RE : /// Both of us have passed through the system, I see. I have shared already my experience...///
I have shared some before in this thread :
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=57927&forum=35&start=30&viewmode=flat&order=0
so I will share some of it again :
Some of the things that I learned in 13 years of public schooling :
One of the first things that I learned was the social class system.
Our kindergarten's had a morning and a afternoon depending on the location of your home. If you lived on one side of the railroad tracks you went to kindergarten in the morning.
If you lived on another side of the railroad tracks you went to school in the afternoon.
I had some cousins that went to school in Iowa, That school separated the students by those whom recieved free lunch vs those whom paid for there lunch.
In first grade we where consolidated togather into class rooms.
In these class rooms we where placed into 3 groups the A group the B group and the C group.
At 6 years old it was well recognized that you associated with those within your group.
I was in the B group which envied to be placed in the A group and feared to be placed in the C group.
It was well understood at 6 years old that those of us in B group where superior to those in the C group and us in the B group where inferior to those in A group
After the first grade, Students where than put into classes based on end of the year test. How you scored on these test is mostly what determined your placement.
Another thing I learned from 13 years of public education was what it is to be bullied.
My first recalled encounter was at 5 or 6 years old.
I was assigned by the school bus driver the third seat behind the driver.
A fourth grade african american boy told me to move.
Not wanting to be in trouble with the driver, I pressed close to the window instead of switching seats at which time the fourth grader proceeded to intimidate and beat on me.
A day or so latter the fourth grader did apologize to me and was nice to me from then on, I still to this day do not know what caused him to apologize to me.
Any thing that separates you from the norm becomes an area of harassment in that environment,
Mine was my accent, I took a great deal of ridicule, harassment and name calling because of it.
This harassment led to me receiving a 3rd degree concussion by a much larger bully in the seventh grade.
It happened on the basket ball court during the lunch hour no teacher saw it , The students picked me up and carried me to my class and set me in the desk at which time I woke up.
At 5-6 years old while riding the school bus some older boys taught me some sign language : it consisted of closing your entire hand with the exception of the finger in the middle, Very quickly I relized that this was obviously against the rules because some of the kids on the bus where getting in trouble for it.
Two of the older boys forced my hand closed while forcing my middle finger open, and than they tattle tailed to the Bus driver that I was flying the bird.
This was before the days of kids with phones and internet which did not make it to our schools untill My high school years of which even than was only in certain classes for certain kids.
Yet I recall some of the kids in high school getting a hold of the school computer and printer and printing off the worst filth imaginable.
As depraved and as low as I have been what they printed off would never have been a temptation, It was that bad.
In the fifth grade A student brought to school a nude magazine to share around with his friends.
The teachers did not find out and we did not go home and tell our parents that we have been sitting in class looking at nude magazine.
One of the most disturbing things that I learned in Public school was not only the four letter words that where common talk but the perverted double meanings of common everyday words, I was much more naive than many but 13 years of that environment rids those with in it of being naive at very much.
In the seventh grade the music teacher would put vhs tape in the vhs player to occupy the basic music students so they could leave the room to go to another room and work with the choir. many times physical altercations would take place at this time.
I recall that sometimes these vhs tapes where Rater R movies with what goes along with rated R movies
Most of the fights, where done under the radar of the teachers. Not all though!
In the seventh grade one of my good friends a small nerdy boy with glasses learned a lesson in school to never where glasses again. He was setting on the Bleachers in the gym, the bottom bleachers where pushed in , A much larger bully came along grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled his face, glasses and all straight to the ground which put him into the hospital.
That boy never recieved a beating again, his dad than got him into boxing of which he was very motivated at learning and became very good at very quickly.
I can go on and on with such stories but at the end of my seventh grade I had enough of this school so I begged to move in with my dad and go to a smaller rural school instead of the 150-200 kids per grade I was transfered to a school with 20-30 kids per grade.
Fighting was not so much of the environment but not being ostracized seemed very important, you where either part of the group that all conformed togather or you where simply of the 1 or 2 out cast.
One of the 6th graders brought not nude magazine but porno magazine. They where looked at by almost all in the changing rooms, they where passed out for everyone to take home.
Out of a graduating class of around 300 I am not sure if any of us made it out unpolluted from our environment,
Many if not most of the school pregnancys where the girls that are pictured praying at the flag pole in our freshman year book and the dads to those pregnancys seem to often be the boys in the same picture.
I carried my Bible around some in high school.
I recall two others that did as well, The one seemed always so joyful, I would ask him : what have you been drinking ? He would respond : I am drunk on that : new wine.
The Last I new he is now a open homosexual
I recall the other one telling me once : I do not pray at the flag pole some of those kids cuss and I do not want to be associated with that kind of hipocracy : The last I seen of him : He appeared to have lost the faith
In comparison I am reminded of many that I have meet from circles such as Charity that have a very high number of home schoolers.
Coming from Public Schooling I did not relieze that such purity existed, I think most people do not relieze it.
We learned about drugs early on :
They first gave us Nancy Reagan's "just say no" It was about as effective as an Anheuser Busch campaign against under age drinking or a Philip Morris campaign against under age smoking.
And than they brought us "Dare program" hosted by local cops.
At best such programs simply failed but they seemed to almost have had a reverse effect on many.
The first time I recall smelling marijuana was in the school bathroom.
In the ag classes some of the students would light up marijuana while running the welders.
It was said that some of the football players would mix crank in there chewing tobacco while in a game.
One time while discussing with a football player the possibility of a physical altercation, He told me that he felt that he would win a physical altercation between us because he would sniff some crystal meth first.
It is often propagated that to help keep your children out of trouble you should get them involved in extracurricular activity such as a sport.
A year after I graduated, the school basket ball team got found out to be hooked on meth after some of them had been involved in a burglary and began narking.
It is often propagated that to help keep your children out of trouble you should keep there nose in the books.
For the purpose of deflecting being bullied I spent much time at a local Gym. I recall one time the would become later salutatorian came to the gym to lift weights with us he started talking to me about how he had went to the big city and learned how to sniff aerosal cans.
My thought at the time was what a dummy, and yet this is the kind of thing that the top of the class 'academically speaking' was doing.
I ran into some that I new from school at walmart once they where buying computer clearner I believe they called it huffer.
I was asked by a school acquaintance once if I could drive him to a party that was out in the woods. I ignorantly complied probably motivated by a bit of curiosity. As soon as we arived I realized that this was a bad Idea, A mob made up of mostly high schoolers that I new was taking rocks and destroying a girls car as she was trying to back out to leave they where busting her windows out with rocks and punching her in the face as she was trying to back out. Everyone there seemed completly crazy.
I rather quickly but as nonchalantly as possible left afterward I found out that they all had been using lsd
This was a very brief account of my School experience.
