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Two Views of Marshall High

Fabulous article (“Anatomy of Change,” fall 2004). As a graduate of Marshall High School in 1989, I certainly see a change from what the school used to be. I transferred to Marshall High School from another high school in Portland because of what Marshall had to offer me. It is awkward to find out now that a lot of incoming freshmen [are] turning their heads away. As an incoming junior, I was thrilled with the student population, the teaching staff, and the administration. Tim Taylor, as mentioned in the article, was a newer teacher there when I was in school and added to this excitement.

Education and schools have certainly seen a lot of changes even since I was at Marshall. I was a teacher for four years after college and could witness this. Extreme S.E. Portland is a diversified area and incoming freshmen now, along with their parents, have high expectations. I suppose that making this extreme and drastic change [to four smaller academies at Marshall] is what was needed. The full commitment of what sounds like a great principal and staff will help the new program succeed. This change is probably also needed to help keep the incoming freshman class local.

I stumbled across this article on Google.com while reminiscing about high school. I appreciated the article and the writer giving a great explanation.

Jason S. Schoen
Portland, Texas

John Marshall High School has a very rich history: far more than was characterized by [current Principal] John Wilhelmi. The principal you spoke of, Gaynor Petrequin, has written several books on his school and its methods of teaching and scheduling. Marshall was a model school in the ’60s and ’70s for schools adopting flexible modular scheduling. In fact, Wausau West High School, the school I attend, is practically a replica of Marshall in the ’60s. I found it disturbing that John Wilhelmi would write off Marshall as a “one-size-fits-all approach to education.”

John Kronenwetter
Student
Wausau West High School
Wausau, Wisconsin

Game On

I have taught for 37 years and you are certainly on target (“Death of Dodgeball,” fall 2000). I have been preaching these same ideas for the past 15–20 years and am not getting too many who will listen! I will refer many people to this article. I hope they will get the picture before it is too late!

Moe Smedley
Teacher/Coach
Northfield High School
Wabash, Indiana

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