Revisiting Hopwood Jr. High

It was one of those dog days of summer as I cruised the entire stretch of the island in search of a front page photo. I decided to swing into Hopwood Jr. High when I happened upon 300-plus students rehearsing their graduation exercise behind the school. Several issues in plain view grabbed my attention of my old alma mater:

• Steel fences around the campus and I was like “Yeah, lucky you, Brian Ross of ABC’s 20/20 failed to see this military-like fortification lest school administrators and teachers would be accused of imprisoning pupils.

• The row of water tanks near the cafeteria depict the scarcity of water in the area to ensure that our students have this basic necessity for sanitary purposes. Building and filling up the 10 water tanks was the only alternative.

• The long grass around the campus to which I’m not ready to point an accusatory finger at the principal for I understand equally well that money is scarce for school ground maintenance.

I was rather saddened by the need to enclose schools with steel fences. But then vandalism must have been on the rise as to necessitate such fortification to protect school property. I’m sure too that even with steel fences, thieves still invade the schools to rob teachers and students of anything of value that could be pawned.
How sad.

The row of water tanks reflect two things: 1). The obvious scarcity of a finite resource. 2). The number of students have increased considerably since the days when I was a student at what then was Hopwood Sr. High School.

The sad note of that brief visit was the sentiment from a teacher who said that of the 300-plus students who were going through the exercise, 90-plus had to take remedial classes in order to graduate. If these kids pass their courses, they’d matriculate to Marianas High School this fall. Otherwise, they’d be retained for another year.

I was rather disturbed by the notion that a third of 300-plus students have lagged behind in their academic lessons. We can’t possibly blame Hopwood Jr. High for this deficiency, but we can take a proactive review of the quality of instructions at elementary schools where they came from or correcting a deficiency at the source.
This must be done forthwith so that students aren’t subjected to the stigma of failure.

US Citizenship conversation

“Dad, am I a US Citizen?” quizzed a young boy at the dinner table.

“That’s right son, but a Third Class US Citizen”, answered the father.

“What do you mean Third Class US Citizenship?” pressed the kid.

“You’re not represented in Congress, so out the window goes equal representation, and the Pinto Boys have propped-up a federal takeover proposal as the single magical pill to all diseases in the islands to cover-up for their mediocrity as the lead federal agency”, explained good old dad.

“Is that good or bad for us, dad?”, quizzed the kid.

“Must exhume the bodies of the founding fathers of the US Constitution and ask them point blank just what is their definition of ‘equality’ in that Interior’s OIA has completely redefined and eroded our confidence in the very essence of ‘equality’ and ‘justice'”, replied dad.

“You know dad, someday we shall overcome and you’d have to forgive them yuppies for their views in that they really have no sense of history in our placing our total faith in the Covenant Agreement”, the kid offered.

“Well, move on and bring equality and justice to these isles if per chance you become the first non-voting delegate from the NMI in the US Congress”.

“Dad, it’s a strange and troubling form of citizenship”, commented the kid.

“Yeap, not only is it strange but unique as well. The Clinton Pinto Boys are
the ‘strange’ creatures while our US Citizenship is most unique.”