Bulldog Hour

 

BULLDOG HOUR

Memories of Dixon Middle School

By

Vicki L Bishop

 

Sitting down with Alison Keck, the current principal of the Dixon Middle School, we reminisced about memories we both shared as students at Dixon Middle School.  One of my most fond memories was of Bulldog Hour. 

Mrs. Keck stated that currently the middle school does have a ‘Bulldog Hour’, however it is a little different than the program that ran in the 70s and 80s.   Currently Bulldog Hour is mid-day every day.  Students are assigned a teacher and enjoy team building skills, art projects such as door decoration, character education, additional reading skills and some extension classes such as golf.

As some of the folks who attended Dixon Middle School back in the day will remember that Bulldog Hour offered mostly extension classes such as Spanish, drawing, crafts such as crochet or decoupage, skill games such as backgammon, sports such as weight training and many others. For those who chose not to participate, there was always Mrs. Crews study hall.   Everyone looked forward to Bulldog Hour back in those days.

In my recent conversations with former middle school principal, Chris Hunt, I asked him about Bulldog Hour and how it came to be.  The following is an excerpt from our conversation that has been edited for publication:

Bulldog Hour was created by Jim Toner, the principal of the middle school in the 1970s.  The recent transition from elementary to middle school was in name only.  Being a progressive thinker, he started going to schools that were running a block curriculum and a schedule like a high school (as opposed to middle grades being structured as elementary grades might be).  We went to an 8-period day running simultaneously to the high school schedule.  Then he devised a 7-period schedule for core subject which included PE, music/choir or band.  He then added a shortened 8^th period which became the birthplace of “Bulldog Hour”.  In a staff meeting he challenged us to come up with a hobby or interesting steppingstone for students to either enjoy or learn something they knew nothing about but would be interesting.  A few of those topics were chess, model building, babysitter training, coon hunting, roller skating and square dancing just to mention a few that popped into my mind.  This was not every day, I believe it was twice a week opposite another class.  It was his masterpiece and his brilliant ability to make a workable schedule. 

Why did it go away?

Everything evolving as high school changed to 8-block as well as school day and time requirements by the Department of Education.  Middle school follows the times closely as possible to start and end as the high school and with the 8-block alternate day, the bulldog hour became a scheduling nightmare and to be honest some teachers had tired of it and the new teachers often had a learning curve to see the benefits of it for the students.  So as the saying goes, all good things eventually end.  However, it was a good life.

On a personal note, I would just like to add that Bulldog Hour offered many life skills that I still use today.  At the time it was just fun, only now do I realize that it was making learning fun and a vehicle to socially connect the children of various ages/grades.  I agree with Chris Hunt when he said it was a brilliant idea.   I am glad to hear that a modern version of Bulldog Hour has emerged and is successful, even if the blueprint was different.

Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog!  A sign on the grounds of the middle school campus.

A grove of pine trees on the west side of the school building one late afternoon.  Imagine all they have witnessed through the years.  Generations of students, all the conversations, and like clockwork, every fall it all started again.  Soon the sun will be setting on the school.  It kind of makes me wonder if the trees will notice.