Whenever I complained about school when I was a Kid...

Page 16 Something EXTRA August 1979

Silver Linings by Terri Andersen

Whenever I complained about school when I was a kid, Some grownup would invariably say, "Wait til you get out into the working world, you'll be wishing you were back in school.” Now that I’ve been in the “working world” for more years than I care to mention, I still can’t imagine why everyone said that. I like the working world. Maybe it's because my school days were so different from the School days today. When I walk into a classroom today, I can't believe it’s the same institution it was years ago. Gone are the strict rules and regulations, gone is the corporal punishment, and gone is the dress code that prevailed in my school days. The teaching aid equipment they have now makes my alma mater look positively primitive—audio visual aids, tape recorders, record players, slide projectors, computers, intercoms, etc. etc. We had a black board, chalk and erasers. Period. For messages between the principal's office and a classroom there were the two legs of whichever student happened to be spending “time” in the principal's office for some minor offense. “Behave or be sent to the principal” was a threat only the very daring would take lightly,
Since it was rumored the principal had a good thick paddle which she wouldn’t hesitate to use, and many an errant student verified that fact. And how about the sports programs in today's schools? We didn't even have a gym in grade school. We got our exercise by walking home for lunch, and if we got back before the hour was up, we'd have ten minutes to jump rope or play tag in the schoolyard. When I got to high school we did have a gym but the extent of our program was jumping jacks and pushups. And if I thought they were strict in grade school, high school was even more so. All girls had to wear skirts and stockings, with hats required to and from School. Dare to come stockingless in the month of June, and you were threatened with failure to be promoted. Utter a word while the teacher was talking, and you were threatened with expulsion. I remember the time I heaved a heavy sigh of relief when the bell rang to end a particular period and I was made to stand in the corridor for the next half hour while the teacher reprimanded me, threatened to take me off the honor roll and call my parents in as a thorough chastisement. They didn't fool around in those days. How about the choices of subjects the kids have today? We were required to take a language and there was only one language offered—Latin. So Latin it was. At the time I thought it was a ridiculous offering, but time has proven that it does help with spelling and basic meaning of words in the English vocabulary, so that's a plus I think is missing today. The last time one of my sons brought an English paper home, it had extensive spelling corrections made by the teacher, to which my son added his own comment: “No wons perficked.” I guess each system has its good points and bad points. Today's schools have advantages I never dreamed of, but we did manage to learn to read, spell and work out arithmetic problems which the new methods seem to be having trouble with. So the old system must have done something right. And in spite of wishing for my school days to be ended, the desire to learn must have been instilled deeply, as I find myself constantly wanting to take courses in one subject or another. In fact, I’m looking forward to my senior citizenship so I can take free oil painting lessons, I guess we never really stop going to school. All we do is exchange a small classroom for the larger classroom of life itself.
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