Monday, October 4, 2010

Back when I was a Kid

I think growing up in the 80's and 90's was the best time to be a kid. The school systems were at their best. The reason I say this is because I was talking to my childhood best friend Matt.  Matt just finished college and is in his first year teaching kids.  He was telling me all the stupid shit that he has to endure as a teacher.  I'm shocked at how school has changed since I was there...


1.  When I was in school,  if I kid was acting up in class he/or she was told to be good, if the child continued to be a brat, it was removed from the class room and sent to SDR (student detention room).  The kid left the class one of two ways: A) the kid actually got up and out of their chair and walked down to SDR or B) the kid was yanked (typically by the arm) out of the chair and dragged down to SDR.  Usually the kid was there all day and had to do their homework, wasn't allowed to talk and even had to eat lunch in SDR.  It was very similar to prison solitary confinement... without the bars, shanks and whatnot.  Also, my principal had a wooden paddle  in his office to possibly beat the children ( I don't think he ever used it, but it was the idea that he had the paddle and could use it scared most kids into being good!)  NOW, teachers have to warn the kids 3 times, then ask the child to please go to the "thinking chair" to reflect on their bad behavior.  If the child doesn't go to the "thinking chair"  another teacher will come and ask the child to go to the "thinking room" and they will walk down, never is the child to be touched in anyway because it would be considered abuse.  While in the Thinking Room, the kid has to write a letter saying that they will be better and they are sorry to the teacher and the class...  WTF!


2.  Pluto was still a planet, we were taught both creationism and evolution, we were still able to pray in schools and say the pledge of allegiance.  


3.  We actually learned things and had to earn our grades... 


4.  Red Pens!  All of my teachers used RED pens, from kindergarten to my senior year all papers were graded in red.  The more you got wrong, the more red you saw... I hated seeing red ink because that means I didn't do so well.  NOW teachers aren't able to use red pens to grade papers because ( I'm not kidding!) when the child sees the red ink, it leads to bad thought and reminds the kid of blood.  Some Asshat got a government grant to make up this stupid shit.  



That kid looks really traumatized by the red ink.




Those are just a few (of Many!) things that blows my mind about how school has changed!  


P.S. I grew up in the middle of no where USA.  I graduated with 48 kids (including myself) that I knew from preschool on up.  We were better at sports than school work but what do you expect when the school is surrounded by corn fields (again, I'm not kidding.) 


@ Noble 

4 comments:

  1. I loved growing up in the 70's and 80's. We didn't have a student detention room, per se. What we did have was detention (which was a form of time out from all the fun things that was going on and consisted of lots of school work and writing.) What we did have was paddling! Nope, never feared the red ink to be blood! This day and age we are just being a bunch of patsies! Great Blog!

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  2. oh man my best friend dropped out of the teaching progam for the same shiz yo!

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  3. I went to private school and we didn't have an SDR but they weren't afraid of putting the fear of God in us... literally. Plus I think parenting has changed a LOT since we were young! My parents didn't think twice about spanking me with a belt/wooden spoon/whatever was handy.

    Love the post! Happy Monday!

    http://smo-hiptobesquare.blogspot.com

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  4. Pluto should still be a planet!

    atleast you had close relationships with the kids you went to school with. Though a batch of 48 just sounds incestuous hormonal insanity just waiting to happen.

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