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Dear Bill,
With everyone’s budgets in disarray from Federal to personal, my newspapers have focused on the school system a lot.
I was remembering my years in the DC Area in public elementary schools. This was mid 1950s.
1) We all walked to school. I do not remember a crossing guard, student or adult. We crossed a 4-lane highway. If it was cold we bundled up; if it was raining were wore a slicker and boots. No family had two cars so we had to walk. The older children helped the younger ones.
2) We brought our lunches in a lunch box. There was no lunch room much less a cafeteria. That is why the lunch boxes had a small thermos for our milk. Most of us had peanut butter and jelly.
3) There was no auditorium or gym. I never recall seeing a principal but I do remember the school nurse.
4) Our playground was dirt but we did have a ‘black top’ with a few hop-scotch. Kick ball was the big game.
5) We had a dress code. Girls were expected to wear skirts. Boys were not allowed to wear shorts.
The point is that I really received a good education with out the assemblies, plays, gym and other perks.
Really how much can this cost? You are paying for the building – ugly, no A/C but the windows opened; teachers; principal; some maintenance. A/C may be appropriate today. I went through graduate school with in A/C.
Junior High wasn’t much better. We had an Assembly Room – wow – I was impressed. It looked like a small movie theater. We still brought our lunch but I think we used paper bags because milk was available for 2 cents. The walk was twice as far. I started Algebra and Spanish.
Then we moved across the county and I entered Senior High School. I still was supposed to walk but many had buses. We had a gym, a lunchroom with cafeteria, a smoking area (I just had to mention that). Then I knew about the principal and vice-principal. I took math through Calculus, Biology, Adv. Biology, Chemistry and Physics, 4 years of foreign languages. I think our Chemistry lab had two beakers and one Benson burner. Our teachers were good so we never felt slighted.
I will stop here because my view of what happened in education is not printable.
Those are my memories of my early education. To me that was the only thing I knew and it was what I had to do everyday. Parents were NOT involved! I actually had fun and learned a lot.
Cheers!
Sherry
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