Every Picture Tells A Story

It is an annual tradition of ours to publish the pictures of Newtown High School’s graduating seniors, and this week we are proud to present the graduating Class of 2004. On pages B5 - B9, 326 faces look out on the community from the yearbook photos that will make them cringe and laugh many years from now for their outdated haircuts and fashion sense, but we hope they will never be embarrassed by the public education they received here in Newtown. From what we know of their achievements so far, 2004 should be a vintage year for our school district.

When we write about taxes, budgets, revenues, and expenditures year after year, we examine mostly words and numbers — policies and the cost of implementing them. When we have a policy that local roads should be safe, we can calculate the cost of asphalt patch, and drainage culverts, and salt and sand, and then measure our success by watching for a decline in the number of people injured on the roadways. Likewise, our investments in park improvements can be measured in park attendance. But how do we measure the success of our annual $50 million-plus investment in education? What numbers do we count? Test scores? College attendance? Is 326 the answer?

In an attempt to answer this question, perhaps we should dust off our own yearbooks and look beyond the big hair and wide lapels at our own hopeful faces way back when our own public education was newly minted. And then we should recall the story of our own lives since that time. A gauge for measuring success of something as subjective as an education emerges in still other remembered faces: the teacher who pushed us a little farther than we wanted to go, the coach who had enough faith in us to put us in the game when the chips were down, or the counselor or friend who understood and addressed our apprehension about moving on in the world. For each of us, there will be a remembered connection from our school days that made all the difference for us years later. For each of us, the memory will be different just as our life stories have been different.

For the Class of 2004, every picture tells a story — and most of that story remains to be told. Our investment in these young lives has to be an act of faith by the community as a whole. The payoff is never a sure thing. But in looking at our own unlikely likenesses from senior years of yore, we remain surprised and grateful that our community took a chance on us.

We offer our heartfelt congratulations and good wishes to the Newtown High School graduating Class of 2004.