The generation of baby boomer youth, a phenomenon that crossed the U.S. scene like a thunderclap, had faded away. The tail-enders of that generation probably got their diplomas in 1982.
Professional educators might have thought their task would be easier after that. I suppose anything had to be easier than trying to manage my generation.
I offer that as a joke because it's not true. Educators really never had it so good as when my generation was in the hallways.
Our teeming numbers meant teaching jobs were pretty safe. Most importantly, though, our teeming numbers kept standards pretty low for how we were managed.
We were like a large herd of cattle that just had to be pointed in the right direction.
Seriously, our elders really only asked that educators maintain a sense of order. Keep everything civilized and under control and you'll be fine.
We hadn't heard the term "helicopter parents" yet.
Another aspect to this was the basic nature of baby boomers' parents. These were people many of whom had gotten past serious adversity in the Depression and World War II years.
The great U.S. middle class created in the aftermath of the war was composed of people abundantly thankful for their blessings, their standard of living and relative peace in the world.
The Cold War was bothersome. But it wasn't like the wrenching pain of the years preceding it.
So these gentle, thankful people raised their kids with fundamental contentment. They tended to see teachers as partners in disciplining their kids.
America's public school system, arguably cumbersome, was almost an extension of the huge Federal apparatus that was needed to win the war.
David Brooks of the New York Times has written about the "redundancies in the typical World War II type of organization" in America.
These parents were hardly like tea partiers who want to shave down all public entities to bare essentials and to try to privatize everything in sight.
Government, and certainly public schools, were accepted as partners in a burgeoning America with its schools overflowing with boomers.
If a kid got disciplined in school, he might catch heck again when he got home. This has been a much-observed phenomenon - the transition from this kind of mindset to "you'd better keep your hands off my kid."
The helicopter parents began appearing.
If public school teachers actually thought their jobs would be "made easier" by smaller student numbers, they were in for a rude awakening. For one thing, smaller numbers meant reduced funding and less advocacy for education in government channels.
Fewer parents meant, in effect, "fewer customers."
But more important than this, possibly, was the different type of parent coming into the picture. The parents of the boomers who really just demanded order (and "quiet") gave way to new parents who would micro-analyze.
Fewer students would make it easier to put our schools under a microscope. Teachers had better watch every step they took. And look over your shoulder for the spectre of consolidation and layoffs.
Holy cow, there used to be dots all over the map representing public high schools here in western Minnesota. An attendee at the UMM Driggs Lecture last fall raised his hand and made this point, loudly in fact. It was appreciated. It was true.
He talked about how "every little town out here" used to have its football and basketball teams, and probably wrestling and others too. We sort of took it for granted.
But behind the scenes, the economy and family structure were changing. The countryside was going to shed people, dramatically. There would be far fewer families with five or six kids.
Looking through an old church membership directory, I see lots of family portraits with multiple children. You have to smile as you look at these because so many of these families had a distinctive character or personality.
Isn't this what life is all about? Shouldn't it be a desired way of life? Why are we standing idly by while it becomes little more than a memory?
Maybe boomers don't care because we're beyond the stage of raising our own kids. So we're just happy with our memories. We should care about the future a little more.
I should get a little more local in emphasis as I continue this post.
I remember an associate, not really a co-worker but someone employed by a business with whom we had a relationship, who had children go through the Minnewaska Area school. It's a "cornfield school" of the type that our legislature reportedly won't approve anymore.
Ditto Lac qui Parle Valley. Schools should be in town.
We may have had turbulence in Morris but Minnewaska had two failed referendums.
I remember this associate, about whom I'll stay vague, celebrating the failure. Why? She explained that teachers at 'Waska were looking forward to "fewer students," which the demographics were predicting.
She took that personally because she had a daughter who was in a wave of larger numbers.
You mean the teachers didn't appreciate that?
"They should have been thankful having them," she said in an impassioned way.
To the teachers I'd say "be careful what you wish for."
Fewer students means less advocacy out there for public education. There will be less money. Referendums won't be a slam dunk.
I remember in the weeks following the second referendum failure at Minnewaska, the Glenwood newspaper had extensive articles on all the scrambling and adjusting the school was going to have to do.
Finally I shook my head and said "knock it off, Pope County Tribune," and just let the appropriate designated people work things out. Things will work out just fine. They always do.
Here in Morris there was pain in the 1980s. We had people in administrative positions who were horribly ossified, IMHO. I guess I'm thinking of two of them.
They hadn't adjusted with the times. It was tragic because these people had their obvious good sides. Because they had good sides and because they performed competently in previous years, it was excruciating to have both of them more or less forced out.
There was huge controversy by our town's standards. One of these individuals inspired petitions around town. Really.
There was pushback in the form of alleged business boycotts, something this town can ill-afford. I have no doubt the boycotts happened.
"Some people got hurt by that," I remember a prominent business owner telling me.
My take? Part of the job of superintendent is to solve small problems before they become big ones. There might have been dereliction here.
It would have been difficult to intercede, maybe, but that's why the superintendent gets paid the big bucks.
Morris Area extracurricular activities were dying on the vine in the mid-1980s. That's not an exaggeration. There was a cancer in the system.
It wasn't just a matter of one or two teams losing more than they should. That sort of thing is always going to happen. It happens now.
But our programs today seem fundamentally healthy. Our baseball and softball teams seem capable of beating nearly everyone. Can they parlay all this to a scintillating post-season run? We'll see.
As we entered the 1990s the problems got solved. The young people of today have endless enriching opportunities to get active and avoid the kind of idle time that hindered my generation.
Oh, how we could have used the Lee Community Center. Our new Morris Area gymnasiums and concert hall are awe-inspiring. How we could have used them too.
And we were the generation with teeming numbers. We made do with less. The early boomers couldn't even avail themselves of girls sports. What an awakening we've experienced.
I remember watching Tiger varsity basketball at the old elementary auditorium, now inhabited by pigeons. It was a substandard gym.
The facilities have progressed by light years but we have far fewer kids. It's odd.
The Chokio-Alberta Spartans are gone with the wind. There are new school pairings with names that don't even help me place them geographically. Like Otter Tail Central.
Who knows what the future will bring?
But us boomers remember a time when even with all its defects (by the exacting standards of today) we found life so rich. Who knows where the future will lead.
- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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