Miami High School

We sometimes talk about Miami Junior-Senior High School as a fine furniture factory.

We get raw lumber in one end of the building in the form of incoming junior high students, still really children accustomed to the elementary classroom and the playground.

We’re expected to produce finely crafted furniture and joinery out the other end of the building – citizens ready for employment, college, the military, and to raise their own families in our community. Academic classes certainly play their part in this process; loads of professionals daily use the writing, mathematics, and vocational skills they learned here at Miami.

But high school is more than geometry proofs and five-paragraph essays. It involves learning how to build and maintain (and sometimes end) working and personal relationships; collaborating with people you might not voluntarily spend time with; and, developing the skills to lead when you’re called to do so.

Leadership occurs throughout our daily lives. Coach Gonzales has spent the last several years leading as Mayor of Miami. Mr. Frost leads not only the school band and choir, but the Community Band that performs at so many local events. Many of our teachers and students lead in their churches and civic organizations. Athletes lead their teams on the fields and courts, and students are elected to lead organizations here on campus. Leadership involves skills that have to be learned. Most of us wish we had the “natural leadership gene” that we think others are displaying, but usually those folks have just put in the work to develop the skills, not unlike the player who sinks every free throw. The photos on this page are bookends for leadership – students off at camp learning how to lead their organizations, and the school providing a place for everyone in our community to exercise their rights and responsibilities in a Republic.