[Born Conservative]

If you have asked to be added to this list, and haven’t been receiving the pings, please let me know. I’ve had a problem with my file synchronization between my home and work computer, and apparently have lost some names on the list. I think I have the problem fixed, and will gladly re-add your name.

[martin_fierro]

We managed to fill up the rest of the class time with ignorant students blurting out word associations and provocative statements

Welcome to the Smoky Backroom. < |:)~

[ClearCase_guy]

bump for later

[Graymatter]

"The ur-Bennish." (That's where I pause to wonder, who wrote this? It's good.)

[beyond the sea]

But come to think of it, baby boomers like me were denied educations.

Depends on where the writer lived, went to school, and how old she is. I'm 59, a "boomer", and I got the real education before everything went sour around 1964. I was in college in 1964, and the colleges hadn't really been infected at that time.

To me the category "boomers" ought to be reserved only for those born from around 1946 through around 1956. That was the real boom, that was when the actual explosion of births occurred after the war.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Good find!

[beyond the sea]

We had settled into the ennui that surrounds adolescents gathered under one roof to bide time and attract the opposite sex, with adult supervisors counting success as a day spent with no blood spilled. It was assumed that we had the attention span of gnats, and teachers entertained us with such feats as doing chin ups on the classroom doorway, while girls in the back applied cosmetics.

I can't imagine a school like this and this writer is only about 12 years younger than myself. What a difference a decade makes.

Btw, does anyone know how old this writer really is??

[beyond the sea]

I learned that postmodernists had denounced philosophy, or the pursuit of truth, as a disguise for the ideology of the West that attempted to impose its values on the rest of the (more tolerant, peaceful) world.

Amazing........ another reason to get the books from a library and learn all by yourself.

[crescentbeach]

It should probably be noted that Franklin was a very tough city high school even back then. I visited for a day in the mid 1970's, and a guide stood outside the restroom while I was in there. I guess the school district made sure the children of Rochester's 60's rioters got to hear what they wanted to hear.

I'm glad this woman transcended her experience there.

[beyond the sea]

Great article............... ping

[ClearCase_guy]

My first brush with this stuff was also in 1973. I had always loved History classes -- they were my favorite. Then, in 1973, we had "social studies" and I kept thinking "Where did the history go?"

We studies moral development theories (a topic for eighth grade?). Dilemmas such as: your daughter is sick, you can't afford the medicine, is it OK to steal the medicine? When I found out that there were "no right answers" I was supremely disappointed. What was the point of studying something in school with no right answer??

[Question_Assumptions]

Time, once again, to post a link to one of my favorite essays by Thomas Sowell.

[mass55th]

Thank God I graduated out of the Rochester school system in 1965. I remember Ben Franklin High School. There was no Junior in it at that time. We used to kick their butts on the football field and basketball court each year. Amazing, that in less than 10 years, they managed to take a perfectly good curriculum and turn it to crap. About the only time I can remember a discussion in class being off topic was the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

[Bernard]

The decline started earlier. Around 1967, I mentioned in a high-school American History class that President Roosevelt declared a bank holiday in 1933, to provide public confidence that the banks were sound.

My teacher had no idea of this, and told me that I made it up. The next day, he came back to class and apologized, because he had looked it up and found that I was right.

[wintertime]

Most of the posts have been nostalgic reminiscences.

What do you think can be done about it?

What are you doing specifically for your own families?

In my case, I homeschooled 3 of my 4 children. They are adults now and planning to homeschool my grandchildren.

Thankfully, most students do graduate and go on to work in the private sector. They do learn that their bosses are not capitalistic pigs, and that the government takes a huge bite of their paycheck. They see first hand the worth and good that the products made by their companies does for humanity.

Thankfully, we have talk radio. Rush Limbaugh is likely the most influential person in America undoing the damage done by the government schools. I wish he would spent more time on the topic of government schools. Other radio talk host personalities do though, and thank goodness for that. Fox is always quick to report on government school absurdities.

[BfloGuy]

Rings true to me.

I graduated from a small rural upstate NY school in '71. During my senior year we started to get a few young teachers (who we thought were very cool); but most of my school years were under the watchful eyes of many of the same teachers who'd taught my Dad.

And they were good. I swear one of them, Clara Hall, could have taught a dog to speak Latin. Unfortunately they were all, one by one, retiring

My younger brothers and sisters received an education at that same school that was very different from mine. Needless to say, Latin was not part of it and English wasn't much either.

[bannie]

bump--read later :-(

[Trajan88]

for later

[GretchenM]

FYI
good read

[beyond the sea]

good article ............... ping