Education
My education has been a life long pursuit, of what exactly, I could not tell you for sure.
I started school in a Baptist Church building that the Crowley Texas school system used for a Kindergarten. The building was across the street from Bess Race Elementary school. Bess Race was an oddly built building. Very old, with an oddly oversized basement that was used for storage and an emergency shelter. The building was on the edge of town, with large playgrounds.
Just down the road form Bess Race was the H. F. Stevens Middle School. This was a very badly designed building. I personally believe that it’s what you get when you let the elitist liberal &$#@’bags that think they know what their doing design their own building.
History really does repeat itself, when you ignore the lessons of the past 40 years, and we have the same problem occurring all over again. It’s a wonder any of us can read.
The town that I currently live in, Ardmore Oklahoma, has a school board and superintendent that is hell bent on building a new school system over the top of the one currently in use. The plan is to abandon the “Traditional” neighborhood schools for a central complex. And despite 3 failed bond elections, and a failed massive ad campaign to “inform the public” of the “need” for this new concept. They have already started construction on the new elementary facility, robbing from the maintenance funds for the existing facilities. To force the new building on the obviously ignorant citizens.
H.F. Stevens middle school was one such project. A really horrible education experience. The building had very few permanent walls, free standing lockers made up the hallways and the perimeter of each classroom cluster. Each classroom cluster made 4 semi-separate classrooms. The interior walls were retractable chalk board like material. Each classroom was expandable to include the other three in any combination. They didn’t really work very well. They worked kind’a like the accordion closet doors in cheap houses. Folding about every 3 foot and retracting to the outside of each classroom cluster.
The byproduct was a deafening noise and a resulting chaos that ensued between the classes. Locker doors, talking children, and a terrible echo throughout the building that just added to the overall noise. There were a few classrooms that had real walls and doors but very few. The art rooms and a few of the utility rooms were real rooms. The Cafe-nasium or Gym-ateria sucked really-really bad. It had retractable bleachers and a stage at one end. The other end had a bare wall with two doors at each side. One set of doors were the way in and out, the other set was for the serving line access. When the doors were closed the wall could be used to rebound basketballs off of or for a rebound wall for dodge ball, that by the time I attended we weren't allowed to play any longer. The major problem was that the serving line wasn’t designed to function. It created a bottleneck serving food, that caused a major line to form. And because these geniuses didn’t plan for long line, and the brain-trust that ran the place didn’t want kids standing in line out in the hallway, it forced the children waiting to be served to weave a line through the tables where kids were trying to come and go while eating. I honestly believe that the sadists that designed the building were so impressed with their own intellect that they didn’t care what the impact of the design really was. I mean what the hell “their only kids” right. Right!
The Library was on its own level of Hell. The room was basically a fishbowl. A completely glass room with maximum distractions that could possibly be built right into the design, but hey, it‘s pretty, right.
Kids walking down the hallway just feet from anyone trying to read, thumping the glass and making rude gestures, trying to distract you any way they possibly could.
I did survive the H.F. Stevens middle school experience. But just barely.
If you really want to know what is wrong with the US educational system all you have to do is look at these kinds of failures and learn from the mistakes. The biggest problem is that they aren’t recognized for the colossal mistakes that they really are. All the money and time squandered by these morons simply because they have a degree or title. Our children do just fine without an ergonomic, fug-schwa, educational experience. They need to be taught to read and write.
We moved just as I was about to advance to the more traditional Crowley High school. Fortunately the Fairview High School was just as traditional .
Fairview is a rural and very traditional predominately Mennonite town in northwestern Oklahoma. I spent my freshman, sophomore, and junior years in the Fairview school system, moving schools my senior year to Ringwood Oklahoma. I couldn’t continue to attend the Fairview High school my senior year without transferring into the system. My father had built a house in the Ringwood school system, about 9 miles away, and even though I was emancipated, I didn’t want any problems. I had 10 months left in public schools.
After I graduated high school, I attended Southwestern College in Winfield Kansas. I didn’t attend Southwestern for very long 2 or 3 semesters, but the experience changed my life, because its where I met my wife.
I have attended college wherever we’ve lived. Taking a few hours here and there. The bulk of my higher education has been spent at Paris Junior College, in Paris Texas.
I spent 2- 2 year terms at the technical school of the Paris Junior College known as the Texas Jewelers Institute. The first time was in the mid 1980’s when I studied jewelry technology, and the second time was in the early 1990’s where I studied horology. I went to work in the jewelry industry and worked for a few years, where I saw the need for watchmakers so I went back.
I’ve studied religion for many years and in various ways. I started with the modern Christian protestant bibles, and expanded into the various Christian texts, both official and unofficial. I’ve studied most eastern religions, even visiting Buddhist temples and reading the Compassion and 8 fold path. I’ve made a cursory study of Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, and Judaism, as well as the other western religions both archaic and modern. I’ve been granted a Bull@$#t Masters degree from the organization that also grants me ordination and licensing from Modesto California. Over the years I’ve continued to study and evolve.
This was a chapter, lifted from “the Tail Of The Wolf” which was written in the early 2000’s, however, the indignation with which this was written is no less diminished. I ran across this article yesterday while checking the news. It’s pertinent to this article and really needs to be circulated, because it emphasizes my point about public schools.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-11-14/schools-lockers-safety/51205848/1?csp=YahooModule_News
My education has been a life long pursuit, of what exactly, I could not tell you for sure.
I started school in a Baptist Church building that the Crowley Texas school system used for a Kindergarten. The building was across the street from Bess Race Elementary school. Bess Race was an oddly built building. Very old, with an oddly oversized basement that was used for storage and an emergency shelter. The building was on the edge of town, with large playgrounds.
Just down the road form Bess Race was the H. F. Stevens Middle School. This was a very badly designed building. I personally believe that it’s what you get when you let the elitist liberal &$#@’bags that think they know what their doing design their own building.
History really does repeat itself, when you ignore the lessons of the past 40 years, and we have the same problem occurring all over again. It’s a wonder any of us can read.
The town that I currently live in, Ardmore Oklahoma, has a school board and superintendent that is hell bent on building a new school system over the top of the one currently in use. The plan is to abandon the “Traditional” neighborhood schools for a central complex. And despite 3 failed bond elections, and a failed massive ad campaign to “inform the public” of the “need” for this new concept. They have already started construction on the new elementary facility, robbing from the maintenance funds for the existing facilities. To force the new building on the obviously ignorant citizens.
H.F. Stevens middle school was one such project. A really horrible education experience. The building had very few permanent walls, free standing lockers made up the hallways and the perimeter of each classroom cluster. Each classroom cluster made 4 semi-separate classrooms. The interior walls were retractable chalk board like material. Each classroom was expandable to include the other three in any combination. They didn’t really work very well. They worked kind’a like the accordion closet doors in cheap houses. Folding about every 3 foot and retracting to the outside of each classroom cluster.
The byproduct was a deafening noise and a resulting chaos that ensued between the classes. Locker doors, talking children, and a terrible echo throughout the building that just added to the overall noise. There were a few classrooms that had real walls and doors but very few. The art rooms and a few of the utility rooms were real rooms. The Cafe-nasium or Gym-ateria sucked really-really bad. It had retractable bleachers and a stage at one end. The other end had a bare wall with two doors at each side. One set of doors were the way in and out, the other set was for the serving line access. When the doors were closed the wall could be used to rebound basketballs off of or for a rebound wall for dodge ball, that by the time I attended we weren't allowed to play any longer. The major problem was that the serving line wasn’t designed to function. It created a bottleneck serving food, that caused a major line to form. And because these geniuses didn’t plan for long line, and the brain-trust that ran the place didn’t want kids standing in line out in the hallway, it forced the children waiting to be served to weave a line through the tables where kids were trying to come and go while eating. I honestly believe that the sadists that designed the building were so impressed with their own intellect that they didn’t care what the impact of the design really was. I mean what the hell “their only kids” right. Right!
The Library was on its own level of Hell. The room was basically a fishbowl. A completely glass room with maximum distractions that could possibly be built right into the design, but hey, it‘s pretty, right.
Kids walking down the hallway just feet from anyone trying to read, thumping the glass and making rude gestures, trying to distract you any way they possibly could.
I did survive the H.F. Stevens middle school experience. But just barely.
If you really want to know what is wrong with the US educational system all you have to do is look at these kinds of failures and learn from the mistakes. The biggest problem is that they aren’t recognized for the colossal mistakes that they really are. All the money and time squandered by these morons simply because they have a degree or title. Our children do just fine without an ergonomic, fug-schwa, educational experience. They need to be taught to read and write.
We moved just as I was about to advance to the more traditional Crowley High school. Fortunately the Fairview High School was just as traditional .
Fairview is a rural and very traditional predominately Mennonite town in northwestern Oklahoma. I spent my freshman, sophomore, and junior years in the Fairview school system, moving schools my senior year to Ringwood Oklahoma. I couldn’t continue to attend the Fairview High school my senior year without transferring into the system. My father had built a house in the Ringwood school system, about 9 miles away, and even though I was emancipated, I didn’t want any problems. I had 10 months left in public schools.
After I graduated high school, I attended Southwestern College in Winfield Kansas. I didn’t attend Southwestern for very long 2 or 3 semesters, but the experience changed my life, because its where I met my wife.
I have attended college wherever we’ve lived. Taking a few hours here and there. The bulk of my higher education has been spent at Paris Junior College, in Paris Texas.
I spent 2- 2 year terms at the technical school of the Paris Junior College known as the Texas Jewelers Institute. The first time was in the mid 1980’s when I studied jewelry technology, and the second time was in the early 1990’s where I studied horology. I went to work in the jewelry industry and worked for a few years, where I saw the need for watchmakers so I went back.
I’ve studied religion for many years and in various ways. I started with the modern Christian protestant bibles, and expanded into the various Christian texts, both official and unofficial. I’ve studied most eastern religions, even visiting Buddhist temples and reading the Compassion and 8 fold path. I’ve made a cursory study of Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, and Judaism, as well as the other western religions both archaic and modern. I’ve been granted a Bull@$#t Masters degree from the organization that also grants me ordination and licensing from Modesto California. Over the years I’ve continued to study and evolve.
This was a chapter, lifted from “the Tail Of The Wolf” which was written in the early 2000’s, however, the indignation with which this was written is no less diminished. I ran across this article yesterday while checking the news. It’s pertinent to this article and really needs to be circulated, because it emphasizes my point about public schools.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-11-14/schools-lockers-safety/51205848/1?csp=YahooModule_News
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