#020 Lucas Cheeley [Class of 2020]

 Greetings,

I am Lucas, the baby of the Cheeley’s. I’m starting college now, but I went to the Oaks for K-6 and CDA Charter Academy for 7-12, graduated in the Class of COVID 19 2020! I hope to provide a perspective to current students, that you may resonate with my journey in some shape and make key choices in your life for the betterment of yourself, the people around you, and the community you eventually end up in.

To start, The Oaks is clearly not for everyone. If you don’t feel like you fit in, or are pushing yourself way harder than you’d like to, I hope you do not force yourself to stay purely out of fear of quitting something you’ve put so much time into so far. A bad thing is not worth nurturing. It’s a bad thing. There are some bad things that I am very glad I did not nurture via spending six more years at The Oaks.

There were good things though—at least for me. I do wonder if they were actually good. I’ll list a few, and let you decide. I’ll put my email at the bottom so you can share your opinion on whether I name things that I haven’t yet realized were bad for my development.

The Oaks taught me to say please and thank you. It taught me that tardiness is unacceptable, and hard work is rewarded. It taught me to pick up trash if I see it and use sidewalks instead of grass. It taught me not to forge signatures and that lying is usually not a great idea. It taught me how to speak formally and in front of a small group of people. It taught me to try to sit up straight and push in my chair and not roll my eyes. Most of these things worked for me because I quickly learned to fear punishment, and decided that as an eight year old, it is easier to follow the rules and not be “that kid” that always has his name on the board. Overall it taught me how to follow rules and pay attention to detail. Maybe this is why I’ve joined the military?

That’s exactly it! The Oaks aimed to simply create a uniform body of young Christians who follow rules, know Bible verses, and can argue their views in favor of the institution which molded those views. An army. . . for Christ. With God as their shield and the Bible as their sword and rhetoric as their gallows and xenophobia as their guillotine. Tolerance was not practiced. Non-conformity was corrected. Truth prevailed. And I just ate it up. It’s really hard not to when they tell you it tastes good and nothing in the universe can taste better or be better for you. I was exactly the specimen they were looking for, and (from my 11 year old point of view) it was sheer luck that my sister Annaliese decided she wanted to transfer out of The Oaks, and I agreed to go with her.

Before I attempt to contrast my second school with my first, I would like to make clear what the Oaks taught me that was bad. Since they rewarded hard work (they truly rewarded good grades), it taught me to be way too competitive. It felt like there was a constant battle between the top few students in my class. It felt like I had to maintain straight A’s each year, because if I did it in Kindergarten, why couldn’t I do it in 1^st grade? Second? Etc? This actually did track with me all the way until 9^th grade where I accepted my GPA defeat with a terrible history class. Still, it’s hard to let go of. Next, it taught me to be wary of outsiders. It makes my insides tingle when I think back to how I viewed fellow students who happened to not be “Lifers.” They did not know the tips and tricks that I learned (head down, eyes straight, mouth shut, etc) and I judged them for it. I did not want to offer my friendship to them. I was a little, rotten xenophobe and I barely even knew that ‘x’ could sound like ‘z.’ I was brainwashed. I was a homophobe. I was probably very sexist in my own ways. I was uneducated, but told that I was over-educated. I was an un-loving, passive, judgmental little twerp who really thought I was the best. Would you like to know what made me think I was the best?

The Headmaster Award. Oaksters, what is the point of this? Does it not simply reward the student who sucks up the most, studies the hardest, and stabs the most classmates in the back? Is it not some twisted award that simply recognizes a perceived “favorite?” It messed me up in the brain. It blew my ego up like the Hindenburg, baby. I wish those didn’t exist. They were always on my mind. But for a kid, that was the best recognition. As a brainwashed servant for Christ, my only goal was to please my teacher and get that little pin at the end of the year in front of the whole school. It was my ticket to the top.

To sum, I was a hypocrite. I was duplicitous. I was praised for it.

I got to my new school and the first major thing I noted was that swearing is normal. Why are certain words “bad words?” I mean words like shit, piss, fuck, and damn. Those words do not hurt anyone, except for eight year old Lucas who truly believed Lucifer invented those words. I had nightmares about bad words. I cried when I heard bad words. Again, I ask, Why?

Next, Oaks alum, did you know that at a debate tournament, there are forms of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum? My debate genius brother Augustin didn’t know that until I told him about the different options I had at my new school. I went to exactly the same tournaments in Spokane that he did when he was my age. Personally, I enjoyed Congressional Debate much more than LD. Ask the debate coach about other options if you, like me, found yourself having a panic attack at your first LD tourney.

I’d like to bring up student government next. It allows students to hold a position of responsibility and service to peers. It lets students plan, organize, and execute extracurricular activities. It provides the resources and personnel to guide students as they explore leadership, followership, and teamwork. I understand The Oaks is small in population, but they seem to offer very few opportunities for students to take up designated positions of leadership. Change that.

I cannot speak to the high school curriculum at The Oaks. But here are a few things that I watched my siblings suffer through (in the form of gentle commands). Offer AP or IB courses for students! Your coursework is probably already as rigorous as needed for these classes, but your students have no opportunity to enter college with a few credit hours under their belts. Teach a health class! This is a government requirement for public schools for a reason. Teach a government class! Talk about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, gerrymandering, war hawks, Federalist Papers and more! Allow free speech! Don’t make students run out of the classroom in tears! Ever!

I’m not saying the Oaks was terrible (for me). I’m not saying CDA Charter was perfect (for me). I’m saying it is a bubble. It’s cloudy inside the bubble. You cannot see out. You run head first through the bubble and somehow transcend its fragile outer-layer. Then you see the bubble and you see how clouded and misguided it is inside. Then you look around and you see rolling hills and jagged valleys and pitter patter brooks. You see the world. This perspective is one you’ve never thought to imagine before. But you can see so much more than before. Open your minds. Be kind to one another. Try meditating. Think about your religion—hard. Do not be a bigot. Listen and do not retort. Just listen. Listen to others, yourself, the Earth, geniuses, your gut. Question reality.

Sincerely,

Lucas Cheeley    |    lucas.c.cheeley@gmail.com

Class '20