I don’t think that could have been any nicer.
The South Homecoming Parade and game following was, as usual, the kind of scene that makes you stop and say, “This is a really nice community.” I know I’m not the only one who has heard it be said that it’s Mayberry-like. I think people mean that in the best of ways.
When you see rows of people of all ages lining the streets to watch this parade, you sort of can’t help but get that feeling. People love it. They’re drawn to it. This is the unique role a public school system with neighborhood schools plays in a community. It’s a bonding agent that connects people to a community and generation to generation.
There’s been lots of talk about pubic schools lately and there will soon be much more. People are wondering what’s wrong with them? How have they failed us? The picture that is painted is done so with far too large a brush.
You cannot extricate a school from a community. You cannot distinguish public schools from society. Which one affects the other? This is what some analysts, qualified and other, want to know.
I have a simpler view. They are mirror images of each other. A strong community will have strong schools. A fractured community will have fractured schools.
Scenes such as we saw yesterday on Kercheval and at Stadium Field gives you your answer. We have a strong community with strong schools. We should be proud of that and reflect for a moment on what it has taken to accomplish it. These things don’t form overnight. They take literally decades of gestation. And as I saw people of all generations line the streets to enjoy the wonderful scene I saw all those generations making their contribution to a great community.
I volunteer my time and give my efforts as a way to contribute – to equal the effort of all the other contributors. To give rather than receive.
Well done, Grosse Pointe.