My previous musing concerned what I considered as the evolution of man and his environs.  It was pointed out to me by David B.  that I failed to mention education.  I did and for than I am sorry.  I do have opinions on that subject.

I was in awe of most of my teachers up thru the 8th grade.  I had some that were as pleasant as they could be and I had some that made me lay awake at night asking the good Lord why he had made a person that fear provoking.  None was actually mean but they had potential.

I can only assume that the electric paddle that Frank Kelly kept in his office at Pecos Elementary School is some place deep in the bowels of the Smithsonian.  I can not tell you of anyone who ever actually saw it but we all knew it was there.  Just as sure as we knew the sun would come up next morning.  We were afraid of corporal punishment.  It existed.  Now, the children can run rough shod over their teachers and classmates with little fear of consequences. 3 days suspension, a week in special school ?  Special school is where they meet the people who can really teach them a thing or two.  How to shoplift, smoke a doobie or other nefarious deeds.  It is a special school for criminals.  Had they had a special school in Pecos where we grew up, guess who would have been the teacher.  Harry Blenden, the Agri teacher.  He, along with many others, did believe in not sparing the rod.  I will not even try to tell you the number of times I was “edged up” in my last two years in Pecos High.  Some I deserved, a few were on the borderline and a couple were just plain wrong on the part of the punisher.  I did survive, although some say, none the wiser.

Students now learn things we could have only dreamed about.  They are more technically trained for the modern world.  Grade school students that dont know the way home can walk you thru a new computer program and never miss a beat.  They do math that only a very select few could have attempted in my hay day.  They were the people who belonged to the slide rule club, etc.  They were smart for those days but might only be average under todays curriculum.  However, ask a student in this day and age where the ‘Pantanal” is located or where the Belgium Congo used to be and they think you are speaking a foreign language.  Ask a student to name the states in the United States.  Ask one to tell you the years of the Civil War.  Suggest a student look something up in a dictionary, HUH?  I would hate to be an encyclopedia salesman in these days and times.  That would be lonelier than a Maytag repairman.  Ask a student to write something for you on a page of paper.  Can I text it instead?  No, I want to see your penmanship.  “I don’t have a boat.”  Times have changed.  Education is time spent in training for how to pass a test to allow you to go to college to learn how to pass another test so you can graduate and not know squat.  Oh, we still have special educators who teach life skills to those who have none.  My daughter is one of those.  She takes the ones who have  little of no chance in life and tries to give them some moments where they can feel productive.  She has had to teach many of her students how to talk, how to do simple daily things and how to cope with other students.  She teaches life.

I guess education had to change to keep up with the modern world but dont you ever wonder how things might have turned out if we were back to a time where part of your learning process was learning how to be respectful, respectable, and most of all, civil.  I wonder.

Chuy the wonderer