[ale] [OT] Re: Cobb Laptop Deal

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

On Mon, 15 Aug 2005, Randal Jarrett (K4RSJ) wrote:

> On Mon, 2005-08-15 at 17:37 -0400, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:
> > <<snip>> 
> > > As you can see this is a sore point to me and I am restraining  
> > > myself!  My daughters go to a respected public school up here in cobb  
> > > and I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration to say they  
> > > there are probably as many guns and containers of alcohol in that  
> > > school as there are computers.  I am dead serious.  I have pulled one  
> > > of my kids out and wish I had the money to school all my kids  
> > > privately or at home.
> > 
> > In other words - almost nothing has changed in school since the dark ages. 
> > I went to a private school in the '60s. Plenty of fire arms, and the 
> > senior class got pretty loaded Friday noon. My father's tales of high 
> > school in the early WWII war years suggest that there were _fewer_ guns, 
> > and somewhat less alcohol, but just about as much vandalism and general 
> > trouble. 
> > 
> 
> That is about 180 degrees off from my school experience going to a
> private school in the 60s.
> 
> There were plenty of firearms but only on Thursdays when all the members
> of the shooting team brought them for afternoon practice.  It was
> mandatory to maintain a B+ to stay on any team sport and yes, shooting
> was one of the letter teams.
> 
> In my three years at that school, sophomore - senior yrs, I was never
> aware of any alcoholic beverages at the school, but then it was a 
> Catholic College Prep school!

Well, I'll just have to be jealous of you then. These things do vary 
wildly by distric and by school.

I'm amused in a sadistic sort of way by schools any way. I moved south 
from Ohio in 8th grade. I didn't see smoking in Jr. High School in Ohio as 
I did in Georgia. OTOH, one of the boys in Jr. High (as I heard it) 
brought a black powder shotgun to school at the start of the hunting 
season, as the school was required to give him a half day off on the first 
day of the season. The gun went straight to the office until the 
hunters left, so I'm not sure what it shows. Back of the Jr. High in 
Georgia you couldn't see for the tobacco smoke, and the bathrooms could 
get pretty thick also. I didn't see firearms there however. (Bunches of 
firearms at the other kids homes, but that is Ok in this country).

Friend of mine in graduate school worked a local (New England) nursery 
school. She had to confiscate a six or seven inch switchblade from one of 
the four year olds, although that was the most impressive siezure she made 
in three years. So it can start pretty early.

As for High School - fast cars, sneaking in and out of bedrooms in the 
middle of the night (first floor or third, no matter, just watch your 
step), drinking, and supposedly drugs although I didn't know it at the 
time. The school was (and still is) strictly college prep. 

I wish I knew a way to encourge our children to go through their doing 
their stupid things in a safer manner. I don't. I also don't see much 
percentage in getting excited by many of these problems, resist them, work 
on them, but not "the world is comming to an end because <insert problem 
here> is increasing". Like as not, it is more of the same old same old 
wandering into view again.

My appologies to the inocent on the list for foaming at the mouth. After a 
half century of listening to the younger generation thinking that they 
have invented new ways of causing trouble, and the older generation 
claiming that they _never_ had that type of trouble when they often did, 
I'm tired of the charade. And apparently a bit cranky as well.


> 
> 
> > Family tradition has it that a great-grandfather taught with a 38 on the 
> > desk for a week, to let the farm boys who were larger than he know that he 
> > did _not_ intend for them to try out his manhood in combat. (Fighting with 
> > the teacher has a long history in this country I'm told.)
> > 
> > > ...But really I'd like to see Apple sell the government a butt load  
> > > of laptops.  I just think that if they welded all the cases together  
> > > in an interesting way and put them on display at the capitol rotunda  
> > > our kids would have a better chance of learning something.
> > > 
> > > Mark
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Aug 15, 2005, at 8:37 AM, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> > > 
> > > > OK, I've given a silent ear to all the recent noise on the Cobb laptop
> > > > proceedings, mostly assuming it was normal political wrangling.   
> > > > Anyone
> > > > with an interest in Cobb have any good insight to this?
> > > >
> > > > http://wsbradio.com/news/081505cobblaptops3a.html
> > > >
> > > > thanks,
> > > >
> > > > -Jim P.
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Ale mailing list
> > > > Ale at ale.org
> > > > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > >
> > > 
> > > Mark Wright
> > > NASA Maintenance Specialist
> > > Mark_Wright at NASAsupport.com
> > > www.nasasupport.com
> > > 
> > > 1.800.724.9692
> > > 
> > > "Whatever It Takes"
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> 

-- 
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If you think Education is expensive
Try Ignorance
                   Author Unknown
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