Welcome

This blogsite is for alumni and friends of Archbishop Walsh High School (AWHS) in Olean, NY. Here you can share views on the school's future, along with memories of the past. It's also a great place for old friends and "old" friends -- separated by time, distance and circumstance -- to catch up. Welcome to the conversation.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Native Americans at School

One of the more interesting ideas outlined in the AWHS Strategic Plan involves the hope of more students from the Seneca Nation of Indians, many now attending in the Salamanca School District. This article ("On the Reservation and Off, Schools See a Changing Tide") from the New York Times evokes some of the possibilities worth considering.

Still, I find myself posing questions about which factors most appeal to Seneca families living between Salamanca and Jamestown who might be inclined to send their children on the long commute to AWHS in Olean.

(Moreover, I find myself wondering, in this time of high fuel prices, what factors might spur non-SNI families, from even farther away than some do now, to send their children on the long commute from communities to the north, east or south of Olean.)

Given the modern technology for distance learning and the growth of private home-based schooling, it would seem to follow that SNI parents who want non-public education for their children might instead establish their own private high school much closer to home.

Or, in the alternative, they could establish a smart-tech virtual high school with lessons available to other tribes (and perhaps to non-tribal individuals) beyond Western New York.

Such an alternative, it would seem, also is available even to non-tribal families (near and far) finding merit and value in home-based education focused on Catholic tradition and values.

Changing populations and the resulting changes in local economics appear to be the larger forces at play shaping the creation and the "de-creation" or end of physical-space schools. Some of these same forces are shaping the rise of virtual schools. Make no mistake, interested learners working synchronously or asynchronously can receive a serious, valued and real education in either sphere. Check out more on virtual high schools here.

As far-fetched as some of these ideas may sound at first, I'm still waiting to hear more from AWHS administrators or trustees as to what's next.