I covered the highlights of my Eleventh Grade year in an Epic Year and part 2 of an Epic Year. Some more great stories happened that year which need to be told!
Dayspring emphasized self disciple–the act of making yourself do the right thing. By the time we (11th & 12th graders) made it halfway through the year to American Literature our teacher decided that we should have enough self-discipline to choose our own seating arrangements. Usually a seating chart was given out the beginning of the class and maybe changed once during the trimester or trimester and a half class. We started out okay until one of the individuals decided to take this opportunity to try something: he would sit in every single seat in the classroom at least once, changing his seat every day. Of course the usual course in a group is you find a seat that you are comfortable in and you go back to that seat everyday. There was one gentleman who was quite attached to his seat and an ensuing war of sorts broke out. There was one day when the sit-in-every-seat gentleman decided to go into the classroom at the beginning of break in order to get the seat he wanted and stayed there until class started. When he finally got to sit in the same-seat gentleman’s seat there was a bit of a kerfuffle.
That was the end of our practice of self-discipline in seating arrangements in American Literature. The next day the teacher had a seating chart all ready to go which meant that since I was so good at sitting still and behaving myself I ended up in the back a lot which was the opposite of my preference. And just for good measure the teacher changed the seating chart EVERY WEEK. We could never remember where we were supposed to sit and there was always unrest at the beginning of class trying to figure out where everyone was supposed to sit!
Dayspring was adamant that a proper uniform prepared the student for work and therefore enforced their uniform policy. I remember the absolutely freezing weather the first couple weeks of January 1999. I wore LOTS of layers, but some of my classmates weren’t so prepared. They tried to wear their coats in the classroom and all the teachers that would not allow it!
In the beginning of the year, some of the ninth grade boys had some issues in adjusting to their new required dress code. All Upper Class boys were required to wear ties and belts if their pants had belt loops. One of the teacher’s was known for his mercy. If you realized that you were out of uniform before the bell rang for the start of school and you visited his classroom he would have several different sized belts and ties in his desk that he would loan out.
During my 11th grade year the school was experiencing growing pains, but for the most part there was little complaining from the teachers or the students. We all worked together to make the best use of a challenging situation. Dayspring emulated what I’ve always thought the church as a whole should emulate. The body of Christ working together for good and including everyone on the sometimes hard, sometimes fun ride!