My friends and I would not have made it through high school today

[malaise]

We challenged every rule in the school, broke more than a few, participated in everything, got a few detentions, excelled and have all been successful. School sucks today.

I remember is getting into a water gun war on the street with kids from another school. We all laugh at that even now. They called us out at assembly the next day and we all looked at one another and laughed. We knew we were going to be given a detention. We had a freaking ball at school. Used stones to pick golden apples from the nuns' trees - we'd probably be in prison in today's environment.

[Sanity Claws]

1. Me too but for different reasons

Can you imagine having to go to a place where you see a police officer body slam a student? The witnesses to such shit are traumatized.
I would probably try to drop out at 16. Seriously.

[malaise]

4. I wouldn't know how to deal with this authoritarian approach to education

We had an English teacher from England - the kids used to squirt ink at the back of her skirt when she was checking the work of the student in front of them. That lady was a great sport.
She never reported them - she made them write an essay about stupid pranks. We never did stuff like that but we sure challenged the teachers.

[brewens]

2. Some guys I knew all brought squirt guns loaded with bongwater to "assassinate" a

classmate! Gunned him down right in the hallway between classes! Imagine that one now? The victim was actually a good sport about it. He was able to sneak home and change without getting anyone in trouble. That was in '78 or '79.

[malaise]

3. I went to high school in the early 60s

School was so much fun - we cried at graduation - now kids are terrified to go to school - and we wonder why everyone is on drugs.

[Snobblevitch]

5. You still had inkwells in the early '60s?

Did you have quill pens?

[malaise]

22. Regular fountain pens n/t

[Snobblevitch]

29. That surprises me.

A Bic stick pen cost .19¢.

[malaise]

30. We weren't allowed to use ballpoint pens

It was all about penmanship

[Blue_In_AK]

38. Oh, malaise, I had no idea you were old like me.

LOL.

I graduated in 1964.

[malaise]

41. You're a few years ahead of me

but in the scheme of things I'm old

[IVoteDFL]

6. Same here. I actually got arrested once in 8th grade homeroom

The funny part was what they got me on was not going to school. So naturally when I decide to go a cop is called.

I tried to run, cussed the cop out, kicked shit over in his path. Still, he didn't tackle me to the ground and assault me. Probably because I am white.

[Mariana]

7. The cop you drew probably wasn't on steroids, either. nt.

[1939]

8. I went to school in the city of Detroit.

Once a semester, they would have a policeman come in and give us a safety lecture (the firemen came in once a semester as well). We didn't have school resource officers, but when the teacher said "go to the office" we went. If we were caught with using or displaying contraband (yo-yos, water pistols, cap pistols, jack knives) in class, it was confiscated and you didn't get it back till summer vacation.

[Mariana]

9. My high school had enough crime going on

that we had a "resource officer" or whatever you want to call it assigned in the 1980's. He didn't wear a uniform and his gun was concealed most of the time. He patrolled the campus and dealt with real crimes, he never got involved with minor violations of school rules or routine discipline matters.

[malaise]

23. That is how it should be

What's going on is madness

[jwirr]

27. And this madness is also seen in all these police arrests and

violence mostly for petty crimes or in some cases just being a kid.

[malaise]

28. But but but

They have private prisons to fill

[jwirr]

32. Exactly.

[jonno99]

42. BS. It sounds like you're a bit older than me, but we would never even THINK of pulling the

crap that goes on these days. Authoritarian? Is it authoritarian to expect that students act and speak respectfully to their teachers?

Sure, when we were kids we'd do some stupid sh!t. But when we got busted, we didn't "go off" on those who caught us; it was "yes sir" and "yes ma'am". Was that abuse of authority?

[malaise]

43. That old saying children live what they learn is true

Leaders in no sphere demonstrate respect - why should the kids.

Further I suggest you walk a mile in that teenager's shoes. She's an orphan who recently lost her mother and is living in foster care. One more thing - anyone who grabbed me like that should expect a reaction.
A parent who treated her/his child like that would have the child removed from that home.

I don't care what the kid was doing - that response was not justified.

[jonno99]

46. I'm in no way justifying how the girl was treated. All I'm saying is that when we were kids

it would never (or seldom) have gotten to place where a cop was called into the classroom. If we were told to hand over an item, or go to the office, we would have done it. Did we do what we told because we were repressed by an overbearing authority figure? No, we did it because we respected to role of the teacher (or the cop if it got to that).

Regarding: "Leaders in no sphere demonstrate respect - why should the kids." This is hyperbole.

To be sure what we are seeing today is a viscous circle - disrespect begetting disrespect. However, the solution is not to be found in lowering expectations - but raising them. Kids are not merely little adults; they are not our peers. We do them a disservice to teach them otherwise - and yet that is what we have been doing. And IMHO, that is the root of much of the trouble we see in society in general - schools in particular.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. A classmate rode a dirtbike through my high school.

He was expelled. Fortunately for me, those who held the doors open for him at either end of the building were not.

My drafting class once stole the yearbooks from the delivery truck parked outside our door. When the business class went to unload them... nowhere to be found. They called the cops. While the cops and business students searched the school for the wayward books the drafting teacher advised us to sneak the boxes of books back into the business class.

There was once a bomb threat - the students were evacuated to the grandstands while the cops searched the school for the bomb. It wasn't found, but a great deal of "contraband" was - removed from the school in hefty trash bags. For the next year, there was "a bomb threat" every couple of months.

We learned that fistfights were frowned upon, but not significantly punished. But whatever you do - don't do it around Mr Erickson - he took fights between students personally.

Hijinks.

[malaise]

24. Sounds like you had a great time

in school

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. Now that I've lived through my own kids education...

... it's apparent that I learned adequately and retained a surprising amount of it.

A knobby tire has poor traction on wet linoleum tiles btw. For ignorance of this science fact, Andy was caught. So, pay attention in school, kids!

[LanternWaste]

11. It does seem much... tighter these days

It does seem much... tighter these days. In '82, I could walk into the bathroom during, buy a $2 joint from Lil' Pete, smoke it in the stall with a few other friends, and then leave for the parking lot for a cigarette or two before class started. And no one blinked an eye at any of that. The punishment for getting caught with pot was having it confiscated (though the drama and world lit teachers would sell us some if we were desperate for a buzz).

I something think those same actions would result in the student's disappearance into Guantanamo Bay.

[hunter]

12. I didn't make it through high school.

It's a curiosity, but among my generous handful of siblings, it's we who quit high school with extreme prejudice who are the University of California graduates.

Conformity and Blind Respect for Authority is not something we practice in our family. That's how my ancestors ended up in the American Wild West. They hit the shore running and vanished into the wilderness undocumented.

My very last immigrant U.S.A. ancestor, and the only one documented, was a European mail order bride to freshly Christened Salt Lake City. She was escaping nationalistic wars and poverty in Europe. But she didn't like sharing a husband with other women so she ran off with a handsome U.S. government surveyor, and she married him her since her status as a junior wife was null by U.S. law. They established a homestead that my mom's cousin still owns, and it's still about as far away as you can be in these United States (but for Alaska) from any McDonalds or WalMart.

The Mormons avoid my house in their missionary work. They know where I live. I'm fairly certain they think I owe them money for the sins of my ancestors, but they are also terrified I will tell their innocent missionaries, nicely dressed boys riding bicycles, my family history.

[malaise]

16. Great post hunter

[Arugula Latte]

13. I can't imagine going through middle/high school with social media

and everyone dealing with exclusion, judgment, embarrassing posted photos, etc. Just brutal.

[malaise]

25. Yep - these are brutal and cruel times

I have to agree

[SoCalDem]

14. Many of us would have crininal records

We had a HUGE boiler room, where the attendant/janitor would snooze the day away.. We once sneaked in with a paper sack full of nearly empty spray hair color cans ( I was a theater geek).. We tossed them into the "fire-y part"..went into the hallway and waited for the KA-BOOM that happened when they started exploding..

No one was "caught"..investigated..expelled..

His naps were so well known, that the school paper reported the event as "a rude awakening"..

[malaise]

17. ROFL

Too good

[a la izquierda]

15. I went to high school in the 90s

A classmate of mine blew stuff up-purposefully- in chemistry all the time. Last I heard, he'd gone into the military.
Go figure.

[malaise]

18. Was he in control of that military balloon

[hunter]

33. I was a kid who blew stuff up.

My short wallflower autistic spectrum self dances with the U.S.A. military never ended well, damn my pacifist ancestors.

I've torn up very big $10,000+ checks because strings were attached.

Tales too ticklish to tell.

One of my grandfathers was a crazy rocket scientist. He was utterly silent about his work as an U.S. Army Air Force officer during World War II, but immensely proud of his work landing men on the moon.

My other grandfather was a Conscientious Objector in World War II. My mom's family are pacifists because they are otherwise Berserkers. The powers-that-be gave my mom's dad a choice between building Liberty and Victory Ships, or prison. He built ships. His wife, my grandma, was a welder too. They knew hot metal.

[FLPanhandle]

19. I went to HS in New Zealand

Old style English all boys boarding school.

The teachers all wore robes, we all in school uniforms. The Master (yes, that's what we had to call the teacher) would walk into the class and we all stood to attention beside our desks. He told us when to sit. No one dared to mess with those guys. Punishments for bad behavior were often dealt out to the entire class, not just the individual. Anyone that got us in detention too often was "fixed" by the class.

On the other hand, we did get up to a lot of mischief, it's that we were VERY careful to never get caught.

[malaise]

20. Yep there are schools like that one mostly for boys all over the Commonwealth

Very British

[panader0]

21. Once when I was in high school in Honolulu:

There was a summer swell--the surf was up. My friends and I were stoked. But on this day we had mandatory
ROTC and we would have stand in line for a long time to check in our M-1 rifles after drill. So my friend and I
put our rifles in our gym lockers and went surfing. The next morning we were called to the Dean's office and there
were two Federal agents present to question us about missing government property. I caught hell from my dad.
It was worth it.

[malaise]

26. Yep parents were never amused

but today the Federal Agents would probably throw you in a private prison

[benld74]

31. Dumbest principal I ever had,

spotted a 'bag of a white substance' in my buddy's open locker. Immediately asked him what it was, and was told, 'Sugar for the Science experiment from last week'. Said he forgot to take it home. Principal took it, had it analyzed and THEN reprimanded my buddy BECAUSE it was sugar.
The buddy told him, 'That is what I said it was. You didn't believe me'.
Said buddy remained in hot water with that man all year,,,,,,

We did some stupid stuff

1) tossing BB's in study hall
2) taking a teacher's (who used crutches for his polio) desk and chair from the room down the hall and around the corner, BEFORE he arrived for class. HE laughed.

The last one most likely would have been an expulsion today

[malaise]

34. You would be more sensitive re the last one today

I find kids are less cruel to disabled folks today.

[kentauros]

36. I was in Band.

The phrase "Wild and Crazy Guys" described at least a third of us!

[malaise]

37. Ha hahaha

bet you all thrived

[kentauros]

39. I suspect most of them have.

For me, while I've done fairly well for myself, I have learned that the career of the draftsman is not the most stable or consistent. Had I been able to understand inorganic chemistry and calculus, I might have been a geologist instead. That's okay. I enjoy the things I know how to do and make do between jobs.

I did see one friend from HS recently and he was trying to get me back into playing the euphonium again. I tried to get across the fact that I was never a musician, only a "player" but he needled me enough that I am considering it

[Ex Lurker]

40. OTOH you probably wouldn't have assaulted a teacher or principal

Not saying the police officer was right AT ALL. But things have changed on both sides of the equation, for the worse.

[beevul]

45. I wonder what todays authorities would do...

I wonder what todays authorities would do, for cases where people carried the principals car and set it between two big trees front and back, or where the superintendents VW beetle was completely disassembled and reassembled in the auditorium on stage over the weekend.

[TheOther95Percent]

47. Those Catholic nuns that taught me are starting to look downright saintly next to LEOs.

We didn't have cops in schools back in the day. We had the Dean of Students. He - it was always a he - was just some big guy who kept the inmates from burning down the asylum.

[malaise]

48. The only guys in our school were the boys from the Jesuit Catholic boy's school

The two schools shared the Arts Class - so we all registered for Art