City Schools vs Country Schools

[PineappleMama]

Wow 56%?? Why in the world would citizens be okay with 44% of the population being ignorant, uneducated, unable to get more than a min. wage (if any) job?
Min Wage, full time, even twenty hours of overtime a week STILL qualifies for assistance... so they're okay with having to support 44% of their population on 56% income?

Wait, these people graduated from the same schools huh? They probably think that's some great math.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Kristy,
It's so sad that you had to go through a childhood like that. There obviously were no "Responsible" adults or kids around your school. If nothing has changed there, I definatly wouldn't think it would be smart to let your kids go to that school! With my temper I'd have lost it a long time before you did!

In our school, we all were poor. There wasn't much of a class division, because none of us had anything to speak of. Mostly sharecropper's kids although a few had parents that worked in the few factories around back in those days. Several of us were of mixed races and ancestory. Probably most of us if the truth was known. My own mix was everything from Irish, Welsh, Dutch, German and a smattering of Native American peoples on my dad's side and my mother's family is E. B. Cherokee. I wasn't bi-lingual, but several of my friends and family were, and yes, sometimes we got laughed at for some of our customs and the way we talked, dressed or our religious beliefs. I even had to have my Mom come to the school once over a feather, but it got straightened out. But there wasn't any bullying like you are talking about or like I see kids having to go through nowadays on TV. Did we have some who would have liked to have been a bully? Of course we did, but the teachers didn't stand for crap like that and in a tiny school like ours there was very little that they didn't see. I can remember a few times there was a fight over religon or customs, but the other kids would jump in and stop it usually before the teachers could get a chance to, because we knew we all could be next. The few kids who tried to bully or show their hinneys got ignored by everyone else in the school, after a while they learned if they wanted to have any freinds, they'd best keep their stupid opinions on other people's beliefs to themselves.

When we were told we were ignorant savages, we reminded them who kept them from starving when they washed up in their wore out ships, and reminded them of things like the Navaho code talkers and other things that proved otherwise.

As for helping the teachers on occasion... there were a few of us kids who were fairly responsible (Other than cutting up and goofing off) and most of the teachers in our school were ladies. We were raised to respect and protect women, I'm proud to have been one of those chosen to help that day. No one was hurt, the crazy guy was never hit or hurt in any way, the officer shook our hands one by one and thanked us and hauled him to wherever they take people like that.

I hear stories on tv about school shootings, kids stabbing each other, kids getting so bullied they commit suicide, kids hitting teachers, teachers hitting kids, police guarding the school hallways, rapes on school grounds, rampant drugs and drinking on campus... it just makes me sick.
I dunno, maybe I was just lucky. But I am thankful I wasn't raised in one of those schools, communities or times.

Again, I am so sorry that you had to experiance such a sad and horrific school life. Niether I, nor anyone else can change what happened to you, but I wish you had have had someone, either another kid or an adult, stand up for you and stop things like that from ever happening.

 

[KristyHall]

I appologize for ranting like that. I guess it's still a touchy subject for me. Now I have to say when the truth came out, my mom, step dad and the vice principal of another school and his wife raised some cain. Shortly after that I was kicked out for fighting when I snapped. I know they were just trying to get rid of me because peopel were raising a fuss.
I know my mother still holds a lot of guilt for not having seen what was happening. I kept a lot of it from her because she was so worn out all the time. My step dad was very absent due to having to work even more than mom did to make ends meet. (its sad, they both were college graduates and were forced to work several jobs to support us) I love my parents (Yes my step dad who has been there since I was five is my dad In my eyes) and am blessed to have my family.
It is alsow hy I love animals. It was animals that helped keep me grounded and an abused mare and an abandoned kitten helped me do a lot of healing in my teens. The mare, sammy, is still with me to this day, she's now a fat retired old coot who gets away with everything around here hehehe.
Being sent off to the troubled kids school actually was a blessing. The strict security ensured no one harassed me.
So I had to also point out the good in my life too.
I am glad your school was a good school. I think it shows a lot when parents are involved. It sounds like you come form an excellent community.
Once again I apologize for the rant
BTW did you ever find out what was wrong with the strange acting man?

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
That's more of a problem with cultural and societal issues than it being a small school. We live a rural area that is not affluent by many means, but our tiny high schools match the description of your large schools. Kids are expected to go to school, do their best, and the dropout rate is almost non-existent. Although a majority here do not go on to trade school or college, they do join the workforce with at least a high school diploma.

 

[Baymule]

I graduated in 1973 from a large high school in Houston, with over 1,000 in my graduating class. I was an ok student, but could have done better. I just got lost in the crowd. Whan I grew up, I left the big city never to return. My daughter went to private school most of her school days. Her birthday came after the Sept. 1 cutoff date and I couldn't see holding her back, so to private school she went. She went to public elementary 1-3 grade, then back to private thru the 8th grade, then from 9th she went to public school. At the beginning of 11th grade, she discovered that she only needed 1/2 credit to graduate at the end of 11th grade. Public high school told her no, no summer school, no extra class, no extra 1/2 credit. She would have to complete 12th grade to graduate. This kid was top of her class, president of student council, in theatre, was station manager of their in house TV station and several other activities. She called me to come get her and check her out, she wanted to return to private school. I did.

At mid term, she convinced the principal to agree that if she could get admitted to college, he would count those credits toward her graduation from high school. Sam Houston University in Huntsville,Texas turned her down 4 or 5 times because she had not even graduated from high school and was so young. She just didn't give up. She hammered on the board of appeals until one man said let her in. She was a full time college student at 16. She graduated from her private high school and went to summer school in college. She carried 19-22 hours a semester and waited tables to help with her expenses. She got her Bachelors at 19.
She married, and by age 23 had our perfect grand daughter and 2 Masters degrees. She not only attended a small town school, she attended extremely small private schools. 1,000 plus graduating class versus 8 graduating class. Well I suppose by now you have figured out where my opinion lies.

 

[Pinky]

I went to school in Jacksonville, FL from kindergarden all the way up to half of 8th grade. In the middle of my 8th grade year we moved to Hoboken, GA. Here in GA, where I graduated last year, I found the schoolwork a lot easier and the teachers much more laid back (my opinion). Also here in GA, my school offered FFA, something I never heard of until I moved here. On certain days people would bring their pigs and goats to our barn at the school and they would have a vet look over them, give them shots, etc. When we were in the classroom, you could hear the pigs squeal. That's something I never heard in Jax, FL. Thought it was neat and wanted to share. We had 215 students in my graduating class.

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
That's more of a problem with cultural and societal issues than it being a small school. We live a rural area that is not affluent by many means, but our tiny high schools match the description of your large schools. Kids are expected to go to school, do their best, and the dropout rate is almost non-existent. Although a majority here do not go on to trade school or college, they do join the workforce with at least a high school diploma.

Yeah, I know that a couple of kids dropped out in our very tiny rural school (the pregnant girl who got married and one boy who went to work with his dad) but the expectation is that everyone will graduate and go on to college, trade school or military. Even the farm kids go to some kind of extra training even if they just go back to farming. When I went to school the dropout rate in MY very, very tiny rural school was a little higher but only because that was long ago when you could actually get jobs without a degree through nepotism, apprenticeship, or farming but even then it was expected that at least the boys were going on to school after high school.

 

[chickaddict]

My sons got to experience both environments.

private k-8 150 students in the school - youngest had 8 in graduating class

public high school with over 2,000 students


They will all tell you that the biggest difference between the environments is the level of respect between the students and teachers. It blew their minds the level of blatant disrespect shown to teachers at the high school.

The drop out rate is staggering, but what really killed me was the fact when my second son passed to sophmore year 84 students (yes I said 84) were held back for flunking freshman year.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
You have no need to apoligize to me, I've had few rants on here myself.

Mostly my freinds forgive me, the others ignore me, and the mods so far have just rolled their eyes and overlooked me.

It's been gosh I guess over 30 years since that deal with the strange guy, so don't really remember what happened with him. I seem to remember that someone said later he was on some kind of drugs where you get paranoid and see things that aren't there, and might have been likely mentaly disturbed too. No one knew who he was, so was just passing through I guess. Because in our little town we knew pretty much everybody. Don't know what ever happened to him, but I always assumed he got sent to the state menatl hospital. I don't guess he commited any real crime, he was just screaming and waving a stick around like it was a knife and hollering crazy nonesense, threatened one of the lady teachers, stuff like that. I do remember he was strong as a bear though, it took several of us to wrestle him down and get the stick away from him. I hope he got some kind of help.
You gotta remember back then we only had one cop and he only was "On Duty" patroling in his car from about 3:00 pm until around 10:00 pm. Any other time you had to call his house or the feed store or whatever and find him. If he was outta pocket we had to call the Sheriff's office and they'd sent out a deputy, but that was in a nieghboring town. There just wasn't a big lot for the police to do back then. Our local cop probably spent more time helping chase cows outta the road than chasing criminals.
Anyway, we all gotta a story.

Glad your life is better now.

 

[Amyable]

Quote:
Yup