What’s Cooking: Education a priceless adventure
I appreciate the education that I received. I appreciate the teachers who were instrumental in the instruction of various courses throughout my educational adventure. Obtaining an education is truly an adventure … a priceless adventure. But sadly few students see education as such.
Many do not appreciate the teachers, and thusly don’t appreciate education, or so it seems. We’ve heard of incident after incident of students going into school armed with automatic weapons, shooting teachers, students and security guards. It is difficult for me to understand why this is happening in the United States of America, the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
As I said I appreciated all the teachers who taught the classes I attended. I liked them all, and studied under teachers that some students said they couldn’t stand. But I couldn’t see anything wrong with them. I think the primary reason for those students not liking this or that teacher was because a particular teacher may have been too strict or may not have allowed anyone get by with any foolishness.
The teachers are there to teach. When I was in school, a student who misbehaved was sent to the principal’s office and the “board of education” was administered. And I don’t mean the people in charge of operating the school systems. Back then, it was OK to spank a misbehaving student with parents backing up teachers and school officials. If a student was spanked at school, that student probably got another one when he got home. The student couldn’t go home whining because the teacher spanked him. And the parent didn’t go to the school administrators whining because their little angel got a spanking.
My sister told me about a time she had spanked one of her children and a neighbor saw it and called the law. A policeman came and knocked on the door. He said they were called about her spanking her child. Whereupon my sister asks the policeman, “Had you rather me spank him now, or wait for you to arrest him later?” The policeman turned, went back to his car and drove off.
Back in the 1930s and 40s there was a school in about every community of Warren County. There were two schools where my parents could send their children – Wayside and Riverside. My sister said at the beginning of each school year Mom and Dad would study the teachers listed in the paper and pick the school that they thought had the best teacher. This was where they sent their children.
I was a homebound student until I was a sophomore in high school. I attended Central High school my final three years of school. The basic problems in school back then were: missing the trash can, talking out of turn, chewing gum in class, running in the hall. There may have been others that I do not remember, but I have slept a few nights since I was in school.
Children had things to do after school back then. There were cows to feed and milk, chickens to feed, wood and coal to get in, and work in the garden or fields. There was no television, no Game Boy, no computers. A family was lucky to have a automobile less than five years old and gas cost somewhere around 30 to 35 cents a gallon. Now many of us have so much stuff and we don’t know what to do with it all. And still we are not happy.
When kids get guns and kill Grandpa, teachers, and fellow students, something is wrong. This kid even killed a security guard. There was not even a security guard at Central High School. The only time a policeman was seen at Central was when he was there to make a speech for the morning assembly program.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could go back 45 to 50 years and find we don’t really have to have everything we see.