All Girls High School

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to see my niece, Clare's senior production. Some high schools allow the senior class to put on a kind of variety show that pokes fun at their school, the teachers, and is kind of a fun look back over their four years. Clare has not done any theatrical work before, so I was excited to see her try something new. Also, as a former drama geek myself, I always love to see high school performances.

I really enjoyed the show last night. It was fun. It had really good music. For example, they took the song Toxic by Britney Spears and re-wrote the words to turn it into something about the cafeteria food. The one thing that struck me was how much all girls schools are essentially the same.

In the 20 years (gulp) since I graduated from high school, I would have thought that these institutions created to instill strength in young women would have changed. They haven't. They still poke fun at the nuns who work there. There is the male teacher that everyone loves. Even the chants are the same. After the show, the girls started with the "Seniors, seniors" chant that we did. We also would chant "eighty-eight, eighty-eight, eighty,eighty, eighty, eighty, eighty-eight". Guess what-they did the same chant, except it is now "zero-eight". I was talking to Clare afterwards about this, and her response was, "Wow, '88! That was a long time ago." It makes me feel old, but I am glad that although my school has closed, there are other all girls schools still in the area where you can find "Knowledge and Virtue: United"! (Our school motto.)