My brother sent me this picture. He is the shadow you see, and the bricks and sticks come from the elementary school I attended from kindergarten through sixth grade. The Free Little Library has seen better days, but it still stands.
There are years and years of memories buried beneath the rubble. I spent approximately ten thousand hours of my life in that building. I remember sitting in Mrs. Raab’s class and staring at the baby blue cinder block walls, pondering how many coats of paint had been layered on over the years, a different color each summer, a new paint crew coming in each summer to cover another year of grime, giving a fresh look and smell to each new year.
When the school came down last month, it was 108 years old. My brother, along with everyone else in my small rural hometown, watched the demolition over the course of several days. Earlier that year, the community had also watched the demolition of the junior high and high school.
The district has built a beautiful new K-12 building for all the students in the district. They deserve it and I am so very happy for them.
Unsurprisingly, the demolition and rebuild process was steeped in controversy. I no longer live in this little part of the world, so I was not enmeshed in the drama, but I followed along with reports from my brother and parents. I mean… people had feelings, you guys. Feel.ings. Build a new school. Don’t build a new school. Tear down the old. Don’t tear down the old. Who’s going to pay? How much will it cost? And this, from many people: What’n’the hell d’we need with a new building? That school was good enough for me, and my parents, and my grandparents, and theirs, too, so why isn’t it good enough anymore?
While the controversy was at its height, I met some high school friends for dinner, and we got in a lively debate about the demolitions and the new school rebuild. Some of them were opposed to the new building— they felt it was indulgent and unnecessary. Why do we need a new school when the old one is still standing? They asked. Of course, this is just a hop, skip, and jump from another question: Why do we need to evolve? Why do we need updated resources? Why do we have to keep refining our curriculum, our pedagogy, our technology?
Here’s why.
The world changes. If we really want to equip students to be ready for the world, we have to keep up. What worked fifty, twenty, even five years ago is simply insufficient with the current speed of change.
Our kids deserve it. The elementary school was falling down. Plaster and paint and cracks and leaks and crumbling walls and leaky roofs and the smell of must and old oil and stained floors. It’s important that children have a place to learn that reflects the community’s valuation on them. It comes down to what our community feels our students should see when they see their school. Are there desks with rust on their legs? Choir risers that rattle and shake and squeak? Locker rooms with black mold in the caulk? Books that are missing pages? Computers that are still pulled in the wall— if they exist at all? When I hear people grumble, of old schools and old resources, “It was good enough for me, so it’s good enough for my kids,” it doesn’t land well with me. Maybe, I told my high school friends, it wasn’t good enough for us. Maybe we deserved better.
It’s an investment. The concept of free public schools was built on the premise that every person walking around the world with an decent education, high standards for living, and goals for making the world a better place would, in fact, make the world a better place. It’s like anything. What you put in creates a better product coming out. We can put crap food in our bodies and we’ll feel like crap. Or we can put good food in our bodies and feel good. It’s that simple.
Recruiting and retaining teachers. Nobody wants to work in a school where the water fountains don’t work or the toilets don’t flush. Nobody wants to work in a school with outdated or inadequate resources. Period.
Equity between schools and districts. Let’s take Kid #1. This kid rides to school in a smooth, clean new bus, then hangs his coat on a silver hook, sits down on a sturdy chair, logs onto a Chromebook, uses updated software, has differentiated and personalized instruction through collaborative software. He is an active, participatory learner. Now let’s look at Kid #2, who lives, say, just ten miles away. Kid #2 doesn’t get to ride a bus because there isn’t funding for buses. When he does get to school, he shoves his coat under his desk, which has initials from fifty years of students carved on it. He pulls out a textbook with “f*ck school” written on the pages, with content that is outdated and obsolete. He is a passive learner. The discrepancy between Kid #1 and Kid #2? Not. Fair. One of those kids is going to have a very different future than the other. All students should be able to access high quality resources. School is the only place some of our students may have access to digital resources. If not at school, where? It behooves none of us to have some students shortchanged from the experience of their same-aged peers.
New, incredible stuff. There is so much to learn about today’s world! Just think! Interactive software, online collaboration tools, real-time updates, video, simulations, and multimedia content can transform a passive learning experience into an active one. These tools are just amazing. They help students visualize complex concepts, provide personalized learning paths, and offer new opportunities for creative expression. A classroom equipped with up-to-date technology is better positioned to capture students' interest— not to mention exposing them to rich and relevant content.
Readiness. Graduating isn't the same as being ready. In other words, we can keep kids in school for twenty thousand hours and hand them a diploma, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready for the world. Listen. I have no idea what jobs are going to exist for our kids. Things are changing fast. What I do know is that future jobs will require skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, digital literacy, and adaptability. Learning with updated tools and information gives all our students a fighting chance.
Okay, so why the soapbox? Because school funding across the country is getting more and more complicated, especially with arbitrary cuts and funds being withheld willy-nilly. I am doing everything I can to share my beliefs about kids deserving a solid education. Updates are not merely advantageous— they are essential. Textbooks, technology, library collections, teaching methodology— that’s the cinder blocks from which we should build our schools. When I see a photograph of a school demolished, I’m sad about the memories that may have gotten buried with it— but, really, are they gone? No. Memories prevail. You know what else prevails? The future. Whether it’s a demolition or just an upgrade, these kinds of changes lead to a bigger, brighter, better equipped educational experience for students.
Let’s stay curious—
Jen
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P.P.S. Remember— I don’t use AI when writing. It’s all real, human, and me.