Be True to Your School

When some loud braggard tries to put me down
And says his school is great
I tell him right away
Now what's the matter buddy
Ain't you heard of my school
Its number one in the state
So be true to your school now
Just like you would to your girl or guy

--The Beach Boys, "Be True to Your School"

The Golden Girls are true to LSU. That's for sure.

We're still in my ongoing harangue/series about how you should all live your lives. Cause I'm the expert.

Anyway, the next rule is Be True to Your School.

Now, at first glance this may not seem like the most important thing in the world. Give yourself an "A" cuz...you're right. But that doesn't mean its not important.

I always thought it despicable when someone would abandon or run down or otherwise slam their old school. High school or college. Its always been more of a visceral than literal reaction. After all, times change, and so do schools. Humble High School, in glorious Humble, Texas, has a profoundly different student profile now than in my 1979-80 freshman year. It therefore serves a different student need and provides a different environment. But Wildcats through the years should still give it their loyalty.

Just like a Washington think tank, I always search for the intellectual veneer that will cover my irrational prejudices and scattershot opinions (otherwise known as the long list of things that suck and the not-as-long list of things that are awesome in Reederville). Being loyal to your school should be no exception.

Basically, you owe your school loyalty because it played a major part in forming your personality and in giving you the tools to interact and function in broader society. Your parents (hopefully) taught you the basics and something about one-on-one interaction. But school is where you learned how to deal with people who didn't so much look like you or share your parents' beliefs. Its where you encountered people who were your equals, not your parents who told you what to do and what not to do. Its where you learned how to deal with groups, and to find your role in a broader community. Its where you learned how to make and keep friends, to recognize and avoid enemies, and yes, even how to have romantic relationships. Where you learned to avoid temptations. Often the hard way. Finally, its where you learned that not everyone loves you or is going to pat you on the back. In other words, its where you first confronted and learned how to cope with all the bad things in life. [Sidebar-the move toward a "participation ribbon" school ethic is one of the most dangerous things about modern life]. You owe your school that loyalty because it made you who you are.

Ok, maybe if you're a complete and total failure you don't need to be true to your school. Though arguably you would be an even bigger loser if you hadn't gone to school. Even those athletes or other misfits who flunk out of school or only go a year are still better off for having been in a collegiate learning environment.

Of course, its not literally the school building or the administrators who carry out these functions, but they make all these things possible by keeping the school afloat. Teachers can't be parents, but they can provide invaluable mentoring and inspiration. Everyone can think of a fantastic teacher or professor who provided invaluable "off the books" guidance along the way. Luckily, I had several. Sadly, they can play that function in fewer and fewer instances due to state mandated uniform curriculum requirements, not to mention irrational parents who won't accept that Johnny really deserved the "C" he got in biology class. [Hey parents, chances are the teacher isn't horrible and he or she didn't single out your little darlin' for abuse. No, the more likely explanation for your kids' bad grades is that your kids are getting the grades they earned. Don't blame the teacher. Make them crack their books and study every night.] No, the true value in school is the interaction with your fellow students, with each of you trying to make sense of learning, both the material and about adult interaction. The "playground" follows you all through school.

So much for home schooling. Certainly, you hear about home schoolers having perfect SAT scores and performing well ahead of their peers. I'm sure they can all perform open heart surgery and program your DVR with little difficulty too. But when you home school (or in a small home school coop), you never have to learn how to deal with someone taking your lunch money or knocking you down on the playground, so by the time you're an adult, you've never learned how to handle the fact that some people have bad intentions. You're not exposed to drugs and drinking, and other modern-day evils, so you don't recognize and develop ways to resist the peer pressure until well into your early adulthood. Plus, the home school football team is pretty horrible. The home school prom is an abject disaster. Which makes it sort of like the real prom. True, you might pick up some avoiding getting your butt kicked skills in other institutions, like church or camps or scouting or swim team, but those aren't general institutions where you have to deal with all kinds of people who aren't exactly like your parents or siblings.

What exactly does “being true” to your school mean? Not much, really. Just that you exhibit a certain loyalty and fidelity to the institution. Cheer for its teams. Don’t graduate from LSU then cheer for Alabama. Rally around it in difficult times. Possibly contribute financially, or if not, perhaps volunteer on campus or in the community. Join the alumni association. Don’t run it down in conversations. Because its various members molded and shaped you into the person you became, you should help do the same once you possess the means.

Being true to your school doesn’t call for blind, unwavering boosterism or support no matter how miserably low its achievement sinks or how egregiously its administrators and personnel act. Are you listening, Bob Knight Nation? Backing school administrators, personnel, coaches, and the like no matter what they do simply encourages inefficiency by not holding them to account and demanding performance. This attitude keeps your school from advancing and even from fulfilling its mission. In some cases, that tolerance of failure keeps your school isolated and unlikely to attract new students, professionals or other staff. Being true to your school in such instances requires the alumni to save the school from its administrators. This happens particularly with public colleges and universities, where the state government “captures” the regents or university governing body, which begins making decisions that further political rather than educational goals.

Nor should you should criticize the students. Any of the students. Even the football team. College students are 20, 21. High school kids are as young as 14. How would you have liked it if someone booed you in calculus class when you gave the wrong answer? Maybe less than all of these guys spend all their time studying and going to class, and maybe a handful manage to scrape together some ill-gotten chump change (from alumni only too happy to lend a hand). Cause we know when you were in school, it was all about malt shops and letterman sweaters. You never worked spare jobs to get some money, and you spent all your time studying. But 98% of college players won’t become professionals (and even when they do, most won’t make “big money, and of those who do, they can only play football for a handful of years. Ultimately they’re going to need a real job). But until they start signing NFL-money contracts, they’re still amateurs and deserve your support. Unless they’re thugs of course. And of course, almost none of the "non-revenue" sport athletes go pro. They're real students.

So park it on the couch for game day and cheer for your school. Go Kingwood High School! Its number one in the state!

And go Texas Longhorns! We don't keep up with the Jones...we are the Joneses.

Next-Be True to Your Country