the mineral oil primitive reminiscences about school in the good old days

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024388105

Oh my.

MineralMan (60,614 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:04 PM

How a small town High School in the early 60s did it.

The high school I went to in a small agricultural town in California, from 1959 to 1963 had just 600 students. It also had three separate academic tracks. It had a vocational track, a standard academic track, and a college prep track. You either got placed in or selected one of those tracks in your freshman year. There were paths between the tracks, but most kids stayed in one of them.
 
How was the selection done? Well, it all started in the elementary schools, where learning capabilities were assessed and measured. In middle school, too, which we called junior high, further refinements were made in tracking students. The whole system was part of a single school district, under a single administration. A few teachers, like the band and choral teacher, taught all grades, from elementary to high school. Otherwise teachers taught whatever they taught. In elementary school, we had a single teacher for all subjects. In my class, there were three teachers who handled all 100 or so students for each grade. We'd get a new teacher each year. Tracking existed in elementary school, too, in three tracks, with a lot of movement between tracks in those years.
 
We had standardized testing in those days, too. Not every year, but every couple of years. The results of those tests helped determine your track. Even in elementary school, the tracking began, although we didn't know it was happening. Some kids moved between tracks, and some kids didn't, but just about everyone was trying hard to do well.
 
The result? Not bad at all. Almost every kid who started in my class in 1st grade was there at high school graduation. Everyone learned to read, do basic math, and got basic academic skills. We had great vocational classes, too. The college prep track sent about a third of my class to college, and all of the folks I know of did OK. Of my class of 104, 60 were at our 50th reunion last year. They all seemed to be doing OK, too, and it was great to see everyone. Despite the tracking, we all knew each other throughout our school experience, and there was not much bullying or other problems on a social level.
 
Is that how schools are today? If not, I wonder why not. It seems to have worked OK.

I brought this over because it reminded me of Skippy's--the "NYC_SKP" primitive's--contention that he had a deprived childhood (Skippy was born in 1957, about ten years after the mineral oil primitive) because among other things, he attended a two-room country school in rural agricultural California.

That must've been a Hell of a deprivation, considering Skippy ultimately graduated from one of the finest engineering colleges in America.  Which is more than many of us who came out of ultra-modern progressive state-of-the-art schools ever did.

Jackpine Radical (39,433 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:24 PM

1. I spent my first 7 years of education in a 1-room country school.

Outhouses, a hand pump for water, a wood & coal stove, and one teacher for all subjects for all 8 grades, like something out of the 19th century. Among those who were in school during the years I was there, 3 got PhD's.

^^^makes point for franksolich, about Skippy.

MineralMan (60,614 posts)   Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:26 PM

2. There was one of those schools in a nearby town to mine.

Starting in high school, those students came to our school. Smart kids, most of them. They did very well.

spin (15,759 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:42 PM

3. I had the same experience you did in a school system in northeastern Ohio ...

in the same time frame. I can't remember one kid who started with me in the first grade who failed to graduate with me, but of course several had moved to different areas of our nation and I lost track of them.
 
I also don't remember any girl who dropped out of school because she was pregnant and this was before birth control pills. Of course to be fair, when a girl did become pregnant it wasn't widely known. All the girls who started out in my first grade class graduated with me.
 
My father insisted that I get good grades and treated a C grade as an F.

There was a good degree of discipline in my school but since we had been trained from the first grade that rowdy behavior was unacceptable, we had no problems abiding within the rules. I willingly admit that there were times I pushed the rules to the limit but the limit was tight.
 
I don't believe that I am exaggerating by saying that my high school education was equivalent to an associate's degree today.

MineralMan (60,614 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:46 PM

4. Thanks. Sounds like a similar school system.

I wonder sometimes whether the problem isn't related to school size in some way. Our small city was small enough that one set of school administrators could operate the entire system as a single entity. We had 30 kids in most of my classes, but even that worked OK, it seems.
 
Our school was sort of strict with behavioral issues, too, but not oppressive, as I recall. I was the class prankster, too, so I had plenty of contact with the administrators at times. Tough but fair.
 
Maybe school size and community size plays a role in educational difficulties. I wonder if there's a way to deal with that situation.

Frustratedlady (9,250 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:52 PM

5. I went to a school K-12 and most of my class started kindergarten together.

We traveled the same road together through high school graduation and pretty much socialized as a group. There were 18 students.
 
If you had any talents in music, sports or art, you had to be involved. For instance, since I could sing, I soloed, was in duet, trio, quartets (mixed and female) and all the way up to choruses, both female and mixed. Same with band. I played the alto sax and was in jazz band, marching band and all the competitions as soloist and all the way up to band groups of all kinds. We also had to be involved with class plays, operettas and declamatory speech. We basically lived at school.
 
We put together and edited the class yearbooks, led cheers for sports and manned the snack booths at games. We put on style shoes to show off our outfits we made in sewing. The young men participated in FFA and 4-H to show off their accomplishments.
 
If there was a conflict between the school board and our curriculum or activities, we presented the problem at school board meetings and fought for approval of our wishes and ideas. We won a lot of them, too.
 
Needless to say, we were too busy to get in trouble. At our reunions, we discovered that no one had divorced, been in jail or spent time in prison. We were good employees and were able to keep our jobs thru to retirement. Big difference between then and now, sadly.

madinmaryland (55,552 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:53 PM

6. I had a similar experience growing up in NW Ohio.

I was there from 75-79 and actually since it was a consolidated school (K-12 in the same building complex) I was there from 66-79.
 
We had about 75 in our graduating class, and it seems that our curriculum was similar to yours.

[Carl]

spin (15,759 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:42 PM

3. I had the same experience you did in a school system in northeastern Ohio ...

in the same time frame. I can't remember one kid who started with me in the first grade who failed to graduate with me, but of course several had moved to different areas of our nation and I lost track of them.
 
I also don't remember any girl who dropped out of school because she was pregnant and this was before birth control pills. Of course to be fair, when a girl did become pregnant it wasn't widely known. All the girls who started out in my first grade class graduated with me.
 
My father insisted that I get good grades and treated a C grade as an F.

There was a good degree of discipline in my school but since we had been trained from the first grade that rowdy behavior was unacceptable, we had no problems abiding within the rules. I willingly admit that there were times I pushed the rules to the limit but the limit was tight.
 
I don't believe that I am exaggerating by saying that my high school education was equivalent to an associate's degree today.

You can thank leftist teachers unions and liberal politicians for destroying that.

[dandi]

Are the DUmbasses, a few of them, finally realizing what we've known all along? That the fix for education isn't throwing more money at it? That the biggest guarantee of success is strong parental influence, preferrably from two parents, to motivate and demand and reward performance from school-aged children? That it's not impossible to keep thirteen-fourteen-fifteen-year-olds from screwing like wild jackrabbits?

Nah, I doubt it. All that stuff goes back to personal responsibility. So let's rant about "smaller class sizes", how teachers are underpaid, that pointing out irresponsible parenting and thuggish behavior in school is merely racist codespeak, and how there aren't enough laughing smilies to even begin to talk about raising children on abstinence and moral behavior.

More teachers' unions, candy-flavored condom giveaways, and making damn sure no one says a prayer at a high school football game. That's the ticket!

[DumbAss Tanker]

What MineralMonkey is describing is basically the post-war German educational system, except the 'Tracks' each had different facilities and the separation occurs at an earlier age.

[I_B_Perky]

spin (15,759 posts)    Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:42 PM

3. I had the same experience you did in a school system in northeastern Ohio ...

in the same time frame. I can't remember one kid who started with me in the first grade who failed to graduate with me, but of course several had moved to different areas of our nation and I lost track of them.
 
I also don't remember any girl who dropped out of school because she was pregnant and this was before birth control pills. Of course to be fair, when a girl did become pregnant it wasn't widely known. All the girls who started out in my first grade class graduated with me.
 
My father insisted that I get good grades and treated a C grade as an F.

There was a good degree of discipline in my school but since we had been trained from the first grade that rowdy behavior was unacceptable, we had no problems abiding within the rules. I willingly admit that there were times I pushed the rules to the limit but the limit was tight.
 
I don't believe that I am exaggerating by saying that my high school education was equivalent to an associate's degree today.

And that right there dummie is the problem. Now days all the little brats are winners! Can't fail them because it might hurt their little psyche or ego or whatever the hell it is.  Getting a C or D in class is OK cause little Johnny tried so hard. Parents want to be friends with their brats instead of being parents.

Back in my day... if I came home with anything less than an B, well let's just say life sucked for Perky for the next nine weeks.