Back to school

It’s back to school time in Real Texas.

A lot of schools will be getting started today and I have to say, a lot has changed in Real Texas since I started out on the first day of my education in a formal school setting.   Here are a few remembrances, and then I’ll tell you what I have observed in the old schoolhouse in Real Time…..2010.

I started school in September 1955 at the ripe old age of 6 years.  I walked the two and a half blocks to the first grade cottages where Mildred Nunn was the teacher.  Mrs. Colvin was in another cottage and seems like there was another teacher there also, but I have killed many of my brain cells off between then and now.  I don’t recall my parents accompanying me to school at all.  Ever.

Some students in my town and class had attended kindergarten at age 5 and I guess I didn’t need to go or my parents could not afford to send me as it was a private kindergarten class taught by a lady at her home.

I remember my good friend Phil was in my same class and he was upset at having to attend school.  I recall sitting next to him and he had his head down on the table sniffling.  He was a ranch boy and totally did not want to be there.  He also had a large scab on his arm from a smallpox shot and the scab kept getting knocked off  during playground time.

We were taught to read and be sociable with one another.  The boys had buzz haircuts and the girls smelled better than the boys did.    I do remember several of my friends spoke no English whatsoever.  They were starting from scratch.

We read about Dick and Jane and Spot and I must have picked up on reading very quickly or possibly even before starting school.  I never remember having to struggle with reading at all.  Turns out I am dyslexic with numbers, but that wasn’t discovered until much later on.  We performed as trolls for the Lions Club one day at noon.

We didn’t have air conditioning.  I remember sitting on the floor in a reading area while Mrs. Nunn instructed us on what were vowels and what were consonants.  We were instructed in groups, some were bluebirds, redbirds, and such.  I don’t remember what kind of bird I was, but I wasn’t traumatized by being called a bird of some sort.

I recall Mrs. Nunn would really come unglued on occasion and start sniffing butts.  There was one notorious perpetrator who wasn’t quite housebroken.  She would send him out the door to go home and change clothes and he often had to walk home and come back later.  I still know that individual and he is still hardly housebroken. I do remember that on the last day of school, I came home, got my skate key and put on my roller skates and went around the block for several hours straight.  I do not ever recall being supervised in my travels to and from school.  And I always walked.  One of the favorite activities on that walk was to have rock fights with others and I still have a sizeable scar on my forehead area because of  some other kid with  a really good arm.

Now let’s fast forward to 2010.

I attended a class reunion this summer and a new high school is being built in my former community.  We took a tour of the school.  I had intended to proudly show Ramona where my name was carved deeply into a metal locker.  But there were no lockers.  There are also no, or very few textbooks.  The school district is issuing every student a laptop computer.  There are no blackboards.  However, there are smartboards that double as a computer screen and an area for Powerpoint presentations by teachers.  It’s an electronic whiteboard and is enabled for greater participation from students.

There is a lot of whiz bang at the new school.  Technology has run rampant in my little school where we used to bang on the radiators for more heat in the junior high building.  I’m sure it is all educationally sound.

Things have changed in the old hometown high school.

A lot of the new technology is great.  It’s also very expensive.

But it still starts with that teacher in the elementary grades.  That’s where the rubber meets the road for the first time. Let’s make sure they have what they need and see what they can do.

Good luck to all the teachers, parents, coaches, administrators, support personnel, and most of all to the students.

It’s back to school time in Texas.  It’s different.  I don’t know if it’s better, but it sure is different.

Do you have any special memories of starting school?

Tagged as: back to school, david werst, Real Texas Blog