By Grady Easley
In olden times, such as the 1930s and ’40s, public schools in Texas were different, quite different. Today, it would be a massive understatement to say the entire world of education has changed.
Faithful readers have become quite familiar with one of my favorite observations. Feel free to quote: This may be change, but it is certainly not progress.
Bear with my reminiscing as I return to those days of yesteryear. Some of it was good, very good, and some was less than desirable. Today represents change but not progress.
Three high schools were blessed with my presence. All three could testify from dusty and musty records as to my noticeable lack of scholarship.
Blanket Independent School District consisted of one long building, a gymnasium, an old one-room school building, and a few acres of land.
Teacher’s cars (all 7-8 of them) were lined up on a gravel lot. Old and tired school buses were parked near the wooden gymnasium.
Guys had something of a loosely defined dress code. “Townies” were garbed in khaki shirts and matching trousers with an occasional casual shirt. Those that rode school buses from the countryside generally wore denim blue jeans. There were no sneakers and brogans were prominent.
Brownwood High was a mixed bag. Dress slacks (not khaki and not jeans) predominated and loafers were strongly suggested. At Austin High, only football players wore jeans and white T-shirts to school.
In Austin, members of high school fraternities, sororities, and social clubs wore windbreakers with embroidered insignia on the back. Although illegal, people in Austin had some idea they did not have to obey existing state laws that outlawed these groups.
All of these schools had something called a study period/hall. Students were expected to study but usually exchanged notes and tried to disrupt the room.
PE was required although work and medical excuses were acceptable absences. You could opt for special groups such as speech, French, and JUG (Just Us Girls), and others.
There were a few – very few — students that carried book bags for books and supplies. As I remember, no girl would be caught dead carrying anything so gross.
We had an interesting post-lunch exercise. Guys pitched pennies at a crack in the sidewalk. Male teachers that smoked were relegated to a remote campus corner and would periodically interrupt our penny-ante gambling with gentle admonitions to cease and desist.
There were areas in the schools where wall lockers were used for temporary book storage. It was most important to be near your “steady” or friends. Only a few weirdoes (no geeks then) would deign to lock their lockers.
During my high school years, we never had law enforcement personnel on campus. Nor did we run students through metal detectors and inspect or frisk for weapons.
Once during my senior year, the Austin High faculty was having a campus party for someone who was leaving. My teacher loaned me her car and asked me to drive to downtown Austin to pick up the gift. Can you imagine that in 2009?
We had assembly periods on a weekly basis. For a nominal dime, we could watch 30 minutes of cartoons or attend a magic show if Blackstone the Magician was in town. Other times it was mostly organized confusion.
With occasional but furtive hand-holding and certainly no hugs or kisses, there was no PDA (Public Display of Affection). Girls that got pregnant lived with their grandmother for a year. Rumors swirled but the whole truth was well concealed. There were no nurseries or child-care facilities and none were contemplated.
In those years, all kids recognized and knew their assignment was learning. Our goal as students was to acquire a high school education.
Today, what do we have? Well, the explosion of necessary goodies is enough to boggle the mind. Seemingly, public schools provide a central location for teenagers to plot against parents.
I lack the knowledge/experience to name the options. Cell phones? Photos? VCR? Music on demand? GPS? My Space? Who needs it?
Even poor students have cell phones loaded with enough options to drain a bank account. All of this is needed just to stay in instant contact with the outside world.
If President Obama, Gov. Perry, or Dolly Parton tried to reach me right now, my cell phone is turned off.
Instant communications for the world may be a necessity. Discussions about schools, drugs, and anything else can wait a while.
If parents really wanted to control their kids, they would/could pull the plugs and refuse to pay for it. Besides the interminable weeping and wailing, what could be simpler?
I have no need to stay in instant communications with the world. Nor do I have to hear my favorite music and performer on demand. I do not care and do not need to know what my friends and enemies have to say.
Really, I should back off and apologize for this diatribe on electronic gadgets. I started on the olden schooldays but became sidetracked the closer I got to the here and now.
The good things promised by electronic wizardry help communication but not education. Computer knowledge produces students that are computer literate but know little or nothing about the world.
If I were a parent with kids today, I would wonder why school campuses had need for barbed wire fences, armed guards patrolling inside and outside, drug sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and occasional strip searches. I have been told that fights are so common as to be expected on a regular basis.
Teachers have seemingly lost control of their environment. Parents provide little support for the learning process.
My solution to remedy the situation? I would organize parents, teachers and school administrators and create a strictly enforced policy. After all, they have a common enemy that is causing all the problems.
Without this united front and attack, the next step will be electric fences around perimeters.
` Surely, this is not progress.
