High School: Then and Now

High School.

Just the words bring back some horrible memories for many of us. And, maybe, some happier sentiments as well.

I attended Bay City Central High School in Bay City, Michigan.

In the '60s, it hosted a monstrously huge population of young Baby Boomers. There were way too many of us for any existing facility. We jammed the classrooms, strained the capacity of the school to manage us, and overwhelmed the community's ability to understand us.

That was then.

Now, I have a 14-year-old boy who's trying to choose between two public high schools here in San Francisco. He and I spent our morning visiting one of them, and as we did so, I was suddenly transported back through the decades.

Our hosts were a charming African-American lady, a charming young woman (a freshman) who looked to be Eurasian, and a very quiet but charming young black man who is an aspiring wide receiver of the school's football team.

Various other folks, of every ethnicity, came and went during the hours we spent discussing the school's programs and my son's possible presence there starting next August. This school is a reflection of our City: 53% Asian, 22% Latino, 6% Black, and 6% White. If you are keeping track, that leaves a final 13% for the most beautiful of all races, the mixed-race, "ethnic cuties."

It was only when, after our meeting, the freshman girl took my son and I on a tour of the school, that we discovered how tiny she was. She could not have been even 5 feet tall, though she is rich with personality.

My boy, shyly, followed her around the school, a full foot taller than her. Like all teens, they shared a number of characteristics, including unwanted braces, unwanted pimples, and very little desire to draw too much attention to themselves.

The thing that surprised me afterward was the way he hugged me, and thanked me for being there with him. The thing that didn't surprise me was that he said that he really liked the kids he met.

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