SHAKER LIFE | FALL 2014 67
1 12
6
11
10 9
4
32
8 7 5
13 Years
a Raider
By Beth Friedman-Romell
“Where has the time gone?”
is a parental question I have never really
understood. As I look back on the past 13
years of my son Steven’s journey through
the Shaker school system, it does NOT
seem like “just yesterday” that he was in
kindergarten! The time has been rich and
full of both challenges and triumphs.
We moved into the Ludlow neighborhood
in June 2001, full of the usual hopes
and anxieties of young parents. I recall
walking one humid evening, shortly before
school began, to the Onaway playground
with my husband, Steven, and son #2,
Harlan, in utero. I wondered, “Will Steven
make friends? Will I make friends? How
will I manage work, a new baby, and a house
and yard of our own? Is this a baby or a
watermelon in my stomach?”
As I gazed at the homey brick building
reminiscent of my own elementary school
(Malvern), I prayed that Steven would find
the nurturing teachers, interesting work,
and close friends that I recalled from my
own years.
Onaway met all the expectations. The
school fostered the values of caring and
creativity, from principal Lynn Cowen, to
the regular and special-class teachers and
the support staff. Dr. Cowen was always
trying new approaches if the old ones
weren’t working, both in the classroom and
in extracurriculars. When it was discovered
that Steven’s grade had quite a few students
who were advanced in math, a special class
was created for them. I found a niche in
re-starting the environmental committee.
Other parents thrived in creating Onaway
Little Theater. And everyone loves the fall
picnic and spring carnival.
We had a few bumps along the way,
to be sure. Imagine getting a call that your
first-grader is in the office because he told
his teacher “he wanted to die.” Well, it turns
out that he was really tired of being at
school that day, and he thought that if he
died, he would get to go home early.
It was always clear that Steven would
go his own way. He began growing his red,
curly hair long at the end of second grade,
despite some kids’ teasing and adults’
confusion. (“Young lady, you can’t go in the
men’s locker room!”)
When Steven was at Woodbury, his
passion for creative writing flourished in
the Enriched Language Arts program. So
it was hard for me to understand how the
same kid could effortlessly produce pages
of fanciful prose about cake ingredients and
wicked witches, but agonize for hours over
a simple book report. The beginnings of
Steven’s alarming tendency to complete only
homework he liked began to surface during
this period, to reach its nadir in high school.
The simultaneous highlight and low
point of Woodbury for me had to be the
Native American Fair, when I narrowly
avoided poisoning the fifth grade class.
We decided it would be cool to make acorn
bread, since we had so many oak trees on
our street. It’s simple. Just:
• Con all the neighborhood kids into
collecting acorns.
• Remove all wormy acorns.
• Collect more acorns, since you’ve just
thrown two-thirds of them away.
• Remove tannic acid. Acorns have lots of
it. It’s poisonous. The Native Americans
used to suspend the acorns in a clear
stream for a really long time to wash
the tannins away. We took a “short cut”
by boiling them over and over again,
changing the water each time.
• Ready to order acorn flour off the
Internet yet? No? Then roast the
acorns and try to ignore that peculiar
smell coming from your oven.
• Throw away more wormy ones you
overlooked before.
• Grind the rest into fine flour for baking.
Get a new food processor.
• Bake bread; serve at fair; don’t sleep for
48 hours until you’re sure nobody’s died.
• Vow that kid #2 will make a bow and
arrow for his fair project.
Middle School. Honestly, what kid
likes middle school? If I were Queen of
the School Board, seventh graders would
either be home schooled and/or put into
community service for a year. Under no
circumstances would they be allowed to
mingle with each other, or anyone else.
Fortunately for Steven, he was able to
find a niche in Middle School by performing
in the plays. At Shaker High, Steven was
able to delve deeply into his passion for the
arts in a way that is truly rare at a secondary
school. To write music and plays, to make
videos and graphic design projects, and to
collaborate with like-minded peers have
been Steven’s raison d’etre for the past four
years. The depth and breadth of course
offerings and extra-curricular activities
allow students to imagine themselves in
arts careers, and begin honing practical
skills and processes that are usually taught
in the first year or two of college.
I am tremendously proud of the work
Steven has done at Shaker High, and the
recognition he has received within and
outside school. But my all-time favorite
Shaker Theater moment was watching
principal Michael Griffith, dressed as
a policeman, dance an Irish jig in the
ensemble of “Wonderful Town.” I hope his
commitment, courage, and joy inspire the
same in all our students.
My college freshman has indeed been
long in the making. Thank you, Shaker
teachers, administrators, staff, parents, and
students, for helping us along the way. SL
Scene
in Shaker