West Seattle school news: Seattle Lutheran students’ surprise

A high-school gym looking more like a carnival? In the middle of a weekday? That was the scene we found at Seattle Lutheran High School north of The Junction late this morning – as the students romped during CHAD (Crazy, Happy, Awesome Day). Always a surprise – they didn’t know they wouldn’t have classes today until it was announced over the P/A system in the 9 o’clock hour. From there, it was off to the gym for inflatable games including an obstacle course and surfboard ride; Bil Hood tells us Wii and XBOX rooms were planned too. Red Star Pizza was delivered for lunch, and once the inflatables came down, the gym was turning into a movie theater.

20 Replies to "West Seattle school news: Seattle Lutheran students' surprise"

  • cjboffoli February 23, 2010 (1:42 pm)

    Simultaneously in China, high school students had their own version of a CHAD day: continuing to master their 50,000 character alphabet, analyzing single nucleotide polymorphisms on strands of DNA, studying the molecular structure of metal alloys, and crunching differential equations.
    .
    Let’s just hope that if a future military or economic conflict with China ever arises that we settle it with cutthroat games of Wii bowling ’cause our side is clearly going to kick some Sino butt. :-)

  • tmarie February 23, 2010 (2:47 pm)

    Why wasn’t this the deal when I went there?! Sheesh! Lucky little things…hope they had fun and it helps them work harder on the full school days!

  • Val M February 23, 2010 (3:22 pm)

    I think this is crazy cool. Tell you what, put these high-school kids up against any, and I bet they’ll do just fine. What the world needs now is a great, big dose of “lighten up, people!”

  • sun*e February 23, 2010 (7:43 pm)

    cjboffoli – Scheeeesh, what a wet blanket you are! What’s wrong with having a little fun once in a while or is that not something you know how to do?

  • LyndaB February 23, 2010 (8:11 pm)

    Sheesh, I’d love it if we had this at work!

  • cjboffoli February 23, 2010 (11:28 pm)

    sun*e: Do you really think that high school students are fun-deprived? Considering that half of American high school graduates lack the basic literacy skills that businesses say they need I’d guess that fun is probably not what they’re lacking.
    .
    Witnessing my country getting lapped by other industrialized nations sure isn’t fun. But you’re right. Fun is good. The next time King County asks me to vote for another multi-million dollar education bond I’ll ask them to tack on a few extra bucks for a fun budget.
    .
    This is fun: http://bit.ly/ZXhHY

    • WSB February 23, 2010 (11:57 pm)

      C, I suspect you are talking principle rather than specifics, but lest any readers be confused, Seattle Lutheran does not run on public money. They are a private, parochial high school, fewer than 200 students. I cannot find info on their dropout rate (if they have one), but according to their fact sheet http://www.seattlelutheran.org/html/admissions/factsheet.pdf – 100 percent of the Class of 2009 applied to college.

  • cjboffoli February 24, 2010 (12:32 am)

    Yes, I was speaking generally. But what’s tuition over at Seattle Lutheran now? $10K a year? I guess that buys a lot of pizza and Xboxes.

  • sun*e February 24, 2010 (8:57 am)

    Way to go WSB for clarifying for cjboffoli. When my kids were teens they worked very hard (while having fun) at getting good grades and went on to become UW graduates. They are now great contributors to our society – one is working for a company that develops and manages wind turbines and the other is in a masters program for library science. We always took time for fun and I don’t think it hurt their education or their ability to make a difference in this world. Obviously it’s best to have a balanced life. :)

  • andrea February 24, 2010 (10:23 am)

    OK, I very rarely comment here anymore, but cjboffoli’s comments have touched a nerve with me. As a past graduate of SLHS, I can say with 100% assuredness that the students at SLHS are some of the hardest working kids around. SLHS is considered a college prepatory school where the kids are pushed far above their peers in other schools at the same level (as an aside, my freshman year of college was a breeze as I had already studied everything in HS what my college taught at the freshman level). These kids deserve a fun break like this. Truth be told, all kids (and adults!) deserve a break like this every once in awhile! Thankfully, we don’t live in a society where fun, frivolity, and expression of spirit are suppressed and denied for the sake of “getting ahead”. Oh, and that post above from TR? 100% of the SLHS senior class applied to college?! Wow! I think that is fan-freaking-tastic! Go Saints!

  • joe February 24, 2010 (8:16 pm)

    Seattle Lutheran Kicks Ass! Great School!

  • sun*e February 24, 2010 (11:02 pm)

    andrea, I think you should comment more often… what you had to say was definitely worth reading and I couldn’t agree with you more.

  • Westseattledad February 25, 2010 (7:27 am)

    From an inside perspective at Seattle Lutheran…Most students take multiple AP classes, play 2-3 sports and are involved in some form of extra curricular activity like student council or key club. So that equates to hard core learning from 8-2:30, club meeting, sport practice after that, followed by 4-5 hours of homework at night to prepare for the school’s rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The fact the school realizes that there is more to development than academics and surprises the students with a day of fun once a year is in line with their student-centered philosophy and shows how much they love their students. BTW, reports from the state universities such as UW and WSU indicate that SL graduates fare better in their freshman college classes than most other area schools, public or private, so perhaps this school has realized the key to high academic standards is to understand the needs of their students. I think Seattle Lutheran is the best kept secret in West Seattle.

  • Ashley February 25, 2010 (10:12 am)

    I would like to thank everyone for their support to some negative comments made. First off, I do not think certain bloggers should make such negative remarks without knowing all the facts first. As a student council member at SLHS I know for a fact that the money for CHAD day comes from student council fundraisers not our tuition, which is still considerably lower compared to most Seattle Private Schools. We work hard to raise funds for school activities. Plus, public schools received a whole week off from school for a winter holiday so why don’t you complain about that rather then our one 1/2 day off. SLHS is a great school, and I feel I am receiving the best education possible.

  • Nicole B. February 25, 2010 (7:33 pm)

    Thanks Ash for that comment!I totally agree! We work really hard on our studies and things like CHAD day are a welcome treat. I also think that things like this help us to bond better as a school and help us to work harder. I’m not on the student council, but I do know that at Seattle Lutheran, the money that is raised for occasions like this is put to good use. It would also be nice if people would understand that SLHS is NOT a public school and that we get much fewer days off than seattle public schools do.

  • Anonymous February 25, 2010 (8:20 pm)

    An event such as this is a little relaxer for students that spend all day in the classroom and most of the night studying or participating in after school sports/activities. A half day off won’t kill them. This will, in fact, spread imagination and joy for our coming generation instead of up tight robots of society.

  • ASBpresident February 26, 2010 (8:50 am)

    As ASB president here at seattle lutheran i think i can dsay for a fact that the students here have earned and deserve CHAD and every other event we put on for them. I find it some what concerning that some people have nerve to try and say negative things about hard working highschool students and them having a day to ease up.

  • anonymous16 February 26, 2010 (10:46 pm)

    i think that CHAD day is a great way to reward students for the work they have done over the year. CHAD day is a nice day where students can just take a break from schoolwork for a little while.

  • SeaLu Student March 3, 2010 (3:51 pm)

    I would just like to note that CHAD stands for Crazy Happy Amazing DAY, not Crazy Happy Awesome Day. It’s a small thing, but it was bugging me.

    • WSB March 3, 2010 (4:29 pm)

      Thanks! I think “Awesome” is what we were told – but I don’t have the original e-mail handy any more – and it doesn’t matter, if it’s Amazing, it’s Amazing! Duly noted – TR

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