Arcana in Progress: Taft High School
Once I decided to expand Innocents Lost from a short story into a novel, I knew William Taft High School would have to figure into it somehow. Most of the POV characters are highschoolers, and Taft is the neighborhood high school for all of them.
As I mentioned in the past "Arcana in Progress" entry, I like to use real places in Urbis Arcana - for a number of reasons. It ground stories with fantasy elements in a world closely resembling real world. It helps me flesh out the world and take advantage of details that are already there. It gives me a chance to tell the readers about interesting places I've seen, places that I think deserve more attention.
And, because I'm a stickler for details, I like to visit the places I use. But visiting a public high school isn't easy. Especially not a CPS school, where metal detectors at the entrances and ID badges worn out in the open at all times are rule rather than an exception. But luckily for me, Taft holds an open house once a year. I missed it last year, and I made an extra effort not to miss again.
What I got was almost more than I hoped for. The visitors were allowed to walk anywhere they want. The school wasn't in session, so we could look at quite a few classrooms without getting in anyone's way. We got to see drama club, girls choir and archery club in action. We visited the auditorium, the lunch room and the gyms (the school has two). Every single department, every single school program and several clubs and sports teams had stations where visitors could ask questions. I didn't get to ask all the questions I wanted, but I still got plenty of information. Just being there, I couldn't help but start filling in details. Here's a good spot to put the characters' lockers. That sounds like a sort of club April would join. That seems like a program Jarek would want to do. As I walked though the gym, the school assembly scene practically wrote itself. And I was surprised by how much the school lunchroom looked like what I saw in my head. I would only need to alter a few details.
Walking through the school got me the sort of tiny scenery details you'd never be able to get any other way. The color of the walls. How the hallways in the newer expansion seem more cramped than in the original, 30s era building. The way the hallways had motivational posters that reinforced school's official values over and over again. The certain loft-like rawness of the school rehearsal room.
(Oh and, as part of the Open House visitors' package, I got a detailed map of the entire school. That's really going to come in handy)
I wished I could take pictures of the interiors, but that wasn't going to fly, so I just jotted down notes.
But it wasn't just research. The open house gave me a chance to see what is known as one of CPS' better schools. The sort of schools that, while not Big Four (Northside Prep, Lane Tech, Payton and Whitney Young), stand above its peers. The only CPS high school I rally got a chance to explore was Rogers Park's Sullivan High School, where I did my observations for teaching certification. While that school had some good teachers and talented students, it was also a school where students couldn't take books home, the art program was reduced to a single class and the library has a staff of one.
After spending several weeks at Sullivan, it was kind of amazing to hear teachers talk about theater classes (plural), several levels worth of art classes, multiple classes teaching five foreign languages (Spanish, French, Polish, Korean and Arabic), multiple college prep and technical certification programs, a pretty interesting science program, a program where students get to design websites and video games... I got to read a monthly magazine students put together. Taft library could fit three Sullivan libraries put together and still have some room left over.
It just drives home what CPS is capable of when the money is there.
Not that a visit didn't reveal any flaws. With CPS deeply in debt, even schools of Taft's caliber are facing budget cuts. I could see signs of deferred maintenance in several areas. In the school magazine I mentioned earlier, I read about how several classes without teachers do to what could charitably be described as a bureaucratic screw-up. The same article explained how some of the teachers I talked to probably wouldn't be there because, well, budget cuts. Budget cuts is also the reason why Taft's Korean teacher had to raise money to keep her class going. And thanks to Northwest Side's growing population, Taft is finding itself over capacity. Several non-computer classes have to be held in computer labs, and impression I got from students was that hallways are nightmare to navigate between periods.
The visit has given me a lot to talk about - both in terms of Urbis Arcana and in general.
There are several moments in particular that stuck out to me
As I mentioned in the past "Arcana in Progress" entry, I like to use real places in Urbis Arcana - for a number of reasons. It ground stories with fantasy elements in a world closely resembling real world. It helps me flesh out the world and take advantage of details that are already there. It gives me a chance to tell the readers about interesting places I've seen, places that I think deserve more attention.
And, because I'm a stickler for details, I like to visit the places I use. But visiting a public high school isn't easy. Especially not a CPS school, where metal detectors at the entrances and ID badges worn out in the open at all times are rule rather than an exception. But luckily for me, Taft holds an open house once a year. I missed it last year, and I made an extra effort not to miss again.
What I got was almost more than I hoped for. The visitors were allowed to walk anywhere they want. The school wasn't in session, so we could look at quite a few classrooms without getting in anyone's way. We got to see drama club, girls choir and archery club in action. We visited the auditorium, the lunch room and the gyms (the school has two). Every single department, every single school program and several clubs and sports teams had stations where visitors could ask questions. I didn't get to ask all the questions I wanted, but I still got plenty of information. Just being there, I couldn't help but start filling in details. Here's a good spot to put the characters' lockers. That sounds like a sort of club April would join. That seems like a program Jarek would want to do. As I walked though the gym, the school assembly scene practically wrote itself. And I was surprised by how much the school lunchroom looked like what I saw in my head. I would only need to alter a few details.
Walking through the school got me the sort of tiny scenery details you'd never be able to get any other way. The color of the walls. How the hallways in the newer expansion seem more cramped than in the original, 30s era building. The way the hallways had motivational posters that reinforced school's official values over and over again. The certain loft-like rawness of the school rehearsal room.
(Oh and, as part of the Open House visitors' package, I got a detailed map of the entire school. That's really going to come in handy)
I wished I could take pictures of the interiors, but that wasn't going to fly, so I just jotted down notes.
But it wasn't just research. The open house gave me a chance to see what is known as one of CPS' better schools. The sort of schools that, while not Big Four (Northside Prep, Lane Tech, Payton and Whitney Young), stand above its peers. The only CPS high school I rally got a chance to explore was Rogers Park's Sullivan High School, where I did my observations for teaching certification. While that school had some good teachers and talented students, it was also a school where students couldn't take books home, the art program was reduced to a single class and the library has a staff of one.
After spending several weeks at Sullivan, it was kind of amazing to hear teachers talk about theater classes (plural), several levels worth of art classes, multiple classes teaching five foreign languages (Spanish, French, Polish, Korean and Arabic), multiple college prep and technical certification programs, a pretty interesting science program, a program where students get to design websites and video games... I got to read a monthly magazine students put together. Taft library could fit three Sullivan libraries put together and still have some room left over.
It just drives home what CPS is capable of when the money is there.
Not that a visit didn't reveal any flaws. With CPS deeply in debt, even schools of Taft's caliber are facing budget cuts. I could see signs of deferred maintenance in several areas. In the school magazine I mentioned earlier, I read about how several classes without teachers do to what could charitably be described as a bureaucratic screw-up. The same article explained how some of the teachers I talked to probably wouldn't be there because, well, budget cuts. Budget cuts is also the reason why Taft's Korean teacher had to raise money to keep her class going. And thanks to Northwest Side's growing population, Taft is finding itself over capacity. Several non-computer classes have to be held in computer labs, and impression I got from students was that hallways are nightmare to navigate between periods.
The visit has given me a lot to talk about - both in terms of Urbis Arcana and in general.
There are several moments in particular that stuck out to me
- A father grilling a teacher about every single aspect of her class, and the teacher calmly explaining everything. It underscores something that distinguishes CPS from a suburban school district. Parents want to try to get their kids in absolute best schools possible. Any little thing can sway their decision - and the Taft staff knows it.
- Three student tour guides calmly explaining to two 8th grade girls that they would probably lose touch with each other and stop being friends, but hey, they'll make new ones.
- A mother from Rogers Park talking to one of the program directors, trying to figure out how to get her daughter into Taft. As the director laid out all the steps, the warmth in her voice was unmistakable. You could tell that she's had the conversation hundreds of times before, but she seemed genuinely willing to try to help. And when she wished the mother and the daughter good luck, I knew that she meant it.