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Over the course of the past year, teachers, students, parents and grandparents have watched helplessly as a deadly virus transformed their careers and educations. But there’s one thing community members have fought to preserve: tradition.
Especially in rural areas, tradition plays a constant role in fostering the connection between members of a community. The values of past generations impact aspects of everyday life at NS, from extravagant events like junior prom to seemingly mundane protocols like the dress code policy.
“I think [tradition] is firmly rooted in rural school districts and rural communities,” NS principal Christy Straatman said. “I think when something exists for so long, people hold on to it.”
Tradition often means something different to each member of a community. For Straatman, the value of tradition can be found in the student interactions that take place outside of class time.
“When I think of traditions, I’m thinking of the things that the student body does,” Straatman said. “It’s the assemblies, it’s the dances, it’s the things that we do to help make a connection outside of the classroom.”
When asked about traditions at NS, junior prom and graduation instantly spring to mind for many community members.
“The two biggest traditions we have are junior prom and graduation. Those are old,” said language arts teacher Catherine Carney. “[Prom] goes all the way back to at least the 1950s.”
Of her 29 years teaching at NS, Carney spent 13 years participating in the planning and execution of junior prom. Having witnessed the event’s persistence throughout her career, she sees the value in respecting school traditions, even if it means making sacrifices.
“As much as junior prom interrupts education, and I would never have said this 29 years ago,” Carney said, “I think it’s an important part of our education that we’re also respecting traditions, that we’re taking the time out of education to do this other thing that we think is just as important.”
Watching generations come and go has shown teachers that tradition isn’t just about the fun of planning community activities: It’s also about honoring those that came before you.
“Traditions, of course, are a way for parents and grandparents to stay connected to the school,” said history teacher Tyler Bailey. “A lot of them do that through athletics, through drama, and even our Sterling Scholar programs.”
Having attended NS for four years as a student and taught at the school for an additional 14 years, Bailey has watched schoolwide traditions change over time. These changes range from a recent lack of sophomore dances to noticeable adjustments to prom and graduation.
“They used to sing ‘Now is the Hour’ at graduation, and they don’t anymore,” Bailey said. “They also used to have a choir that would sing the junior prom song…They haven’t done that for years.”
Though seemingly inconsequential, even small changes to events like prom and graduation affect community members outside of the student body.
“Prom changed in the sense that under the head adviser before, we had to have a live band,” Carney said. “Just that change caused consternation in the community. And one year, kids wanted only one night [of prom]–that backfired.”
Not only can these changes upset community members, but altering tradition can interfere with a generation’s values on a larger scale.
“We lose a connection to our family past,” Carney said of moving away from tradition. “It’s like there isn’t a shared conversation when you don’t have that connection. I think even in traditions that are in families, when a person passes away or they get too old to be able to do something, those family traditions go away and you lose that connection as well.”
Although most people from Sanpete don’t think twice about them, traditions like promenade often look different from an outsider’s perspective. Junior Ella Christensen began attending NS this year, and despite being new to many traditions, she understands how important they are to the community.
“The whole promenade thing is still a weird concept to me,” Christensen said. “But I don’t necessarily think that we should let that go, because I think it’s such a big part of the community here.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, changes are being made to schoolwide traditions much more frequently than they normally would be. Teachers like Carney have noticed a lack of connection in the community as a result.
“I think that not being able to cheer on teams is a big thing,” Carney said. “There hasn’t been the camaraderie. And the fact that we’re wearing masks, that we only see half of someone’s face…then it’s much harder to communicate.”
With the date of prom being pushed to April and the potential of graduation to be held outside, community members have been forced to face the possibility of losing or changing some traditions. However, some feel that it is important to recognize all that has been done to preserve tradition amid the global crisis.
“It was a big deal to move the date of junior prom,” Bailey said. “But the reason they did that is to hold onto traditions. Last summer, they still did the drive-by graduation to try to hold on to that. I think it would affect [our connection] if we had to all-out cancel, and a lot of people have put in a lot of work so that we didn’t ever have to cancel a lot of that.”
