Friday, March 14, 2008

School Days, School Days, Golden Tribulation

Fri 3/14 Blog Prompt: Schools Revisited

days or so the song goes (well, actually it is golden rule days). When I was working on my page for this prompt (see below), I realized I don't have any pictures from school. I don't know if they are lost, stored away or were with mom's when all of her pictures got wet and destroyed. But I can't seem to find them. So I went with what few I had.

Remember when we had to buy special gym clothes? Those one piece outfits? I liked them. So much that I would buy similar ones just to wear. They were comfortable. Then again I liked Oxfords too. :)

And the school dances... I didn't go to many, but the one prom I did go to my mom made my dress (isn't it gorgeous), and my date broke his foot the day of the dance. I think he did it on purpose because he didn't like to dance. We went anyway and I danced the night away without him.

For the most part, I really liked high school. Both in Guam and in Illinois. The teachers were great, interesting and fun. Science class in Guam was like no other. We build a green house on the roof of the gym (it was outside the science room window) and used it to grow plants and breed mice. I think we spent more time in the greenhouse than in the actual classroom, LOL. It was in Guam that I started my four year journey of learning Latin.

JFK was a little different than most high schools in that we were fenced in (due to bomb threats) and the way they viewed learning. Each day was different. How so you say?

Monday and Thursday's schedules would be 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th periods. So far just like any other school.

Tuesday and Friday would go 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 5th, 6th and 4th.

With Wednesday being 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 6th, 4th and 5th.

Their reasoning was that you were hungry or tired just before lunch and school letting out and therefore did not really concentrate on what you were being taught and that by rotating the schedules you were getting the full benefit of each class.

Of course, moving stateside I learned that not all schools operated that way and ended up in the wrong classrooms until I got use to it. Yet, the school in Illinois had it's benefits too. They taught ballroom dancing, shuffleboard, chess, darts, canoeing and sailing. The social skills needed when you were going on a cruise? It was fun, as was the learning. It was in Illinois I took driver's ed with the room full of simulators and a full wall screen for practicing driving before you actually got out on the road.

Deep down somewhere, I am sure there are bad memories of high school, but I don't recall them. And maybe I just don't want to recall them.


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2 comments:

Tammy said...

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! We had to wear those one piece PE outfits too. I hated them. Doing situps with the zipper in the back and oh how it hurt to lay on your back. I looked for old pics of my school, and none to be found. So sad. Great post Tink

loonyhiker said...

Yes, I too had a one piece gym suit that had to be ironed after it was washed and it was in white. I did have to laugh at your schedule though because just a few years ago we tried "flex scheduling" which meant odd. So on Mon, Tues, and Fri, we went to 1-7. On Wed. students didn't arrive until 9:15 (regularly 8:30)so we could have faculty mtgs in the morning. Then we went to 2, 4. 6 periods for 90 min. each period. On Thursday we went to periods 1,3, 5, 7 for 90 min. each period. Kids were lost all the time!