Our hopes for Class of 2011

This is the time of year when our graduating high school seniors take their bows and when the community can stand up with pride in saluting our youths during this major passage in their lives.

There are more than 1,000 graduating seniors at schools across the Flathead Valley. Some already have completed commencement exercises; many more will hear the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” this weekend as the bulk of graduation rites get under way.

The graduating classes range from the small and intimate (17 grads at Stillwater Christian School and 31 home-school graduates) to large (more than 300 at Flathead High School) to the unique (Glacier High’s first four-year graduating class).

The local members of the Class of 2011 share more than just common graduation dates.

They are graduating into a future full of both promise and peril.

The promise comes from an economy that finally is starting to emerge from the depths of recession. The peril stems from seemingly constant challenges to peace and order in a sometimes fractured world.

We have confidence our current crop of graduates will capitalize on that promise and overcome that peril.

That confidence is born out of reading about some of the shining members of the Class of 2011.

Last weekend the Inter Lake profiled the cream of the academic crop at area schools: a host of students who achieved nothing but A’s in every high school class, plus those who prevailed through the challenging International Baccalaureate Programme at Flathead High.

Beyond those classroom and activities standouts, students from various schools were profiled every day this week for a variety of talents ranging from cheerleading to acting to combatting slavery.

Their high school resumes have a common theme: They were deeply involved in many areas and they have solid plans for the future.

If you listen to the naysayers critical of today’s youth, you would get the impression that all they do is text while driving. The members of the Class of 2011 locally, however, give every indication that they are ready and able to conquer new worlds beyond high school.

We wish them well.