The New Main & Main?

In yesterday's Post-Dispatch, "we" (that is, Westminster) made the paper in an article highlighting the school's plans for upcoming expansion and relocation in 2010. Despite an email from our development director voicing his enthusiasm for the piece (as well as Megan's assurance that it seemed okay to her), something about the article struck a weird chord in me.

I think my discomfort was largely due to the quote about the location being "at what school leaders are calling the crossroads of the region." I don't think of I-270/40 as such a crossroads (if that's the case, Covenant is literally at Ground Zero), but even if it were geographically, I certainly question the statement culturally - the idea of a "new school at the corner of Main and Main" seems ridiculous when the intersection referenced is made up of interstates, not streets. Culture doesn't happen when people are whizzing by at 70 m.p.h.; that's called "commuting."

At first, the writer isn't clear which "school leaders" made the aforementioned comment, but if you read down to the middle of the piece, the quote seems to be attributed to the leaders of the Christian Brothers College high school ten years ago, not to Westminster leaders today. Does that make it any better? I don't know, but for what it's worth, I've not read or heard this idea in any WCA literature or briefings to date, and I'm glad for it.

I'm grateful to be part of Westminster and, God willing, I look forward to being part of the move in 2010. That said, I-270/40 and the suburbs are not where I look for culture; rather, my hope is that I and the other teachers here can bring some with us when WCA moves further into suburbia in 18 months.