Fastest way to roadblock the determined graying process is to follow me onto the sunshaded Culver City High School campus on Day Two of the new term.
My mission was to see new Principal Dylan Farris.
But all of the magnificent and technicolor human shrubbery surrounding this marvelously academic landscape convinced me I should visit the grounds every morning.
Even if you are waiting, you feel an integral part of the just-under way school day.
The bustling students and the equally hurried adults — faculty or parents — move with verve, a sure step, delighted to be on campus in the midst of the splendid human machinery that makes everything work effectively at a low hum.
Here Is a Surprise
I probably should not have been, having finished my formal school late in the 19th century, but I was surprised at the pace of student traffic, and the number of parents who escorted their children into the Main Office. Al of that made me homesick for earlier days with my children.
The reception desk was manned by a gentle giant, a brainy young man in a Security Officer uniform who greeted every visitor, without exception, as if he had just graduated, summa cum softly, from Miss Marple’s College of Classical Etiquette.
We know why he was there — because of cutbacks and doubling-up of responsibilities.
But the District office should know this gentleman is a keeper.
With a single possible exception, no thrill in life can match the shattering excitement of learning.
You could see it artfully scrolled in beautiful Spanish and English pen-personship across faces genuinely excited to be back in school, living a purposeful life after a carefree summer season.
Learning.
You can practically hear Beethoven’s works or my favorite, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, in the background when the information begins to suddenly make sense.
You almost shiver when the data sizzles across the classroom — you are special because you have acquired important new information that is only yours for the rest of your life.
A teacher who used to live here but, for now, is commuting from the remote reaches of the Valley, namely Northridge, puffed and huff a bit as she bounced into the reception area, almost ready to resume teaching, but not until after exclaiming about the disgusting quantity of traffic between there and here.
By now, with the clock on the wall stoutly marching toward 9 o’clock, it was time for a visitor to march into Principal Farris’s new office at the far north end of the building.
Job Already Looks Lived-in
I said it during the summer, just after he was named Pam Magee’s successor, and it should be said again:
Dylan Farris almost seems youthful enough to be a student himself, but:
He looks like a principal, and he conducts himself like a serious, upwardly mobile administrator.
Mr. Farris, just back from a tour of virtually every classroom, was resplendent in a traditional way, smartly starched white, short-sleeved shirt and a conservatively colorful necktie.
Given the open-ended dress code of the day, sometimes you expect a principal to enter in his or her bathing suit, or tee-shirt and jeans, if not cutoffs.
By nature, Mr. Farris is organized, which is 50 to 75 percent of conquering a new promotion. Freshly scrubbed, he is quietly aware, sees everything.
I asked what he has been doing the last few days to get ready, and Mr. Farris said:
“We had our teacher professional development days last week, which involves teacher preparation and training for the year.
“We come together and decide what our focus is going to be for the year. I proposed a focus.
“Our themes for the year are relationships and student engagement.”
Mr. Farris, ever low-key, explains that “student engagement can mean a variety of things. Our focus is to make sure each student is tuned into the lesson, tuned into the class, tuned into the school community — but engaged and involved.
“So,” he says with a twinkle, “we had an engagement party, with food and decorations.
“We talked about our themes for the year. We put on teacher-led workshops for the teachers to participate in, to refresh and upgrade.
“And I will say this: The tone around school today is very positive. Our themes have been warmly received.
“Things could not be going better.”
