History of Culver Leading

By: Tina Stacy

Since my start here at Culver Community 19 years ago, I have seen a variety of students and grades come through. A teacher can really get a feel for society after they have taught over 1,000 young people, and with this much experience, I can finally also reflect on our schools ups and downs.

In the beginning of my career, Culver was a leader in our area in many ways. We were a small school, as we are now, but we were making big waves. Harold Welter, famed sports announcer for WKVI, even said on his radio after interviewing CCMHS basketball player Kody Snyder that interviewing Culver students was always a treat because Culver Community students were so well-spoken. That quote was a pride of the English department for years.

As well, the school was reaching some of its highest points at that time in other areas. The student council had created the biggest Students-for-Students campaign supporting Make A Wish recipients in the state’s history. The BPA organization was sending students to National’s every year for competition, and several Lilly Scholarship winners were produced with the graduating classes.

But three years after starting my career the Great Recession began and stayed, negativity began to take over. Suddenly, I found myself defending my school more, and other teachers also felt the same. The community was tired and cranky and they looked for reasons to blame their pain on others. Times were exhausting, but Culver Community was still making strides. We earned the highest state testing scores in the region in some of those years. Our football team was working hard, and school spirit was really present. Teachers who hadn’t seen raises in five years stuck it out because of their love for the school. We weren’t perfect, but there was an honest effort to strive.

But the negativity from the recession lingered. And then COVID added to it. It has created an environment that can be unfair to students and teachers. So, when something good happens, it is sometimes overlooked or dismissed out of stubbornness.

Currently, our school is being revitalized from those dark years. Projects are being started, student populations are increasing, new positions are being made, outside-of-the-box thinking is giving us things like therapy dogs and athletic booster plans to improve funding, and we are regularly taking first in area conferences both academically and athletically.

This year, the school newspaper is going to work hard to help eliminate the negativity. WE are going to write about things that happen, things we’re interested in, but also things that aren’t quite “news” but need to be told. We are going to make it a priority to seek these things out, and as the overseer of this publication, I am going to start the season with a situation that was created in my classroom that I am quite proud of that centers on my junior classes.

To start, these classes can be rough and tumble. Adults don’t always have the best opinion of this group. Predominately boys, they need more interaction. They want to tease and move and the girls aren’t much different. They definitely require creative teaching to stay on our goals. I have had hard conversations with some of them, and I am sure many would put my class on their list of “not liked” because English is often seen as stereotypically boring.

But I love these students, even the ones who have pushed the limits. These students show up every day, just like me; and they are trying to find their way in the world, just like me. I appreciate their honestness and their personalities. Truly, I will never forget these students.

And it was thier uniqueness that gave me the chance this year to try something I have always wanted to do in an English class: read the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This book is a classic and what many people don’t know is that Toto is a real connection to our Toto, the story really was written in Starke County, Indiana.

In the early 1900’s, famous Chicago authors often traveled down our way not for Lake Maxincuckee, but for the largest marshland in the world: English Lake. The famous book Ben Hur was written there, the richest men in the world also stayed at the English Lake hotel, and much of American fur was shipped out of English Lake. The author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, would travel on train to English Lake, take a boat through the marsh, and then travel Toto Road to Bass Lake where he had a cottage. His family even later opened a hotel there.

Because this group is pretty outspoken, I thought they were just the group to appreciate the book’s comparison of America’s politics as an allegory, and I knew they would enjoy investigating the natural world of Indiana.

So we dove in.

The students were doing a good job, and I thought a field trip to local spots would really bring the book to life and stoke some pride in our students for the area they call home.

We visited the famous “Point” in English Lake where the mighty Kankakee and smaller Yellow River join. We were escorted through the Kankakee marshland by DNR agents, and we finished with a talk at the Starke County historical society which showed us pictures of 1900’s Bass Lake, English Lake, and Knox while also pointing out railroad maps and the qualities of roads.

The trip connected the dinginess of the city of Chicago to the Tin Man’s setting, it pointed out specific spots on the Yellow Brick Road that matched Toto Road, it showed how the Scarecrow navigated the shallow waters, and it connected illustrations to the wildlife growing and living in the fall.

But on that trip, a student made the decision to commit an act of vandalism that was brought to our attention after we had returned. Their decision reflected poorly on our whole group; and I thought, here we go again. Another ding against this group of students.

However, the students I believed in and who others often do not, rose to the occasion. Instead of blaming the person responsible or ignoring the problem, they decided to fix it themselves. Many students who weren’t even on the trip rose up and did what was needed and right. Their actions overpowered the negativity and left a lasting and positive impression on the people outside of our school corporation.

If only everyone could see these childrens’ potential for good.

So today, I am shining a light on the students I am most proud of. As we work on our unit about American Veteran writers, the students regularly request we make plans for another field trip. And although the weather isn’t the greatest, I had actually the exact same thought; because at the end of my day and theirs, we have a relationship that is unique to ourselves where I see them as some really cool people, and they see me as a bossy and demanding teacher who has their back when people want to tear them down.