Another school year has begun, or is about to. And, as in years past, my thoughts wander back to the experiences from attending a 1-room school.
Back then we sang, ‘School days, school days ? reading, writing, arithmetic. Brought to you by the tune of a hickory stick.?
The song these days might be, ‘School days, schools days ? Spanish and Chinese, Facebooking, Texting, Twittering and Blogging. Brought to you by a marijuana stick.?
In 1984, Time magazine carried a story: ‘America’s schools are getting better.?
They showed a 1-room school as the lead piece of art. That same year there was a campaign by school-conscious people called, ‘We Care.?
A 1-room school was its symbol. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Still, gone are the days of signaling with a finger or two of the need to experience (endure) the outdoor, 3-holer.
No more rewarding good grades by letting students slap erasers together outdoors to clean them (the erasers, not the students).
No more mixing first through eighth grades in that 1-room. No one seemed to have concerns about a 5-year-old being in one room with teenagers.
Were our parents naive?
No way!
They knew the teacher would keep their children safe. In the song above, the hickory stick is mentioned. Whacks across the knuckles were not infrequent. Infrequent was a parent complaint.
Another reward students could earn was ringing the school bell. A rope to the bell hung inside the front door, in a cloakroom-like area. Pulling that bell was a reward. Smaller students would be pulled off their feet as the bell swung ? that was a fun sight! Older students competed for the loudest ring.
For some reason, I never got to pull that bell, and I still think of it often as I walk past the school bell by my back porch.
Of course, walking eight miles to school, uphill both ways, in 14-feet of snow, at below-zero temperatures grew from our bundled, 1-mile walk on a pretty level gravel road.
I had a trick for getting excused from school. I’d start a nosebleed. Having a flat, ill-formed nose made it easy to convince the teacher I should go home where Mother could stop the flow.
Ah, well, 1-room schools aren’t coming back. We have to have multi-room schools, where students are segregated into one room or another.
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Editorial
I’ve long respected the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Too, I respect the writings of Robert Daddow. He’s an Oakland County Deputy Executive.
He says governments ? on all levels ? will be getting less money from taxes and revenue sharing, and must focus intensely on restructuring their operations.
‘This begins,? he wrote, ‘first with long-range planning. They should grapple right now with budgets for the next three years, not just one year. It’s harder to deceive yourself when you’re forced to look at a trend, rather than a single year’s budget.?
This just postpones the liabilities to future generations and makes them worse, he said.
‘Because of state property tax laws and the sagging real estate market, it will be well into the 2020’s before state and local governments collect the same property tax revenues they did in 2008,? he wrote.
And, ‘After all, if a government activity isn’t strictly necessary and it’s putting taxpayers in debt, it’s not really a public service.
‘A perfect storm is easier to weather when your ship is trim. The key is to act now. Public officials who do that will face tough choices, but they will also be part of the solution ? not part of a problem that residents pay them to solve.?