Don't judge Battery Creek High by its undeserved reputation

Scott Conant went to Battery Creek High School in Beaufort to teach.

He left saying he was the one who was taught a lesson: He learned stereotypes and reputations can be unfair.

Conant had heard about Battery Creek. It's not that a 64-year-old Hilton Head Island retiree has to worry about changes in school attendance zones, but he'd read recently about reassignments in Beaufort County, and he got the impression nobody wants their children moved to Battery Creek.

The teacher who invited him to speak to some of the schools brightest students sized it up for me.

"Unfortunately, there seems to be this very negative perception of the school," said Marcella Palmer. "From what I understand, it goes back years and years and years."

Conant has been into other, "better" schools where he said students, even teachers, were indifferent, bored, non-inquisitive, barely present.

He expected it to be worse at Battery Creek. For one, as a volunteer with the World Affairs Council Education Outreach Program, he wasn't exactly bringing the kids candy. He went to talk about global hunger -- a problem so heavy it's called "the silent tsunami." But I'd guess it's the least likely topic to be Twittered today by American teenagers.

He spoke to the 70 students, and when he got home he wrote a letter to the editor of The Beaufort Gazette.

"For 90 minutes, we engaged in a lively discourse ranging from biofuels and impending water shortages to Thomas Malthus and Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution," he wrote.

"Attention levels were high, as was the positive energy that I experienced throughout the school. I hope my answers rose to the level of the students' questions."

Margaret Bedford, chairwoman of the outreach program for the 400-member World Affairs Council on Hilton Head, said, "They seem to have so much school spirit, from the office to the teachers to the students. You feel it as soon as you get in that school. It was a delightful surprise for us."

"Us" is a cadre of retired world bankers, college professors, generals, admirals, business leaders, CIA operatives and the like who gather monthly to discuss world affairs. The council has a waiting list of 300 because its meeting place can't hold all who want to attend.

Some volunteer to go into the schools.

"We can't afford for our young people not to know what's going on in the world," Bedford said. "If we're going to compete with China and Germany and who knows where else, our young people must know the global issues."

Volunteers use the "Great Decisions" program produced by the Foreign Policy Association. For about 50 years, it has focused on eight topics annually that people -- mostly adults -- dive into and discuss.

"We're doing something that is not done everywhere," Bedford said. "If it is done in the schools, it is generally done by a teacher."

Most of the students in Conant's audience at Battery Creek are in the International Baccalaureate program. It offers challenging classes to students worldwide, and in some cases, the extra work can lead to special diplomas and college credit.

Palmer heads that program at Battery Creek. Almost 100 students take some IB classes, she said. Seven seniors are trying for the IB diploma this year -- one Hispanic female, two black females and four white males.

"When you push them for that extra energy and motivation level it takes to do this -- the rigor, responsibility, focus, commitment, discipline -- that stuff trickles down to the whole student body," Palmer said.

Battery Creek, in the end, is like most other schools, she said. It has good and bad. It's far from perfect.

"There are problems all over, in any city, state or school," Palmer said. "We're no different, but people need to know there is another side to Battery Creek. We have wonderful teachers, wonderful students and wonderful staff and administrators."

Conant, who taught and coached in a New England prep school after retiring for health reasons as senior project director for Fox Sports, said he was impressed with the shiny clean facility and the prompt attention he received at Battery Creek.

Palmer said everyone in Beaufort County can learn a lesson from Conant's experience.

"If you come in and spend some time, you'll know," she said.

"I like to say, When you don't K-N-O-W, it usually means no,' " she said. "I think a lot of people don't K-N-O-W about Battery Creek, so they say 'no.' "