corrective action is needed to make a positive course correction during the next year.

Tenth Grade -- “The Sophomore Year”

The second year student returns to RCHS with six credits toward graduation and just in time to make a real decision on what track is best for him/her. Typically, this is the first year a technical track or college track choice must be made. First year core technical courses generally focus on safety and procedures for each respective area of study, which include Agriculture Education, Business-Information Technology, Hospitality Education, Construction Trades, Automotive Collision Repair, Construction, Marketing Education, Transportation Service Technology, Public Service Technology, Health Science, Hospitality and Tourism, Arts and Communication. University-tracked students generally start their first year of language requirement and, often, the first challenging level math course in high school. All sophomore students will need to satisfy the Gateway English exam and many will complete the Gateway Algebra I exam. At the end of this second year, a student should have earned a total of twelve credits toward graduation.

Eleventh Grade -- “The Junior Year”   

The third year of high school is often the most demanding year of high school for students. This is the year of many new things in life and some of the hard class requirements that just have to be earned. Some students challenge themselves with dual enrollment college level classes, some students discover that the language II class or geometry is never going to happen this year and decide to change tracks.

This is the last opportunity to make the decision to graduate on time with their classmates. Additional challenges present themselves: a new job, earning $5 or better per hour often leads to a car/truck payment along with this tough year. Many students turn eighteen and decide to grab what appears to be the first excitement of work $$$ and freedom, without the house payment, food costs, utility payment, and clothing allowance supports that students sometimes forget about. Imagine a lifetime of $5 an hour with those other expenses!!

The real world has completed two recent nation wide studies; both indicate the same thing and that is high school graduation means more money. The student who completes high school on either path will earn, on average, $160.25 per week more than a non-graduate.

The facts are there and can mean a large difference in a family situation. I call this the graduation bonus money. $160.25 X 52 pay weeks in one year = $8,333 per year, not a bad bonus figure for earning twenty-two credits. More than that, I said high school is practice for life. How you complete is probably how you will compete in real life. Considering that the average adult works thirty years in his/her lifetime, this graduation bonus winds up being $249,990, not bad for crossing the stage and earning that diploma. These are twenty-two credits that will keep on giving for a lifetime.

Twelfth Grade -- “A Senior at Last”

 Looking back after three years, it seems difficult to imagine these seniors were once freshmen at RCHS. With at least sixteen credits starting the last year, they are on-track for graduation from high school. Hopefully, this practice-for-life-training program is about to take full effect. Some students will graduate with plans to complete a technological certification at one of the four local technology schools. Some will have earned several hours of college credits that could allow them to work and complete college studies in the allotted four-year time frame. A few students will put those earned credits together with a rigorous college curriculum and graduate in less than four years of college study. Still other students will need only their senior English and three open electives to complete their twenty-two credit requirements. Whatever the student’s choice, it is always a little sweeter to have some positive options to choose from other than a $5 an hour, 40-hour a week job for thirty years.

Students serious about college should understand the difficulty of success in that first year of college, with the national average dropout rate for college freshmen being 70%. Students could elect to challenge themselves as a senior to better prepare to be part of the successful 30% instead of opting for an easy senior year.

So what is my definition of high school advice for students?

High school is practice for life, and the results will last a lifetime. Don’t believe this is true? Just stop, look and listen to those who have gone before. Slow down enough to get a sense of the facts. How students practice these four years is how they will actually work in real life. Practice well, learn to get along with other students, teachers and, yes, even parents. Students will soon be surprised when they discover just how much parents learn in a short period of time, since when they graduated the students thought they knew all the answers. Remember attitude, ability and attendance are the keys to success in high school, college, the work place and life in general.