Talk:John Dickinson High School

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Full disclosure: I'm JDHS class of '95, though i won't be sharing my specific identity without good reason.

This will be my first stab at editing (and aiding the writing of) an article, so i'll attempt a balance between ruthlessly objective rewriting and a sense of preservation for the original. Discussion of the initial rationale is encouraged. I do hope the original author(s) will be in touch.

One note prior to an already planned deletion: without better exposition, "James Knies, Steven Lord, and Joshua Fitts" are on the way out. I'm an alum, and i've never heard of them. Further, a quick google search doesn't indicate anything that might warrant them being held in any higher regard than any other graduate. An example of a good inclusion here would be Mark Eaton (also c/o '95), who is currently playing professional hockey in the NHL, which i feel is worth noting. Ironhoohah 07:27, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] after first run-through

I made some pretty substantial changes, other pretty small ones. I'm listing here some areas that current students/faculty/staff could address (or at least anyone geographically closer--i live on the west coast these days).

--surely someone could take a few pictures to post.

--FAR TOO MUCH of this article reads as lists: lists of awards, lists of classes, lists of...stuff. lists are not particularly engaging. My suggestion is that, instead of vaguely referring to EVERY (often arbitrary and ubiquitous) award, scholarship, and whatnot that the class of 2005 received, a little effort could be put into finding some of the most notable real awards and accomplishments that all JDHS alum received as students--not every award, and not every class. the good stuff. the kind of stuff that warrants a sentence and not a list. check with the staff and teachers that have been there forever and a day (like, say, Ms. Cassidy). this isn't to imply that c/o 05 shouldn't be proud of this stuff...but the school's got a long history, and other classes deserve recognition for what they accomplished.

--I'm skeptical about singling out the future MCSE program for inclusion (and deleted the bit about future earnings potential). Is this unique within RCCSD or NCC? if not, the whole graph should go. If it's special, it should be expanded (including where the funding is coming from and why JDHS got it when other schools didn't).

--Sports should also be expanded to include past accomplishments, as in whatever years the (insert your favorite team here) won the flight/county/state championship. again, right now this is just a list--and it needed editing to boot.

--why are student reps of the band and choir council listed here? for starters, these are just more lists. also, if someone is going to track and update every personnel change within the respective groups, then the lists need to be identified as being current as of (blank) and updated RIGOROUSLY. all in all, i'm pretty skeptical of their inclusion. if they're to be kept, then other student organizations--national honor society, junior acheivement (do people still do that?), etc--should also be included--and regularly updated.

--sports and performing arts also deserve pictures, don't they? wikipedia regulations should probably be consulted, but i think some shots of the football team or the marching band would be good. a caveat: pictures of individual students would not be so good. think large group shots with useful captions. for example, a picture of the marching band in a formation with a caption like "the 2005 marching band performing 'wind beneath my wings' or '25 or 6 to 4,'" or whatever.

--school history graph: this is the only area i created from whole cloth, and i'd really appreciate someone fact-checking me on it and even expanding it. i'd always heard rumors that the fire was arson--was this ever proven or disproven? also, i've got this feeling that truly interesting things have happened at Dickinson every now and again. my personal feeling is that this should be the largest section. Ironhoohah 08:51, 29 March 2006 (UTC)