1957 vs. 2007

[KTMom91]

Got this today from a girlfriend...and it made me stop and think. At what point does reaction become overreaction? I don't have an answer.

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to
jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for
traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.


Scenario:
Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.


Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.


Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

 

[Abbey]

This is SOOOO true.

My first year of teaching in 1982 we literally had a room for kids who got into a fight to go finish the task....and they did. No suspensions, just the job done. The principal would just sit there with his legs crossed and watched the match. Then, they'd all go home. No phone calls home, just business done.

I had a paddle that was hung in my classroom. Never used it, but was available.

Different world.

Abbey

 

[tinamarie1]

I often wonder what things go through the minds of people who are in their 70's and 80's. The dramatic change they have seen in their lifetimes. It must be perplexing...and I wonder if they just pine for the way things used to be. I think it would make me very sad. They must think our world is going to H in a handbasket.

 

[TerryJ2]

It is really crazy.
But when we've got such huge organizations, especially school districts that are run by boards that follow "rules," and we base ALL rules on exceptions, it's bound to happen.
My husband and his brother bought guns at a show in D.C. when they were kids. Not only were they allowed to fly alone, underage, they were allowed to bring the guns on board.
I feel like an old lady in a rocking chair, saying, "I remember when ..."

 

[donna723]

I'm from that era too. And you want to know the really sad part? Before we got so politically correct and all-knowing and thinking that we had to take care of every aspect of everyones life whether they liked it or not, I KNOW that I got a much better education than my own kids did! And my kids probably got a better education a few years ago than the kids graduating today!

I graduated from high school in 1964 in a small town in Florida near Orlando. There were about 40 kids in my graduating class. The wing with the high school was between the rows of an orange grove. There was NO air conditioning, of course ... not even fans, in hot, humid Florida. We survived. There were at least 30 kids in every class and no such thing as teachers aids or assistants. We barely had a library, much less computers or "media labs" or whatever the heck they're calling them now! Had there been such things as pocket calculators back then, we'd never have been allowed to bring them to class. Discipline was strict and teachers could actually DO SOMETHING if a kid acted up in class! I went to that school for seven years and I don't remember anybody ever mouthing off to a teacher or causing a commotion in class! Really! You KNEW exactly what would happen if you did, and they didn't worry that it would ruin your delicate "self esteem"! If you didn't do the work, you failed! Period! If you didn't take the right classes in high school, you didn't get accepted to college - no making them up once you got there. Very few kids had their own cars and even fewer had after-school jobs. We didn't have as much "stuff" but we didn't know any different. The very worst that anybody ever did in my school sounds so mild now by comparison!

I know that this was a long, long time ago, before drugs became a big problem and all that. But that's not all of it. The whole focus now seems to have changed, and we're NOT necessarily the better for it. Just my opinion though, and you know what they say about opinions ...

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

I just got that email myself. It's enough to make me weep.

 

[DammitJanet]

I have often thought that this was a valid theory.

It appears that society is trying to make little boys into something they werent meant to be. They were supposed to be wiggly and dirty and into things. Little boys had fights. Thats how they solved things. They could have a fight in the morning and share a candy bar that afternoon. Cops didnt need to be involved.

Teens TP'd houses and cherry bombed mail boxes. They blew up dirt clods. They didnt turn into terrorists. Some are probably CEO's of Fortune 500 companies.

According to today's standards I would have been locked up and have never seen the light of day. My crime? I took the foil paper out of packs of cigarettes and folded them into thin strips and put them in the light sockets at school. Tap them together with a pencil and ZAP! smoke and the circuit goes dead...lol. I reserved this trick for substitute teachers...lmao.

Oh...and yes we could smoke outside in the smoking section.