Many students and staff are familiar with the name Dr. J.D. Shields. Just in case anyone is not, Dr. Shields served as an English teacher, guidance director, then superintendent at MV. lived by a personal philosophy, and was not ashamed of it. It was this: MV is the greatest high school in the region, if not the state. He thought any student or staff member should be proud to call themselves a Ram.

This philosophy seems to have been forgotten by many. Students and staff seem to hold a negative connotation to this place, and the greatness of it is lost in all of the complaints.

In reality, we do not realize how good we have it. Instead of being grateful for the many advantages MV offers … the one-to-one imitative — providing every student with a Chromebook, and occupying an 80 million dollar school, we choose to focus on the faults.

Here is a proposal: We need to return to Dr. Shields’s philosophy. Now, this is not just a call to students. Students are only a portion of MV — this is a call to the faculty, staff, administration, and even parents as well.

In recent years, MV has become a place of negativity when it should be a sanctuary for all people. This is largely caused, it seems, by the transition to the new campus and the challenges that have come along with it. However, that is no excuse. We all need to make a conscious effort to restore the positive mindset that once came along with MV. Not just the faculty and staff, not just the parents or community members, and not just the students; but all of us, because all of us are at fault for letting Dr. Shields’ philosophy die off.

Some may ask how can they do this? The answer is shifting how everyone at MV thinks.

“That’s impossible.” It is really not. If one person is willing enough stand up and be the “annoying one” who is always telling people to think more positively, we could start a revolution within the walls of this campus. We need not think anything is impossible, because we are Ram Nation, and we can do anything we set our minds to.

So, how will we combat the negativity? Will we react with negativity as well, or will we rise above and declare that MV is still great and deserves to be viewed as such?  What is being observed by many, sadly, is the former.

MV, like everything else, has its faults, because nothing is perfect. But if some choose to stand up against the negativity, and work to bring back the mindset that MV is great, slowly but surely others will join.

     Eventually, MV will be able to live out Shields’ philosophy once again.