High school then and now

[Guest]

HIGH SCHOOL--1957 vs. 2007

 

Scenario 1:

Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.

 

1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

 

 

 

Scenario 2:

Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

 

1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2007 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

 

 

Scenario 3:

Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.

 

1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2007 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

 

 

Scenario 4:

Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

 

1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.

2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

 

 

 

Scenario 5:

Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school..

 

1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock

2007 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

 

 

Scenario 6:

Pedro fails high school English.

 

1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

 

 

Scenario 7:

Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

 

1957 - Ants die.

2007 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

 

Scenario 8:

Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

 

1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

 

 

This should hit every email inbox to show how stupid we have become!!

[Worker 11811]

There used to be a smoking lounge at my high school. If you got a permission slip from your parents you got to apply for a smoking pass on condition of good behavior. If you had a smoking pass you could go to the smoking lounge (the back door of the school) and smoke during lunch breaks or before/after school.

 

If you were caught smoking during times when the lounge wasn't open (during class) you lost your smoking pass for a week.

 

If you got caught even being NEAR the smoking lounge without a smoking pass your ass was grass! Suspension for three days!

 

And, when you were on suspension, you sat in a cubicle at the back of the library. The principal sent a note to all your teachers and they gave you extra homework. Just about every teacher had a "suspension packet" in the bottom drawer of their desk that they pulled out and copied (mimeographed) and gave you to do ON TOP OF your regular homework.

 

There was NO talking during suspension. You got a five minute break to go to the bathroom every hour. If you even got out of your chair without raising your hand first, you got another day of suspension.

 

You did NOT want to tangle with the truant officer! He was six and a half feet tall and almost as wide. He had no problem grabbing you by the shirt collar and dragging your ass to the office. That was when he was being NICE!

 

Everybody called him by his first name. Even the students!

Trust me, you did not want to get on Walt's bad side!

[ReFur]

How many of us in our 50's and 60's lives would be changed if our juvenile antics were treated as they are now. It is so sad.

[Guest]

Worker you have me beat on EVERYTHING! But I DO remember the paddle that was displayed in my junior high school...holes and everthing! I can recall guys getting paddled. I'm in CA. I can't ever recall a smoking area, but maybe I just didn't know about it.

 

The one story I do remember is from my dad who went to an all-boys Jesuit high school in SF. He said that if guys were screwing around and the priest asked them to stop but they kept up their shenanigans, my dad said the the priest would invariably pull his collar out and ask the student if he wanted to go out in the hallway. I asked if anyone ever stood up to the "offer". My dad told me ONE guy did. I asked what happend. "He got his ass kicked!" The thing is, when we were all kids if that had happend to us, when we went home and our dad or, in my case my mom, saw a bloodied lip or a black eye, we'd get our ass kicked AGAIN by our parents for being a smart ass in class!

 

Can you imagine what would happen today???!!!

 

I am a professor at a state university in N. Cal. One of the profs I USED work with got so frustrated with his class one day he LEFT the classroom, hucked a coffee mug at a post (broke the mug), returned to class and resumed class. Students reported "his behavior". The "uni" held his paycheck until he went for and evaluation of "fitness to teach". THEN after the psychologist determined that he was "fit to serve", the uni witheld the report and gave him the run-around. He, with the union, finally made an agreement to retire early after about two years of him not working.

 

The big problem is "everybody has got to be a winner" or conversely "nobody is a loser".

 

You are SO RIGHT Linda!

 

Later!

 

PS "Walt", huh? I think I would have called him "sir"...maybe "Mr. Sir"

[Worker 11811]

I was on a "last name" basis with the principal... "Sanderson! My office! Now!"

 

Usually, I had a choice. I could take three whacks or the principal would call my parents. I took the paddling, of course.

 

I remember a guy who got caught pulling some "grab-ass" on one of the cheerleaders. The principal made him call the girl's father to apologize.

 

We never called the truant officer by his last name unless we were in trouble. If you were on his good side you could walk past him in the hall and say, "Hi, Walt!" But, if he came to your class room and called you out, by name, the correct answer was, "Yes, Mr. Askins."

 

The math teacher was also the head football coach. He taught math the same way he taught football... At the top of his lungs. You did NOT want to be on the football team and get caught not doing your homework. Those who didn't complete their assignments had to do all the problems they didn't finish on the chalk board in front of the class with the teacher standing two feet behind him, "instructing" him the whole time.

 

Our high school had those modular walls that were designed to be unbolted from the floor and moved around if they ever wanted to rearrange the classrooms. These were open plan classrooms where there were no doors. You could see out into the halls.

 

So... Walt comes walking by the classroom and catches this guy named Jed Diest out farting around in the hall. The kid ignored him so Walt caught up to him right outside geometry class. Walt grabs him by the shirt collar and Jed turned around and took a swing. WHAM! Walt slams him up against the wall and sheared the bolts holding the wall together. We now had two doors on the classroom.

 

Of course, the math teacher drops his lesson plan and goes out to the hall. The two of them physically carried Diest to the office. We didn't see him again for about two weeks.

[Guest]

Yeah, as I said above, can you see that (a teacher and a truant officer) carrying a student to the office? Frankly, I think that sort of discipline needs to be restored. I can't tell you how many times I say EVERY YEAR on the first day of class "Turn your cell phones off!" Invariably someone leaves their cell phone on and disrupts the class. Last year I had a quiz if I heard a cell phone. This year, I think I'm going to deduct a point (out of a total of only 10 points) off of everone's next exam.

 

I stayed under the radar in high school, but in the 7th grade I was on detention for something at least once a week.

 

A high school buddy of mine recently relayed this story to me. We had some sort of "Rennisance Fair" at our high shcool. Students could do a variety of things. One of the things was a dunk tank (good-natured teachers). Well my buddy bought all the tickets he could to maximize his chance of being picked to throw the balls to dunk the biology teacher (who was also the freshman baseball coach). Well my buddy was a pitcher. He nailed the target and dunked the coach. THAT AFTERNOON the team had a ball game in a tourmament. The coach is throwing batting practice. My buddy gets up to take batting practice...you guessed it, BAM! The coach beans him! You know what they say about payback...

 

My buddy NEVER screwed around like that again!

 

Again, can you see that happening today?

[Worker 11811]

Now that was good! You've got to teach those ruffians a little respect every once in a while!

 

I don't think there were half a dozen incidents like the one with the truant officer and the math teacher in all the time from middle school through the end of high school. It's not like my school was the Wild, Wild West or something. I guess you just remember the big incidents more.

 

I think there needs to be more discipline in school. While I don't think they should be beating and manhandling all the kids who step one toe over the line there needs to be a definitive system of punishment and reward. Detention and in-school suspension, at least.

 

Do schools even have truant officers anymore?

 

When I was in high school I was on stage crew. We all knew how to get into the auditorium through the back way.

On the night before graduation, we decided to hide bags full of balloons on the catwalk above the stage. Well the janitor came in and caught us in the school after hours. He called the principal.

 

"That's dangerous!" he shouted. What if you fell from the catwalk in the middle of the night?

My answer was, "Well, what if I fell during the day? I go up there and set up the lights for you all the time!"

So, he gets even more pissed off and makes me call home. Just to be cute, he puts me on speaker phone. My brother answers and I just say, "Put Mom on the phone." She answers and I said, "Mom, I got caught." She goes, "Aw, shit!"

 

The principal grabbed the phone and started hollering about how "dangerous" it was to be up in the catwalk above the stage. My mom starts telling him how many times I stayed late after school to get ready for school assemblies and asks why it wasn't "dangerous" all those times.

 

He threatened to call the cops and my mother asks who left the door open so anybody could get into the building. Finally, he just hung up and told us, "Get the hell out of here! And don't ever let me catch you again!"

 

I can say, honestly, that I never let him catch me again.