St. Katherines / St. Marks aka Rivermont Collegiate
Everyone has to come from somewhere, and I come from St. Katherines / St. Marks college preparatory school in Bettendorf. I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend a private school from 7th thru 12th Grade, it made a real difference in my life. The school is still out there, they call themselves Rivermont Collegiate now.
I’ll be 100% honest, I wasn’t always happy at St. Katherines / St. Marks. School can be a tough time for kids, and everything was difficult for for me after my family moved from Fort Dodge, Iowa, over to our home in the Mississippi River Valley. I had always done well back in Fort Dodge, I was liked by all my teachers, got perfect grades, and even served on the Elementary School Student Council (starting my career in politics early!)
I’ll just say it wasn’t that way after we moved. I couldn’t do well at all at my new school – and was treated as though I was an average student at best by the teachers, So, I became an average student and I couldn’t figure out what had happened. I was bullied, and I started getting into a fair number of fights too. It wasn’t so much that I’d go out looking for fights, I did not. But, when faced with the likelihood of fisticuffs, I did not decline.
School of Hard Knocks (Up Along Side Your Head)
My Dad was a real pugnacious son-of-a-bitch, I just don’t know how to describe him without being profane. He was a Master Baker (yes, I know what that sounds like) with Pan-a-Gold Bakery in Fort Dodge, Iowa. When that bakery closed, Dad bounced around and tried a few different jobs. We moved to the Mississippi Valley for Dad’s work in the next-to-last year of Nixon’s first term. Dad found a line of work where being a pugnacious son-of-a-bitch was part of the job description, at least it was in his interpretation of the job.
And that’s along the lines of what my Dad taught me, to never go looking for a fight, but to be ready to finish one if necessary. Dad had grown up in boarding schools and YMCA summer camps and came from an environment where might was right. That one thing (of many) that my parents could never agree upon, the correct way to respond. Mom said to always walk away, but Dad’s advice behind her back was quite a bit different.
“Son” he said, “I don’t want to hear about you starting any fights”
“What do you want me to do Dad” I asked.
“If somebody starts something with you son, I want you to finish it,” was his advice.
That’s pretty much the way it was, “Mess with the bull and you’ll get the horns,” as my Dad used to say.
7th Grade – The Names Were Changed
Fast forward to my first day as a 7th grader in public school. At the end of that day, I proudly announced to my Mom that I had my first week of math homework done. I did the math while the teacher was introducing us to the class and to the textbook. That was the moment my Mom decided I needed change. She was afraid I’d be bored and get into trouble.
I had never heard of St. Katherines / St. Marks in Bettendorf, didn’t know a thing about it, but within a week I was being interviewed by one of their teachers as a potential student. Apparently I did well. It’s my understanding that I did really well. Academically I was quite desirable, socially not so much.
The school offered a nice scholarship, my Grandma paid for the rest. I got a great education. End of story? Well, not exactly. The school’s atmosphere was oh so cool, it reminded my of my Paternal Grandmother’s (the one who paid) home. The school is in the former Bettendorf mansion, in Bettendorf, Iowa. The education was flat out excellent, so excellent in fact that I believe it was unparalleled in the Midwest.
The class I was a part of was also full of brilliant students. The class was small by the time I got towards 12th grade, but the average ACT test score for my class was 28. If I remember correctly, back when we took the ACT, the national average score was 19. We were pretty much all geniuses, and we all pretty well knew that too.
There are places where brilliance will help, and places where the will not. I’m not really sure if being a genius, or having a great education will help when it there are problems in your worm bin, (or anything else in life for that matter,) when the time came and all my worms ran away, it didn’t help me at all.
Editors Note – I didn’t officially make this a “my worms ran away” post up in the title. I’m guessing Rivermont has worked hard on their reputation, so I didn’t want create a title that might hurt the school, that is not my intent. However, in the end that’s the category it goes with.
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