Upstanding Men

 Originally posted on Tumblr

 

“Yes, what fine, upstanding young men indeed,” Dean Hartwell said with a glint in his eye. Once upon a time Greenvale Academy had been a regular run of the mill boarding middle school. Not that anyone could ever remember those days. Nowadays, boys went away to school and by the time they returned the Academy had impacted them forever. Parents liked to joke that Greensvale had stopped being a middle school and was truly just a transition school.

 Transition. 

The people around town loved that word. What else could describe the process that shipped boys from middle school right into college, or the work force depending on their preference? Sure, there were a lot of nay-sayers and detractors when it started, but Dean Hartwell had a reply:

“Everyone gets upset with Greenvale, but what are schools if not institutions designed for teaching kids how to prepare for adult life and the workforce? We’re just smart enough to take it one step further and get our boys in the position of being men quicker. And yes, people love to laugh at how tight these uniforms end up being on our students’ strong bodies, but dress codes exist for a reason.  Clipped from a newspaper article, it hung posted in the town square so whenever a dumb tourist saw the young men walking around town in their uniforms all one would have to do is point. 

Greenvale was the place to be. Most parents in neighboring towns wanted to send their boys there. Heck, some fathers wanted to go there themselves. Getting into Greenvale was an automatic way to ensure success, fortune, and attractiveness for all attendees. No student who left could ever be called unfit, unworthy, or ugly. Greenvale simply wouldn’t allow it to be so.