It's a touch of class for these 2008 graduates

My Thoughts

By Dr. Bill Atwood

(Updated: Wednesday, May 07, 2008, 6:21 PM)

Their journey began back in August of 1995 when they stepped into the kindergarten classroom on the first day of school. Pictures were taken, and hugs and kisses were shared. Parents encouraged them and gave assurance that all would be well and that they would have a wonderful time. The door closed behind them and the wonderful loving kindergarten teacher started the toddler on the path of learning in the public school sector.

As the parents drove away from either the bus stop or the schoolyard, they would have looked back and wondered what would happen to their child.

Parents never hope for the worst to happen; we hope for the best. When a child is born, dads imagine the child a few years later thanking the Nobel Prize Foundation for the award and moms imagine great success for their little one. When we see them off to school, we release them to somebody who looks at them differently than we look at them.

We trust that our child will behave and learn and ask insightful questions.

We just know that the teachers who encounter our child will be amazed that all the other children pale by comparison.

When that child got home that afternoon and shared with mom and dad the adventures of the day, it was the beginning of the often-asked questioning between parent and child of what happened in school today.

This week, Yosemite High School, and the entire community, will be honoring several students who have done quite well since that first day of kindergarten back in 1995.

On the stage in the Fine Arts Auditorium this evening, more than $100,000 will be given to many students from family trusts, service groups, civic organizations and local businesses who raise and save the money to gift to a scholar who will need the financial help to pay the tuition at college or at a university.

Tonight, students sitting on the stage with their peers will hear the older generations of their community praise their hard work and their abilities.

The children will take the accolades and the checks with them as they face their different futures. The children will see that the members of the area in which they live support positive actions and hard work.

On Thursday evening, the class valedictorians of Yosemite High School, along with their families, will attend a dinner in their honor to receive still more awards and hear more praise. At Yosemite High, the designation of valedictorian is granted to any student with a 4.00 or higher grade point average. I realize that the title valedictorian used to mean the highest GPA in the class and that person would also give the address at the graduation ceremony. Times have changed and the term has come to mean a student who has earned a certain level of achievement.

At the dinner on Thursday evening, which is known as the Pitman Awards, these students who are the best of the best will be honored. The awards are named for Paul and Martha Pitman, who years ago were instrumental in having the Yosemite High School campus built in Oakhurst and saving the students from having to endure long bus rides over to Sierra High in Auberry. Harry Baker of the Sierra Telephone Company has cleared his calendar to be the guest presenter to the students.

These 13 students have spent their 2,300 plus days in public school since that first day in pursuit of academic excellence. They have spent the extra hours reviewing for tests, editing essays and term papers and making reports a little better than the average student in the classes with them. These 13 students have listened to their parents night after night telling them that the hard work will pay off and that people will honor that hard work and those great efforts.

This week the community does that and as the days of high school begin to come to an end, these scholars will be looking forward to a few more years of study and hard work before they cross the stage with their college diploma. This week is just part of the celebration of the work, and I hope that the students soak it all in. In 2058 these same scholars will be attending the 50th class reunion with their high school friends, and they will be able to look back as we can now on how things have changed. I know they will remember the support of the community in their efforts.

They will be heavier, have less hair and their skin will be wrinkled. They will have the benefit of experience, and they will laugh and cry together at what they will have endured and shared. Now the rest of their lives are ahead, and they have been blessed with supportive family members, and great teachers who passionately taught the lessons every day so that these students and their classmates had the opportunity to learn. All of the graduates of this year's class of 2008 have worked hard to earn their diplomas and we as a community applaud their efforts and wish them well.

This week, the Pitman Award winners and the scholarship award winners will enjoy the extra blessings of these accolades as we commend them for all the extra efforts.

As a person with fewer years ahead of me than those that have already passed, I have every confidence that America's best days are ahead of us, and just one of the proofs that I have to offer is the quality of students in the Class of 2008.

These scholars honored this week have been given the tools for learning and the support from their community to head off to college to attain their goals.

Carpe Diem!