Four Houses One Gryphnation

Trials and Errors in the House System

By Darryl Williams Jr.

The House System is a fairly new concept to St. George’s Independent School, introduced in the 2018-19 school year under the leadership of Current Middle School Director Mrs. Emmy McClain and the student government. Mrs. McClain stated that her intentions behind it were to “create connectivity across grade levels to really pull the freshmen in quickly and give [the upper school] something other than sports to connect to other people.”

The houses allow for people to enjoy the company of other students throughout the upper school. The House System presents an array of activities for students: volleyball games, tug of war matches, trivia matches and trips to Shelby Farms. These examples represent just the tip of the iceberg of activities that come with the House System.

House Days only come every so often, so they may take students by surprise. Under the right circumstances, (i.e., not a global pandemic) there are typically two House Days per semester.

Although things are not completely back to normal, restrictions have eased up significantly compared to last year. With the mask mandate and social distancing rules being lifted, it has been easier to have these group activities. Even after the “recovery,” the reality is that there are still only one or two House Days per year.

Mr. Taylor Cao, Director of Student Life, believes that the students should always have input on what house days look like.

“From my student government, we have a pretty diverse group of students and organizations on our campus, so I try to make sure I get their values and their input, but also from adults with what they want,” he said.

Many students believe that House Days have been successful and that the competitiveness of them is fun and exciting. These students push for incorporating them more in the schedule. Other students feel that their interests are not reflected in the offerings.

While there may be conflicting opinions regarding these activities, it is apparent that the upper school student body finds House Days enjoyable because of the exciting games and leisure time that they bring.

Mrs. McClain remarked on House Days as “the funnest days of school [she’s] ever been in.”

Students believe that the best way to improve the House System is to simply have more House Days.

Senior and Prefect of Religion Mary Alice Murphy commented on how “there weren’t as many activities as last House Day” and how she anticipated it to be “more than just like what there actually was.”

The contrasting emotions have been voiced by both students, which has led to a shared feeling of being left in the dark.

There are a number of factors that come into play regarding the apparent disorganization of the House System. For one, it is fairly new to the school and has only been active for five years. As a result, there has not been enough time for traditions and expectations to be put in place.

Also, the fact that there was a pandemic that put everything on hold for a couple of years cannot go unmentioned.

So, yes, there are holes in the House System, but the blame cannot be placed directly on one person, thing or event. The only thing that can be done from here is to keep pushing forward.

This year, there was a change in the House System with the addition of the House Groups. In essence, the House Groups were different subdivisions of people already in a specific house.

Mr. Cao explained that this idea came about after the general student general feedback was that “they don’t know kids in other grades.” So, the House Groups were born in an attempt to make the upper school closer, said Cao.

In these groups, there were smaller scale activities that were done during advisory every other Monday. In this time, the House Groups would compete with each other or other houses in spelling bees or other games to get to know each other.

This addition was met with both a lack of enthusiasm and appreciation from some people.

Junior Drake Gonzalez commented on how “there was no point,” saying, “We did the House Group stuff and it would just be a teacher in there and we [were] answering questions with a teacher. We [weren’t] really talking to each other. So why not just keep the big groups?”

On the other hand, Sophomore Kerrigan Jackson expressed how she had grown to like them. “I personally liked the House Groups because it allowed smaller groups within the House to meet and do different activities and have a chance to get to know each other.”

After only existing for about half of the first semester, those reactions resulted in getting rid of the House Groups all together.

However, there is still hope for the House System. Mr. Cao and the student government are committed to keeping their promise in being able to do everything in their power to make high school as enjoyable as possible.

Action is being taken when it comes to voicing recommendations, as Mr. Cao recommended. Upper School Student Government President Jamez Jordan has already been in conversation with Mr. Cao as far as his goals going forward.

He said that he wants to “utilize the House System in a way that’s not everyday, but at least weekly status within the school system.”

With some years under its belt, the House System will be capable of reaching its potential.

Jordan has optimistic thoughts regarding the future of the House System.

“As far as [the House System] is right now, I think we’re making progress. And in a couple years it will be a full functioning program,” he said.

Tough as Nails

Swamp Strong

Untouchable

Are we ready to finally bring back field trips?

By Reese Dlabach and Libbie Davis

As field trips are making their slow comeback after COVID-19, Mrs. Pamela McCarthy, Upper School Director, described the process of planning and executing each year’s trips.

“[For] the class field trips, the content field trips, I get a note, a teacher’s request to do it,” she explained. Mrs. McCarthy added that the teachers “work with Mr. Cao to make sure that there’s nothing… on the calendar.”

Upper School English teacher, current junior team leader and former senior team leader Ms. Marilee Malott provided insight on her responsibility in planning and executing grade-wide field trips.

As the 2019-2020 senior team leader in charge of the trip to nowhere, Ms. Malott said she “had a lot of discretion [with] what the event would look like, what activities [they] would do [and] an overarching goal for the event.”

As the new junior team leader this year, Ms. Malott thinks the junior retreat is “incredibly significant. The retreat really focuses on the idea of leadership and sort of stepping from junior year and … casting a vision for [the juniors’] role as leaders senior year.”

When comparing the junior retreat to her 21 years of teaching at multiple schools, Ms. Malott said she had “never seen a school, other than this one, that gives students so much voice, and at least an opportunity to ask for change.”

Although the pandemic caused much field trip disruption, field trip shifts and changes are also the result of other decisions within the school.

Prior to COVID-19, the Class of 2023 had already experienced setbacks in their field trips. It was a tradition at St. George’s that every eigth grade class takes a trip to Six Flags in St. Louis, Missouri. During the 2018-2019 school year, the then-8th graders were excited for their turn to have fun and grow closer with their peers at the amusement park and engage in fulfilling service opportunities.

However, many would end up disappointed as the school decided to cancel the trip and send the kids to YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, near Antioch, Tennessee, as an alternative. With their transition into high school coming up, the Class of 2023 was looking forward to bigger and better field trip opportunities.

Once COVID hit during their freshman year, field trips became a thing of the past. The current senior class has gone over three years without any form of field trips. When asked about his experience with field trips, senior Deacon Larson shared disappointment for the lack of field trips.

“In middle school, we had a bunch of fun field trips,” said Larson. He spoke highly of the anticipation that came with them. Now, after almost four years of high school, he recalls how “[this year’s seniors] never really had fun field trips to look forward to.”

Middle school director and former Director of Student Life Mrs. Emmy McClain said, “that the biggest impact COVID had was … the transportation. [In the first year of COVID] we couldn’t do anything because people weren’t really hosting, and because we couldn’t get transportation and keep people however many feet apart on a bus.”

As restrictions change and lift, St. George’s has been working to navigate the adjustments in the field trip process.

“Now as [field trips] return, … the transportation has become a real limiting factor because it’s at such high demand, and drivers are so hard to find that the cost for the transportation can be as much as, if not more than, the whole trip itself,” Mrs. McClain explained.

“[On the other hand] if you’re going on a trip that’s like … [an] SGGO trip, … a lot of [costs] are covered as extra fees from the kids,” said Mrs. McClain.

Following the announcement of the SGGO Colorado trip returning this year, upper school science teacher Mr. Michael Masters explained that the decrease in COVID restrictions “makes [trips] easier, which is why they’re kind of unfolding … again this semester.”

With field trip excitement bubbling, faculty has started to feel a bit of pressure to provide the perfect field trip.

“I think there is some expectation for students who haven’t had them in a while, and so for [trips] to live up to people’s expectations is sometimes kind of a challenge,” said Mr. Masters.

Although students might have