On Friday, January 22, Ruth Jurgensen, Assistant Principal, was reading through an email sent from Civic Engagement assistant, Lisa Williams, to notify students that did not complete their Civic Engagements hours for the first semester. As she read her way down the list, she came to the last name on the list. Shocked at what she saw, she refreshed her email, unplugged the computer, plugged it back in, and even tried switching to Safari. Still in disbelief at what she had read, she saw she had to email herself that she is one of the many students that have failed Civic Engagement this past semester.

Jurgensen said she thought to herself, “Admin don’t have to turn in Learning Logs, do they?” She pondered the thought that she, of all people, had not filled in her precious Learning Log. Jurgensen, like Civic Engagement Director Shanti Elliott, is known to fill out Learning Logs both for fun and as an example for high school students to follow when filing theirs out. Even if faculty and admin were required, she would be covered, she thought.

Jurgensen got up from her desk and walked to the teachers lounge in search of answers. She found Upper School history teacher Jeanne Barr printing reading packets and said, “Hey Jeanne, did you uh, finish your Learning Log?”

“Of course Ruth, everyone has,” Barr said. “Ever since the eighth graders passed that new law in Student Government, all faculty and staff must complete Learning Logs or Intensives just the same as the students. The purpose was to make the faculty, staff, and students feel connected in their goals as a local, global, regional, national, international, continental, intercontinental, and local citizen.”

Jurgensen said, “Oh yeah, I knew that, thanks.”

Jurgensen left the teachers lounge and raced to Williams’s office.

Williams told Jurgensen she needed to do her Logs or else she would be fired. Outraged, she pulled up her Learning Log to show Williams the attention to detail she put into her Logs about the expressions on the faces of each homeless puppy she fed at a dog-only soup kitchen on the North Side. She also pointed out that she’d answered every prompt even when it wasn’t necessary. She even wrote a full page single-spaced about the effect invasive Bull Thistle has on the market value of a tree a squirrel lives in with an invasive plant around it.

“The written component of your Logs is impeccable, certainly second to none I have ever read,” Williams said to Jurgensen. “But as elegant as they are, there are no pictures to back up that you have been to these places, seen these things, and felt these emotions.”

Jurgensen said, “So the only reason I lost my job was I forgot to take selfies with homeless dogs and a squirrel who lives in a tree with Bull Thistle around it?”

Williams said, “Yes, that is precisely it. As the old saying goes, ‘Pics or it didn’t happen.’”

If you or a friend knows – or is – someone that would like to lead the school to new roads of community building and has great passion for logging hourly contributions to said roads to communities, call this number and ask for Cheryl at human resources.