A different definition of school choice

Rick Morain

Kathy and I attended a Greene County High School performance last Saturday evening of Anastasia the Musical. It’s based on the animated film Anastasia, about the Romanov princess who, according to myth, might supposedly have survived the 1917 Bolshevik assassination of Russian Tsar Nicholas II’s royal family.

The production highlighted our week. We were impressed by the musicianship and the dramatic performances from the cast, the professional sound from the orchestra, the attention-getting sets, and the dramatic electronic visual backdrops made possible through the school theater’s new short-throw video projector. The school secured the projector through a pair of generous grants and some funds from the school district itself.

During the intermission, activities director David Wright introduced the five school alumni who had been inducted that afternoon into the school’s Fine Arts Hall of Fame: Dr. Douglas Miller, Kate Cuddy, Marty Aldrich, Peter Thompson, and Michael Kennedy. At the induction Wright described the career accomplishments of each of the five.

All five inductees had been honored as outstanding musicians in their high school years, and they have received significant honors in their subsequent music education, instruction, and/or performance careers.

Doug Miller and I were Jefferson classmates, with Doug’s father Don Miller serving as high school principal for several years up through 1957-58. We were able to spend most of the weekend together, and he and I reminisced about the “olden days,” giggling about various episodes we could remember. We shared recollections of our years in the Jefferson High bands and choral groups, and our experiences in Scouting, including pushing burros over the mountains at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

Doug went on to nine years of intensive music study at Drake University and Indiana University, earning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. He served for 32 years on the faculty of Penn State University, including 15 years as director of orchestral studies and 20 as director of choral studies. 

So he had spent his entire impressive career coaching college students in musical performance. He is more than qualified to judge the caliber of a musical stage performance.

The reason I’m highlighting Doug’s expertise: he was stunned at the musical and dramatic quality of Saturday night’s performance, especially given the relatively modest size of Greene County High School’s student body. And of course the impressive theater venue at the school commanded his admiration as well.

That all brings me to the reason for this column: It’s supremely important that Iowa schools have the resources to offer a variety of strong extracurricular programs. And that students can explore those options wherever their interests steer them: music, athletics, drama, speech, student government, whatever the paths.

Greene County High School continues to encourage students to follow their inclinations in many areas, just as Doug and I were able to do back in the 1950s. For example, in addition to participating in band and choral music, sports, and student government, I was chosen to sing the role of The Mikado in a production of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical of that name. (I wore a hairless skull cap, foreshadowing what was to come.) Hollywood and Broadway didn’t ring up my home phone afterward, but it was sure fun.

Kids today deserve the opportunities that high schools can offer them in activities as well as academics. If the Legislature and the Governor shortchange schools with their appropriations decisions, or shift resources away from them, or cut state or local taxes to the extent that there’s not enough money for expansive curricular and extracurricular offerings, they’re shortchanging young people as well, and eventually Iowa’s vibrant future. 

Iowa’s students deserve education opportunities as least as engaging as those that their parents and grandparents had. It’s a different, and valid, definition of “school choice.”

Rick Morain is a reporter and columnist with the Jefferson Herald.