Talk:Bishop Blanchet High School

This page needs a major cleanup

Ok, so the latin motto is incorrectly translated, despite being described as blanchet's motto here. A few fragments exist in there. Why do we only have the Academics section? And why does that include activities? Unless anyone complains, I'm getting to work on it, just the grammar at least. Deckerla (talk) 19:11, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

I dunno about encyclopedic, but this school is synonymous with "self-important." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.248.125.167 (talk) 08:59, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

"Current Administration" section

An anonymous user deleted the whole section and replaced it with a condescending invective (which in turn has been deleted while I was writing this). I have no connection with this school whatsoever and have never even heard about it before. So I can not say how much truth was in the original contribution. But I can say that it was appropriate from my point of view as a Wikipedian. Although one can sense that the author disagreed with the administration, he tried to present it in a fairly neutral (NPOV) way.

By contrast, there seems to have been no good reason why it was deleted. The anonymous user evidently did not officially represent the school for three reasons:

1. The reverter did not make his or her case that the article violated a school rule.
2. The condescending attitude does not agree with the way teachers should behave as role models.
3. Censorship is against the very spirit of this country. Thomas Jefferson said [1]:

• "We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
• "To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement."

His rival John Adams agreed with him on this point[2]:

• "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers."

Therefore I am reverting the deletion. I believe the world would be a better place without the censors, and I want to encourage everyone not to get intimidated by those who only can loose by freedom of information.

Sebastian 03:48, 2005 Mar 15 (UTC)

Encyclopedic? I don't think so

Why is this high school given a Wikipedia entry? --Wetman 07:37, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Why not?

Actually, I think you're asking two questions:

1. Is it encyclopedic?
2. Should it be tolerated? What if everyone did this?

Encyclopedic has several senses. Let's look at each of them:

• From Wikipedia: "An encyclopedia is a written compendium of knowledge."*—"Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning (a posteriori), or through introspection (a priori). Knowledge is an appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in isolation, are of lesser value."* This is true for this article, at least potentially. This article is an encouragement for students to consolidate their knowledge, as defined above, and to interconnect it. (I am optimistic that it won't take long till someone inserts a link to Bishop Blanchet.)
• In my understanding, encyclopedia means encompassing, well rounded education. A school should empower its students to become responsible citizens. (I had occasion to instruct a special class of 3rd graders last month, and I was impressed by how they held offices such as "mayor" and "treasurer".) I was hoping to make this point with my quotes above.
• "Encyclopedic" can mean: similar to Encyclopedia Britannica. If this is what you were asking then the answer is: "Of course not!"
• You may ask: "But is it relevant for the readers of Wikipedia?". Firstly, this school has probably had some 10,000 students in its history. Add their parents, and you'll see that it shaped and touched myriads of people's lives.

Should it be tolerated? I don't see why not.

• It doesn't hurt. This is not a paper encyclopedia, which has to weigh each article's values against the weight of its paper. Even if every school in the world had an article, I don't see any problem that couldn't be solved technically.
• You may say "it is clutters the recent changes list". Wikipedia does indeed have a problem with that. Many articles are deadweight, such as List of tenants of Brecqhou, which I think should get deleted. But a school article is a living part of our political environment, written and viewed by enough people who care. (Again, a mere technical problem: I think Wikipedia should allow users to filter their recent changes lists intelligently, e.g. by excluding every school outside of their county.)
• Wikipedia's mission statement is "Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." If you look at the translation into other languages, you'll find that this does not (primarily) mean "free of charge", but "free" as in "freedom of information". I don't see how anyone who shares this value could not tolerate an article about a school.

Sebastian 17:48, 2005 Mar 15 (UTC)

what warrants entry

This school warrants an entry, of course--but current events such as the MySpace business? Those don't belong. --Lukobe 22:03, Mar 15, 2005 (UTC)

As a proud graduate I have taken interest in this page, however, I am unsure that this article requires both a section for Notable Alumni and Honored Past Teachers. Notable alumni should cover both, providing the teacher has accomplishments that reach beyond just the community of the school; for example, award winning American Football coach Mickey Naish is certainly notable for his many sucesses and numerous Championship teams, however, Ray Segale was but the team's first coach and beloved Phyisical Education teacher, which I find less relevant. I find love and respect in my heart for all the Honored Teachers listed, but I am just not certain they belong in an encyclopedia environment. Before I take the time to work that section to follow the guidelines for prose, as I did the Notable Alumni section, I would like feedback as to whether I should take those Honored Teachers who are truly notable and incorportate them into a Notable Alumni and Teachers section and remove the Honored Teachers section.OneHappyHusky (talk) 01:55, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Prominent Student nicknames

Regarding the subject of nicknames of prominent students at this high school; Is it in some way inappropriate to list them as long as they are benign? As long as they are well-known nicknames, I assert that they should have a place in the article as long as the students themselves do. ForbiddenWord 20:03, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Are they really known by those names? --Lukobe 20:23, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Parco certainly is. Sargent, less commonly, but in my opinion the inclusion of these adds a sort of flair to the article. ForbiddenWord 12:24, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

"Flair"? --Lukobe 19:05, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Look at other High Schools' articles. You'll note that by and large, most of them are a large, indistinguishable anonymous pile of uninteresting articles with very little to distinguish one from the next, even with the school crests or what have you available. "Flair?" Yes, flair. For the sake of bringing many articles up from the morass of questionable quality, flair. Any more snide questions? --ForbiddenWord 19:31, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Funny that you think "snide little" is any better than "snotty little" :) Anyway, this is an encyclopedia. Flair is not one of Wikipedia's goals. I don't think these additions serve to bring anything out of the morass. If anything, they make Wikipedia look silly. --Lukobe 20:25, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry if I caused offense. However, it deeply concerns me that the point at issue with the article at present is the inclusion of nicknames, instead of the numerous verifiability issues with the article. ForbiddenWord 03:23, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

I am working on getting all information on this article checked and verified. When I do, I will cite the school, since that is the only verifiable source of this information. Which, by the way, we did not post originally, so I am not sure why it is my responsibility, but in the spirit of this site, I will do it. As for the nicknames, I will say again, the students do not wish them used, nor does the school. As for if they are common nicknames, where is your citation for that info? I have stated who I am, you hide behind anonymity and play games with this article. --Sdeibert 18:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Very well. I have no problem with the facts you assert being in this article, so long as you are able to justify them through an independent, verifiable source. Remember that this project is an encyclopedia, not just an amalgamation of facts. It's all well and good that the school has a fight song, or an employee named Fr. Doug, but it's not enough for an editor to assert that something like that is true. There has to be a basis linking the assertions to what actually is. --ForbiddenWord 17:44, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, as to who I am, I am a Wikipedian who is exceedingly concerned with the unverifiable, unencyclopedic hogwash that is allowed into the encyclopedia lately. Look for example at the older versions of List of Internet Slang, when it was twenty pages of unadultered garbage, until a concerned Wikipedian took out 95% of what was there. The idea of verifiability is a pillar upon which an encyclopedic reference like Wikipedia is built, and skirting the edges with unsourced information is a slippery, slippery slope. --ForbiddenWord 17:53, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, this whole thing seems to have gotten out of control. I am trying my best to make the facts accurate, according to school records. How do I verify those facts? As to our enrollment records, etc., we are the authoritative source of the info. How do I find another source? My point on who you are was only in reference to the fact that you were asserting that the student nicknames were commonly used, and there was no verifiable source. I would be more than willing to remove all "unverifiable" info in this article, but I think that there would be about 3 lines left, given the level of desired verification. I note that Seattle Preparatory Academy has not been given this level of scrutiny, and find no verifiability in their page.--Sdeibert 21:34, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Sdeibert does have a point. Verifiability is an issue on Wikipedia, but ForbiddenWord, your time might be better spent addressing verifiability issues in a more important article than this one on a Seattle high school. --Lukobe 22:32, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Sources

I added two sources I was able to track down (even the Blanchet website has contradictions within itself. I decided the '06-'07 Admissions brochure would be the most reliable and most recently updated since it's what brings in $ to the school :) ). These sources then cover referencing the Miter exists [seriously - does that need to be cited, to whomever posted a citeneeded?] and some enrollment statistics.

I was not able to find a source for the Capital Campaign, or even a single informational page, about it. I know it existed :), but I need help finding a source for it [if the consensus is that we do, in fact, need a source?].

Is trying to find a source for Fr. Doug being popular as ridiculous as it seems to me? Popularity is a (as Mr. Lowe would say) non-trivial definition, and the only possibility I came up with was posting the site for Hey Father. This, however, might seem tacky as it's an advertisement. Any suggestions? --Vyxx 08:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Serious WP:COPY Issues

I'm adding this to my list of articles to fix, it seems like a marketing company came in and overhauled a bunch of the area's high school wiki pages. --Goldman60 Talk 23:26, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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