The next time you pick up a copy of the 1965 St. Thomas High School yearbook turn to page forty-five. You will see a picture of all the seniors who spent their entire grade school, junior high and high school years at that fine institution. These are very fortunate people. Lucky to spend their formative years in the late fifties and early sixties and lucky to spend so much time at this great school.
St. Thomas was a simple parish school run by The Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters. It was not elitist. It was not expensive. The school tried hard to include anyone in the parish who wished to attend. There were a few non parishioners and non catholic students as well. The priests and nuns found a way to support students at any income level. Academically, St Thomas was excellent. For example, in May of 1965 seventy-nine of the eighty seniors had been accepted at different colleges and universities around the country. The eightieth classmate wanted to be a professional baseball umpire. Ironically, he changed course and became the first student in our class to complete his PHD program. But what St. Thomas was really good at was teaching kids how to learn and how to make decisions that impacted their lives.
From first grade through twelfth, the school and the Sisters were consistent. They had the same unalterable values and purpose. Everybody saw things the same way. We weren’t bombarded with religion. It was one of eight classes. We were bombarded with education. If you were not progressing with your math, they knew it. We never had a class with less than forty-five students and the Sister up front knew where each of us stood every day. If I was having problems with math, it took a few seconds for Sister Lucentia to determine if it was a comprehension problem or I wasn’t doing the work. They would quickly resolve the issue either way.
By fourth grade, I learned that not doing the work was the worst possible path to follow. The most dreaded phrase ever uttered was “Take this note to your parents. Have them sign it and bring it back to me tomorrow.” Great, I have been verbally pounded by my IHM teacher (we thought that the initials stood for Iron Hearted Monster) and now things are going to get much worse. No place in this entire scenario is there an avenue that allows me to explain my actions. My opinion does not count. “Sister Maureen sent us a note and you are in trouble. We don’t expect notes from Sister Maureen. You are grounded!” These people were joined at the hip. By fifth grade, you have learned that the best option is to avoid incurring the wrath of the ever vigilant Sister Maureen.
Perhaps my good friend, Tim Kellman’s encounter sums it up best. After a perceived lack of performance, the IHM instructor made this point: “Mr. Kellman, I can’t force you to do anything, but I can make you wish you had.”
This was a planned strategy by the nuns. When they knew that you were likely to do the work, they could settle in to teaching you the skills you are supposed to have.
The most important skills were not facts and figures. The critical expertise was the ability to make your own independent decisions. They also believed that you should maximize your potential in every subject and helped you through the process. Everything was expectation oriented. “Test scores and your long history at our school show that you have an aptitude for math. Of course you will master calculous and maybe quantum physics by your Sophomore year.” The IHM instructors taught me how to write. My strongest business talent was documenting and communicating complex business problems in written documents. I learned how to do that before I passed out of eighth grade. Our tenure at St. Thomas instilled us with a life long drive to gather real skills and it minimized any fear of competing and succeeding. The dedication and expertise of these phenomenal women truly improved the lives of thousands of students.
St. Thomas gave us a strong push in the right direction but several other factors also had a big impact on our development.
Our parents survived the great depression and knew what it was like not to have much opportunity. They recognized that the world was different for us and fully expected that we would take advantage of the real, significant, opportunity offered by the fifties and sixties. They were not morose or afraid. They were positive and practical and they were really expert at evaluating avenues to create a better life. That is how they survived for many years when the pickings were slim. Mom and Dad didn’t preach to us. They simply expected us to become very good at something and they tracked our progress. A college education wasn’t required but outstanding skills were.
A second critical factor was simply being in high school during the turbulent and fantastic sixties. These were break out times. There were huge social issues and teenagers were taking stands on those issues. The self reliance skills fostered by our parents and St. Thomas were applied full force. We had clear opinions on the civil rights movements, the Vietnam war and true equality for women. Certainly, we had been raised to apply our beliefs. We thought through our positions and followed them boldly. Some of my classmates marched with Father Jackson to support Martin Luther King. Some volunteered to fight in Vietnam. One lost his life and another was badly injured. Many became part of the anti-war movement that was so prominent on Michigan’s campus. Most of us adopted new views on sex and drugs and many of us followed our parent’s pattern of excessive use of alcohol and tobacco. Clearly, very different choices were made by our friends and schoolmates. There were huge arguments but underneath it all we respected everyone’s right to pick a side.
In June of 1965, eighty of us stepped confidently into the world. Most of us did not know what we would do for the rest of our lives. The nuns and our parents taught us that it may not be wise to live your life based on the decisions of a seventeen year old. However, most of us were very confident that we would eventually figure out what was best for us. Thanks to St. Thomas, we had spectacular tools to help us through the process. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary created that environment.
Many solid achievements came from the class of ’65. We had lawyers, professors, architects, nurses, the high school principal at Pioneer High and the head of the Washtenaw County Teachers Union. In 1969, six of us married our senior prom dates and we are still married to the same partners fifty-seven years later. Most of us have tried to pass our values and beliefs along to our children and grand children. Yes, we were lucky to have had the IHM – St. Thomas educational experience.
When you review the “Twelve Year” photo, I am the dashing fellow on the far left of the top row. As it turns out, this is permanent documentation of one of the only occasions when I was able to slip something over on The IHM Sisters. My family did not move back to Ann Arbor until I was in the second grade and I spent my Freshman and Sophomore year at Sacred Heart in Detroit. I only attended this fine institution for nine years. So, I engineered a 1965 photo bomb forty years before the phenomenon was labeled and identified. Amazing that I could pull this off with Sister Marie Lawrence riding heard on the photo shoot.
Most importantly, I pulled it off without having to take a note to my parents.