Herron: how did it come to be

I am in the midst of making a transition from teaching at the middle school level to teaching high school. I have been out of education (on a full time basis) since June. I am happy to say that Mr. Beal is back! I have seized an opportunity to teach at Herron High School, which has pretty much been a dream of mine since it became a charter school in 2006. Just one year after into my studies in Art Education at Herron School of Art (not affiliated). My position is on an interim basis, filling in for a teacher on sick leave, but it could become a full time position next school year.

I am part of the first class of artists to graduate from Herron, attending only the new building on campus at IUPUI. Those first few years we heard a lot of gripes from students who missed the rich character and charm of the old building at 16th and Pennsylvania, which was originally established in 1902. I always wished that I had the chance to experience it. Well now it is a four star charter high school with an excellent reputation, and now I teach there!

Herron has a classical approach to education, emphasizing the arts and Latin. It is Hogwarts like, similar to an academy, anchoring a noisy street corner in an historic part of a burgeoning metropolis. It is totally unlike my high school experience at Pike, which was a sprawling township school. There is no bus transportation provided to the students by Herron. They come from all over the Indianapolis area each morning. Some car pool, some drive themselves, some take public transportation, others ride their bikes or walk. Today I even saw a handful of students roll up on skateboards. The more time I spend on campus, the more I'm sure that I'm going to love teaching here.

It was with mixed emotions that I left my position at Chapel Hill in Wayne Township in 2015, but five years felt like the right time to make a change. I needed to focus on the completion of my master's at the Art Academy in Cincinnati, which is now in the past. For this reason and a handful of others, I had to make the move from the Herron / Morton neighborhood, to Irvington on the East side. That community has really become home for me and I absolutely love it, however I am now having to make a 15 minute daily commute to the immediate area that I used to call home for three and a half years. It's a new beginning in a familiar place.