Breezy expressions on long-ago grads

We were all the same, '73

We had a guest minister in church recently who talked about how, after your 50th anniversary as a high school class, you'd schedule reunions more often. Maybe every two or three years even. It's unpleasant to mention the reason: greater likelihood of classmates passing away. 

The 50-year reunion comes at a strange time. It's strange because high school memories have become so remote. They are so lost in time, beneath a haze. We might have become such completely different people. Many of us have learned so much from life, we don't like to be reminded of when we were less capable, less aware. And oh my goodness, each generation can have its traits. 

The nature of the public school system can change in dramatic ways over time. This can be deemed almost unbelievable. Today kids can stay relaxed about their limitations or problems. Understand? I never heard terms like "ADHD," "bipolar" or "autism" when I was young. While these things may be very real, they may be hung on kids sometimes who have basic character issues. A whole industry of counselors and medications kicks in. 

Any system can go astray or be abused. That includes the public education system from when I was young. We did not have the crazy quilt of psych. issues or "behavior meds." What we had was unreasonable pressure to perform in "academics." 

A public education system was bequeathed to us by the folks who had won World War II. These people really did believe in "big government." They believed in it because of the basic fact that big government is needed for success in a world war. How else would this be accomplished? 

Today we can consider the big government monopoly with public education to have all sorts of problems. Any kind of monopoly displays these problems. The great libertarian John Stossel said they get "ossified." I guess that's how I got "ossified" added to my vocabulary. 

I remember some of the sweet Auxiliary members with the veterans service organizations of the 1980s. They carried the WWII legacy with them. I remember them promoting proclamations about our U.S. education system as if it was an extension of our national defense. 

I found nearly all of my school experiences after the sixth grade to be miserable. People who were around me then would say I seemed lost. "Futility" would best describe. All kids are different. In my case, I was above average as a student with basic reading, writing and arithmetic. I felt comfortable up through the sixth grade. I think sixth grade teacher Marion Beck began noticing some potential for difficulty, though. 

Then in the seventh grade we entered the "prison" environment where we'd go from room to room during the day, following the signal of a "bell" that would ring. You'd better not be even a few seconds late for a class. As if your world would come crashing down if you missed a few minutes. 

The evening host on KFI Radio/Los Angeles explained once why schools were so hung up on "taking attendance." The counting of heads was so essential, explained Tim Conway Jr., because it was needed to get state money. Money explains nearly everything, n'est-ce pas? A war ends because the losing side runs out of money. 

So I got dragged through "academics." What a miserable exercise. Why so miserable for me and I'm sure others? Well the "big government" model was in full force, and our leaders had determined that we needed to "beat the Russians" (i.e. Soviet Union). We looked up in the sky and saw "Sputnik," and then felt we had to about lose our minds. Instead we should have been keeping our eye on the "military industrial complex." But we didn't. 

We are so flawed as human beings, so incongruous sometimes. I mean, consider the people who are today's "MAGA." They have decided they are totally against foreign wars. But the very same type of people in the 1960s were "hard hats" and wanted to literally beat up the peaceniks who had become agitated by the Vietnam war. 

So I went through my childhood following the Vietnam war and then the protests, daily. All of that was pointless. The protests should not have existed because the war should not have existed. But there it was before our eyes: the tragedy and pathos. The backdrop for my generation as we slogged through our public school experience. 

Today we can seem happy - that is because we are so unshackled from all of that. Look at any photo of Class of '73 alumni from anywhere and they look so breezy and relaxed. That's strictly from today's perspective. I'm amused looking at these photos and realizing that all these people went through the same stuff. We all felt the same stimuli. We all had schoolteachers who were such ogres. Ditto with school administrators. 

As the enrollment number dropped through the years, and as the legacy of WWII faded, we got "helicopter parents" who really insisted that school facilitate the lives of young people. School also should be made enjoyable a greater share of the time. Stop terrorizing the kids with "grades." The grading system of that earlier time was onerous, to trot out just one word I could use to describe. 

Teachers actually had to follow a quota whereby a certain percentage of 'C' grades were necessary. So lessons, quizzes and tests were clearly designed to get the proper distribution of grades. 

Misery? Well, the fathers of the boomers had been through misery in military service. They probably came to think this kind of sacrifice was necessary in life. Remember, whenever a WWII veteran was talking about the virtue of "fighting for the good guys," there's a good chance that veteran never saw direct combat himself. How different the assessment of war would be, from a young man who didn't make it. Those souls are silenced forever. Maybe that young man jumped out of a plane with a parachute and the parachute didn't open. Think of the families who lost sons in such a manner. 

War is necessary? Well we sure learned from Vietnam that war is not necessary. Today the MAGA people profess anti-war simply because their leader tells them to. They will do whatever Trump says. For sure he's coming back to win his party's nomination and then quite likely the presidency. And then God help all of us. The Republican Party could have stopped this. The failure is on them. 

 

Hindsight

How nice if my generation could have gotten "life skills" instruction in school. I began noticing in the '80s or '90s about how such formal instruction had begun. 

Instead we had boring and difficult "textbooks" thrust at us. Total misery. It's 50 years later and now it's so easy to forget about the misery, to pose for our reunion photo with that carefree glimmer in our eyes. It's almost as if we have the world by the tail, just to look at our expressions. But many of us have dark stories we could tell. 

 

Weigh the "what if"

I never stop imagining what might have happened to me, had I just decided to walk out of the school building, like in ninth grade, and just head to my wonderful family home. I could escape the abject misery of school. Do some reading on my own, develop my own schedule some, instead of being ruled by the infernal "bell" going off. Or to take a quiz where only a handful of 'A' grades would be given, even if the teacher had to painstakingly construct a scheme to make it so. 

I'm sure our former teachers would readily admit to having gone through such contortions. Had I walked out of school, would I have even made it home? Would a cop intercept me in a hostile and confrontational way? After all, the school needed my "state aid money." F--k that.

Here's a photo I took in 1983 for the MHS ten-year.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com,