Once in a while Mohonasen students grow up into Mohonasen teachers. We
were lucky enough to interview one of them. We interviewed Mrs. DeSiena (Arlene) of Bradt
School who graduated in 1971. We asked Mrs. DeSiena what was cool to wear when she was in
Jr. High and High School. Mrs. DeSiena said that Jr. High and High School were basically
the same. They wore sweaters, plaid skirts, knee socks, etc. But they were not allowed to
wear pants to school.
Hair doos in Jr. High and High School were also the same, long and straight. People
tried to straighten their hair with irons and hair straightening products. Sometimes they
used products like "Sun In," which usually resulted in disaster—black roots
and damaged hair. Yuck!
Mrs. DeSiena recalled some memorable events during her school years. One was the Viet
Nam War. War was raging and many Americans did not believe that the US should be
participating. Mohonasen students wore black armbands to protest and distributed flowers
to promote peace. People were also starting to realize civil rights were not distributed
evenly among our black citizens so black power became a cause to fight for. People also
staged the first Earth Day while she was in High School.
Mrs. DeSiena said she experienced kind, caring, and wonderful teachers at Mohonasen.
These experiences made her want to be a teacher .
Seeing the time teachers would take with
students to assure their understanding of a topic or boost their confidence certainly was
an experience that helped Mrs. DeSiena to become a great teacher.
The students at Mohonasen are different from
the kids back when she was in school because they didn’t have computers, which gives
us the edge in research. But, otherwise people really didn’t change. They had
cliques, jokes, greasers, nerds, cheerleaders, etc. which we have today. |
World Book Encyclopedia, 1968
