Clackamas High

I watched my 16 year old daughter Jane's new high school's homecoming football game Friday night. Since she had to play in the drum line before and at half time of the game it was a good opportunity to see her play and to see big school high school football and homecoming in Oregon. You get my observations about it all. I sat next to a farther of two students at the school (Clackamas High) and asked him his impressions of the school through is kids. We agreed it is a very good school with great facilities and that it is student centered rather than parent or staff oriented. Jane likes Clackamas High herself has told me that the kids at the school are "a little spoiled and unaware of all they have".

The Clackamasfootball team is terrible this year, yet the crowd for the game was far larger than the better opponent's crowd, and more enthusiastic. The skill level for football in oregon is below that of Louisiana the facilities for sports are wonderful. This reflects the very high taxes homeowners pay in Oregon and the fact that the biggest portion collected is dedicated to the public schools. That dad I sat next to told me every Oregon high school has a big stadium for it's own use on school grounds. that would be unprecedented in Louisiana.

When I look at the grounds of Clackamas High I see huge, brand new buildings and facilities, a theater, two baseball fields with stands for boys and girls, an opulent gymnasium, a weight room for athletes that some colleges would envy, soccer fields for practice, a tennis court. There is a photography center, ceramic kilns and ceramic molding rooms, an art studio and on and on.

I don't know if Jane will go back to New Orleans to finish her final year of school there or stay here and finish in Oregon, but either way it's been a good experience so far for her to live and study here.