This actually started out as a comment to a blog about an historical 8th grade exam. I just kept typig, so I decided to be merciful and not paste it there, but make it a blog here instead.
I saw an exam sheet once for a 6th grade education and you had to know the formulas for several basic household staples as well as quite a few other things a lot of people still don't know if they choose to major in Science and are Seniors in High School today.
Actually, when I was in school, there wasn't a lot else to do other than chores, homework, and school work, and most of the kids were glad to be in the school as there was food there and the place was warm. We had much much harder work in 1st grade then I've seen for a lot of older grades my children pass through. And there were no excuses like "I"m too ill" or "I'm feeling depressed" or "You're oppressing me with materials that insult my racial heritage" or "I'm tired" or whatever.
It was "Oh by the way Samuel: this may possibly insult your racial heritage, at least on your mother's side." or "Listen up: If any of you are Swedish, you may feel insulted ..... " .. and then an explanation of why the material was chosen.
If you said "I'm too sick" then you had the choice of calling your parents (most of whom didn't have vehicles) or laying quietly in the nurses office (which was cold and boring) or toughing it out and keeping up with everyone else.
The only real exceptions were religious such as someone who was Jewish was not forced to eat the Au Gratin potatoes with Ham for lunch and the Pentecostal children were excused during sex education thingies, and, of course, some children stood up but did not say the Pledge of Allegiance. And no one had to be taught to be culturally sensitive in special classes because you had a bit of a mix of people who were all stuck in the the same room together for 9 months or so and people who did not learn on their own to be more thick-skinned about their own culture and/or more sensitive about others, got their asses trounced on the playground for continually f'ng up the day of 30 or more other people.
Which is another subject: when I was in school 30-45 children to a class, sharing desks and text books, etc. was not considered an excuse for why your students were failing to do their work (for the teachers) or why you couldn't concentrate and do the work (students) It was called a class , not a huge classroom, not an impossible to manage class; and no, no matter what the ratio of "white" to anything else it was not considered "an ethnically diverse class with ramifications that go far beyond the means of what our instructors are preopared for.".
It was a class and expected to perform like any other class. And if a teacher was too ill and no substitute was found, classed were combined and maybe you'd have 60 or 90 people in the same classroom, and it was uncomfortable; and you just did the work. And if you said "I can't work. There are too many people around." you were told such things as "There are people sitting too close to everyone.It's a crowded classroom. That's no excuse."
And it all fell under the broad category of "Well, that's too bad. Life isn't perfect. You'd better learn to adapt."
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Blogs by HopelesslyHopeful:
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| It's Elementary, my dear! |
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CJayWright
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Apr 14 @ 11:14AM
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I fear the current younger generation is used to having everything handed to them, because their parents were too busy to pay any attention to them, it's eaiser to buy them that ipod or Xbox just to shut them up or to babysit them.
Gonna be a sad day when they wake up to a harsh, unforgiving wolrd mainly created by them. Just how many illiterate people do we actually need at micky d's or BK?
Wake up generation "huh?" The drive up window bell is ringing.....
Well, that's my rant, lol
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HopelesslyHopeful
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Apr 14 @ 12:04PM
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Hey hey! And it was your blog that inspired this one. Thanks for fhe comment! And here goes another blog. lol
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Monsterboy
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Apr 14 @ 12:56PM
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I respectfully suggest that the current education system is merely reaching its perfected form. I maintain that the whole point of it, all along, has always been to create a ready supply of accountants, burger-flippers, gas-pumpers and data-entry clerks, rather than innovators and entrepreneurs. This is why people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and other hugely-successful dropouts are so keen on advocating for increased public funding for education.
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