Episode #840
March 8, 2025
The class of 1971 at Servite High School was a parallel of the good, bad, ugly and beautiful of the world.
The good has earned Servite a well deserved reputation.
° The level of excellence in instruction, discipline and extracurricular activities encouraged positive development.
° There were few distractions, being an all-boy school with a rigid schedule of classes.
° Keeping the members of the various class groups (honors, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s) together helped foster camaraderie among classmates.
° The open mindedness toward religion and opinions encouraged critical thinking in the students.
Servite was good in so many ways.
As in life, there was bad.
° Some of the teachers were under qualified or simply did not have the fortitude to deal with smart, sometimes out of control teenage boys. One priest’s class was a nightmare of spit wads and cat calls. Another teacher leaned too heavily on the paddle.
° Sports, football in particular, segregated the students into the strong and the smart. Socially, this segregation was damaging to a number of my classmates.
° Being an all-boy school, romantic interactions were long distance relationships with the three all-girl sister schools.
° The separation into intellectual groups created a class system that made it difficult to navigate cultural and social norms.
° The teaching of religion as philosophy created disagreement between the instructors because it was not biblical. Also, some students disagreed with the philosophical approach.
Sometimes the bad left us socially underdeveloped.
There was ugly.
° We read Lord of the Flies, a book with an important social message. A class retreat ended in the killing of a parish cat. This was due to a perverse misunderstanding of the book.
° A “spirit” raid on a rival diocese high school devolved into destructive behavior and the terrorizing of an elderly janitor. This was about as unchristian as it gets.
° Bullying of smaller, less articulate classmates happened far too often.
° The separation of students into classes encouraged an us-verses-them attitude.
The parallel to ugly adult society was particularly poignant.
Above all, there was beauty.
° We were well prepared for college and therefore successful careers.
° Decision making skills were honed and practiced.
° Acting in the plays opened our minds to the actors we all became in life.
° Movie club opened our eyes, seeing the world through the lens of our imaginations.
° Sports at a Catholic school taught us a teamwork over star player philosophy.
° Academic segregation gave me motivation and opportunity. I didn’t test well on the entrance exam, so was initially placed in group 4s. Each year I did well enough to rise to the next level, ending in group 2s and graduating summa cum laude.
° Religion presented as philosophy and ceremony was tailored to our time. We celebrated folk mass with guitar, consecrated tortillas and the passing of the chalice.
° Learning to think critically in college and in life was built on the foundation which was Servite High School.
The beauty of Servite was a guiding light for all our future lives.
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