Throughout the hallways and the cafeteria of MSHS, there are a total of seven cases dedicated to displaying what MSHS considers to be important. Within those cases there are many trophies and placards which highlight achievements over a wide array of sports, while a distinct absence of recognition for achievements in other activities is apparent.
Browsing these displays voices a clear bias toward athletics and an exclusion of non-athletic activities. It seems that any award or memorabilia recommended for display is judged for its worth, and quite possibly not displayed based on the activity it represents.
For most of Manitou’s history, MSHS has been considered by the community to be an arts-based school, and creative clubs, classes, and performances were greatly cherished throughout the community. As a school with facilities dedicated exclusively to the arts, many students and staff would agree that the arts are significantly underrepresented in our hollow halls.
Within the main building at the high school, 43 pieces of art produced by current students can be found on display, a count which pales in comparison to the excessive occupation of athletic memorabilia. The largest case in the high school, which is dedicated to only athletics, holds a total of 85 volleyball trophies, highlighting that the display of one sport, within one case, is ranked with nearly twice the value of the full student body’s creative accomplishments.
There is simply a severe lack of art in the high school. Although there have been improvements, such as the metal strings being put up around the hallways to hold various assignments and art pieces, an overall system for the appreciation, acknowledgement, and display of art does not exist. Not only are there many art pieces that would be welcomed to be on display, but there are also new ones every day, and there is no single person, or group of people that are in charge of what is displayed in the art cases and throughout the school.
There is a need for an organized system, one that includes putting up new art consistently from a variety of students, and one that consistently fills all art dedicated spaces throughout the high school. Paul Bonner, an art teacher at MSHS, had been granted permission to fill the left side of the case at the front of the school, and although it is now holding art, this should not be his responsibility to ensure that the school represents the art classes.
The Performing Arts Department at MSHS also has very little representation throughout the high school building. It may be argued that because performing arts are not often competitive, there is little to display in terms of awards; but in the grand scheme of things, representation could be photos, props, or instruments. In some cases, there are competitive aspects of the Performing Arts Department that MSHS does take part in, including the One Act competition for theater.
There are trophies for the Theater Department on display in the classroom of the Theatre Arts instructor, Wendy Harms, but this is not a space accessible to many students who are not already interested or involved in theater.
Other performing arts classes include Choir, Honor Choir, Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Advanced Orchestra, Tech Theater and PPSC Theater. With this plethora of performing arts classes, there is not a single piece of memorabilia that is on display in the main building; and there are several in a poorly lit, nearly invisible case in the SILC building. This memorabilia should be on display in a manner that is eye catching and inviting, and should not be limited to a crammed case in the SILC building, with such little visibility.
The performing arts department at MSHS deserves recognition throughout the campus because it is such a large part of the district, and laying every card on the table to incoming students is crucial in keeping these parts of MSHS alive for years to come.
Not only are the arts at MSHS provided with little to no recognition throughout the main building, but there are also multiple other groups that experience this lack of representation, including National Honor Society, Manitou Mountain Monsters mountain bike team, Robotics, Knowledge Bowl, Girls Swim and Dive and Student Council.
NHS has been granted multiple awards for voter registration, and one has been handed over to the Athletics and Activities Department. These awards have not been consistently displayed since they were handed over, regardless of the achievement that they represent.
The Mountain Monsters frequently place in the top three as a team at their races, and there is very little proof of that around the high school campus. Only one Mountain Monster trophy can currently be viewed, in rotation on a shelf outside of the MSHS athletics and activities admin assistant, Georgianna Derziotis’s, office. In conjunction with the single mountain bike award on display on the shelf outside of Derziotis’s office, there are multiple Robotics awards.
This is an unreasonable place for any awards because they seem to have just been squeezed in wherever they would fit. The Knowledge Bowl team has two trophies on display in the senior hallway, in a case with science projects from various classes. No organization or method has been applied to this display. Similarly, the Swim and Dive team has no physical memorabilia or recognition throughout the school.
Student Council is a club at MSHS that organizes various events for the school, and MSHS Student Council has won approximately eleven awards for Student Council of Excellence, and they are currently in the Student Council classroom. This is an unfit place seeing as most every school has a Student Council, so over every other school, MSHS achieved this level of recognition; and they put in hours of work outside of school to organize fundraisers, dances and other activities.
There are, of course, limitations to representing every group evenly, due to the finite space throughout the high school, but it is clear that the space available is not being utilized appropriately. With cases half full, unorganized, and without themes, available space is wasted as is potential for a variety of presentations.
With the installation of two touch screens dedicated to displaying the full array of achievements in the building, there are plans to photograph each award or trophy, for display on those screens. Achievements that are not considered school defining will no longer be physically presented. This process will free up space for memorabilia of all kinds in the cafeteria, and will provide a great opportunity to level the playing field in terms of what is on display.
All groups must have memorabilia on display when prospective students tour the school. To have little representation for any given group, which someone may be interested in, will prevent that community from being recognized as something MSHS offers. First impressions are impactful for any student considering MSHS. In order to create an environment where all students are appreciated for their talents, there must be representation in multiple places for all groups, including within the main building.
