School 1957 vs 2007

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

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 fistfight 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 pain t 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.

[mntetn]

This is pretty good. I'm old enough to remember 1957.

I remember teacher's union ads from the 50s saying the schools didn't have enough money and how much worse it was going to get. That part hasn't changed.

Our elementary school (parochial) didn't have paddling. But shaking was done all the time. I didn't encounter paddling (either personally or as a school policy) until high school.

There were bullies then and there still are. But they usually had knives instead of guns.

In 1957, I was in 3rd grade and we lived in Kansas City. We got out of school 2 weeks early because of the Ruskin Heights tornado.

[Appa23]

This could be 1987 and 2007, at least for many of them.

[Spock]

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.

I have told this story often-but Fall 1978-our 6th Grade teacher was also our gun safety instructor.

One day after school-we were going to shoot. They (The school TPTB) would not let us bring the guns on the bus-so our parents had to bring them in. There was a stack of approximately 12 firearms in the corner of our 6th-grade classroom.

[BackInTex]

You radical conservative you!

[Vails]

Yes, things really are so much worse now than they were back in the good old days, weren't they? Back when Johnny and the principal could share some quality time together out on the smoking dock? When Jack and the vice principal can bond in the parking lot over a good shotgun?

The "old days" were miserable times, filled with closed-mindedness, bigotry, unsolved murders, bad coffee, pedophilia, truly disturbing views about parenting, a glass ceiling that to us would look more like a floor, Borscht Belt comedians, cloth diapers, unchecked bullies, ass-backward schoolteaching philosophies, wife-beating, a near-total ignorance about people of other races or social sectors, abject ostracism of teenagers who don't drop out of school when they get pregnant, abject ostracism of them anyway, Tasaday-caliber medical techniques, waste dumping, chewing tobacco, corporal punishment, bad hygiene, lard, barflys, unzoned industrial development, mumps, three channels of TV, traffic lights on highways, washboards and wringers, idolatry, hate crimes, aspics, a stultifying reliance on the benevolence of big business, a willingness to ignore people when they're down unless they are a "neighbor," ziggurat-sized computers, rampant complacency, post-Brubeck jazz, segregation, rejection of breastfeeding, Victorian-residue sexual repression, polio, pablum, polack jokes, and two-day weather forecasts.

Give me today over yesterday any day. At least with today, you get tomorrow as well. It's a package deal. If you choose yesterday, then all you'll ever get is more yesterday.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Yes, things really are so much worse now than they were back in the good old days, weren't they? Back when Johnny and the principal could share some quality time together out on the smoking dock? When Jack and the vice principal can bond in the parking lot over a good shotgun?

The "old days" were miserable times, filled with closed-mindedness, bigotry, unsolved murders, bad coffee, pedophilia, truly disturbing views about parenting, a glass ceiling that to us would look more like a floor, Borscht Belt comedians, cloth diapers, unchecked bullies, ass-backward schoolteaching philosophies, wife-beating, a near-total ignorance about people of other races or social sectors, abject ostracism of teenagers who don't drop out of school when they get pregnant, abject ostracism of them anyway, Tasaday-caliber medical techniques, waste dumping, chewing tobacco, corporal punishment, bad hygiene, lard, barflys, unzoned industrial development, mumps, three channels of TV, traffic lights on highways, washboards and wringers, idolatry, hate crimes, aspics, a stultifying reliance on the benevolence of big business, a willingness to ignore people when they're down unless they are a "neighbor," ziggurat-sized computers, rampant complacency, post-Brubeck jazz, segregation, rejection of breastfeeding, Victorian-residue sexual repression, polio, pablum, polack jokes, and two-day weather forecasts.

Give me today over yesterday any day. At least with today, you get tomorrow as well. It's a package deal. If you choose yesterday, then all you'll ever get is more yesterday.

I miss food fried in lard. (and you left out, unpadded dashboards on cars without airbags)

[christie1111]

Give me today over yesterday any day. At least with today, you get tomorrow as well. It's a package deal. If you choose yesterday, then all you'll ever get is more yesterday.

I really agree with this but also shake my head when things like the Skittles incident happen.

Since it is in my state and I have a son of a similar age as likely to buy Skittles as the next guy, I brought this up at dinner last night.


I think that stuff is crazy!

[BackInTex]

I really agree with this but also shake my head when things like the Skittles incident happen.

Since it is in my state and I have a son of a similar age as likely to buy Skittles as the next guy, I brought this up at dinner last night.


I think that stuff is crazy!

What Skittles incident?

[christie1111]

Here you go :

viewtopic.php?t=4450

Silly stuff!

[andrewjackson]

Yes, things really are so much worse now than they were back in the good old days, weren't they? Back when Johnny and the principal could share some quality time together out on the smoking dock? When Jack and the vice principal can bond in the parking lot over a good shotgun?

The "old days" were miserable times, filled with closed-mindedness, bigotry, unsolved murders, bad coffee, pedophilia, truly disturbing views about parenting, a glass ceiling that to us would look more like a floor, Borscht Belt comedians, cloth diapers, unchecked bullies, ass-backward schoolteaching philosophies, wife-beating, a near-total ignorance about people of other races or social sectors, abject ostracism of teenagers who don't drop out of school when they get pregnant, abject ostracism of them anyway, Tasaday-caliber medical techniques, waste dumping, chewing tobacco, corporal punishment, bad hygiene, lard, barflys, unzoned industrial development, mumps, three channels of TV, traffic lights on highways, washboards and wringers, idolatry, hate crimes, aspics, a stultifying reliance on the benevolence of big business, a willingness to ignore people when they're down unless they are a "neighbor," ziggurat-sized computers, rampant complacency, post-Brubeck jazz, segregation, rejection of breastfeeding, Victorian-residue sexual repression, polio, pablum, polack jokes, and two-day weather forecasts.

Give me today over yesterday any day. At least with today, you get tomorrow as well. It's a package deal. If you choose yesterday, then all you'll ever get is more yesterday.

I miss food fried in lard. (and you left out, unpadded dashboards on cars without airbags)

Mmmmmm.....Food fried in lard.

[fantine33]

Yes, things really are so much worse now than they were back in the good old days, weren't they? Back when Johnny and the principal could share some quality time together out on the smoking dock? When Jack and the vice principal can bond in the parking lot over a good shotgun?

The "old days" were miserable times, filled with closed-mindedness, bigotry, unsolved murders, bad coffee, pedophilia, truly disturbing views about parenting, a glass ceiling that to us would look more like a floor, Borscht Belt comedians, cloth diapers, unchecked bullies, ass-backward schoolteaching philosophies, wife-beating, a near-total ignorance about people of other races or social sectors, abject ostracism of teenagers who don't drop out of school when they get pregnant, abject ostracism of them anyway, Tasaday-caliber medical techniques, waste dumping, chewing tobacco, corporal punishment, bad hygiene, lard, barflys, unzoned industrial development, mumps, three channels of TV, traffic lights on highways, washboards and wringers, idolatry, hate crimes, aspics, a stultifying reliance on the benevolence of big business, a willingness to ignore people when they're down unless they are a "neighbor," ziggurat-sized computers, rampant complacency, post-Brubeck jazz, segregation, rejection of breastfeeding, Victorian-residue sexual repression, polio, pablum, polack jokes, and two-day weather forecasts.

Give me today over yesterday any day. At least with today, you get tomorrow as well. It's a package deal. If you choose yesterday, then all you'll ever get is more yesterday.

I thought this was meant to be tongue in cheek until I got to the last paragraph. If not, it makes me more sad than anything because, with the exception of mostly shallow stuff like the size of computers and number of television channels, the majority of the ills you listed are still around, and most of them are bigger and badder than ever.

And then there's the cloth diapers and waste dumping, which sort of cancel each other out.

[kayrharris]

Well, I'm pretty simple minded. I still don't understand the Clinton's jump the shark thread, but that's just me.

I'm with Fan on this one. I also used cloth diapers and nursed my babies. Maybe I was "green" before my time and dint even know it. So, was Vail's post tongue in cheek or not?

[VAdame]

I'm with Fan on this one. I also used cloth diapers and nursed my babies.

Me three

To be specific: In 1974, I used cloth diapers & washed 'em in the wringer washer & hung 'em on the line to dry! In 1986, I used disposables (whatever brand was on sale or I had a coupon for), but felt bad about contributing to the already overloaded landfills. In 1989, I discovered the best of all possible worlds & got a diaper service! Sadly, I think it's gone out of business since. I offered to try to find a service for Karen & she said No, Thanks! LOL

In the 50's & early 60's, my Mom nursed all 5 of us & used cloth diapers (from a service, IIRC.)

[Vails]

My earlier post was not tongue-in-cheek. The "1957 vs. 2007" thing PSM posted just really grated on me (not holding it against you, PSM, I know you didn't write it!).

I have an almost reflexive animosity toward the "The good old days were better" sentiment. Not only do I truly and deeply believe that it's not true, but I also feel that it's a damaging--or, at best, stagnating--point of view.

Fantine was right when she said that many of the things I listed are still with us today, but I can't agree with her when she says they are bigger and badder now. Just because we know so much more about the evils in this world now than we used to doesn't mean that they are any more real now than they used to be. A white middle-class small-town family could sail right through life in the 50s and never really experience the truly desperate lives that the disadvantaged--or even just different--people were living at the same time. And if something did intrude upon their solitude--often from within--it was treated with such ignorance and rejection in the name of the status quo that people were forced to hide their pain rather than heal it.

Shoot, I have to go. One more thing: Breastfeeding rocks, and what I was saying is that women a generation ago were told by male "experts" that it was bad for the baby and the mother. We're only now starting to recover from that stupidity. And cloth diapers sucked. They were stinky and unhygenic. I'll recycle everything else in the world, just let me have the modern wonder of technology that is the disposable diaper.

Remember everyone, these are better days, and the best is yet to come. bye!

[T_Bone0806]

Remember everyone, these are better days, and the best is yet to come. bye!

Except the music. That is decidedly suckier. And you'll never convince me otherwise.

Of course, there are other things as well. I wouldn't trade my childhood for any other time. Videogames and modern gadgets pale in comparison to playing outdoors and the ability to be kids instead of having to grow up so fast and learn about "things" much earlier than should be necessary. Having enough kids to field a good baseball game on a sandlot rather than only having enough to run a 2 on 2 hoops shootout because there are so few real "neighborhoods" now. You're lucky if you even know your next-door neighbor's name.

300 cable channels with fewer appealing programs than you could find on any given night in '66 on ABC, NBC, AND CBS. 12 cent comic books with Spider-Man, Batman, and the Legion of Super Heroes. Swimming at the beach and getting together with aunts, uncles and cousins because everyone lived fairly close together instead of scattered around the country. HAVING THE TIME TO DO THOSE THINGS because Mom and Dad worked Monday through Friday and had weekends off instead of having to put in 60-hour work weeks and weekends to either make ends meet or keep the boss off their backs and/or coworker sharks from pushing them aside. Watching those 45's spinning round and round on my record player or in the jukebox. Downtown stores decorated by schoolkids at Christmastime. Reading the day's installment of the annual Christmas serial in the local newspaper. Coloring the picture in the "Coloring College" section of the Sunday Comics in the New York Daily News.

Oh, there's so much more. Yes, I know that there was a lot that was wrong with the world and this country. Yes, I was lucky to be middle-class and white (although our neighborhood really was a rainbow and we didn't seem to have problems with each other. We all played together and hung out at each other's houses. If you liked to play baseball or read comics or listen to the Beatles, you were in. Period.). No, I was sheltered from seeing the ugliness. Still, when I see kids today, I feel very fortunate to grow up when I did. There is very little innocence anymore. Kids are too worldly too soon, out of necessity in today's world. It makes me sad. They are missing the simple joys of childhood in so many cases.

Not that I'm saying my life is a horror movie today. There is plenty to enjoy. My family at the top of the list, naturally. But sometimes I do get nostalgic for what was for me, a pretty good childhood. Especially now that Dad is gone, Mom is approaching the end of her road, and most of my aunts and uncles gones as well, with the cousins I spent so much time with as a kid scattered around the country.

I know they weren't good old days for everyone. But they were for me.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

My earlier post was not tongue-in-cheek. The "1957 vs. 2007" thing PSM posted just really grated on me (not holding it against you, PSM, I know you didn't write it!).

Thanks for not holding it against me.

[kayrharris]

My earlier post was not tongue-in-cheek.

Thanks for explaining. Sometimes I just need help.
I grew up in the 50's, so I'm pretty sure I'm at least a generation older than you. I guess it's just a matter of perspective.

[BackInTex]

Remember everyone, these are better days, and the best is yet to come. bye!

Tell that to Ryan White's parents.

Tell that to Todd Beamer's kids.

You seem focused on the white middle class family and 'how bad it was for minorities' in the non-so good ole days.

What is the life expectancy of a black man now vs. say 1955? What % of black kids don't know their fathers now vs. back them? What about the % in jail?

Sure, part's of the good old days weren't so good. Depends on your point of view. But the first post in this thread was made to point out that there are some things that were good and how foolish our current society is that they aren't that way now.

The fact of the matter is you are more apt to get car jacked now than in 1955, black or white. More apt to get murdered now than in 1950, especially if you are black.

And the fact of the matter is, yes the best is yet to come, but it will get worse before it does get better. Much much worse.

[ne1410s]

bit:

And the fact of the matter is, yes the best is yet to come, but it will get worse before it does get better.

So, you are predicting a Demo victory in November???

[BackInTex]

bit:

And the fact of the matter is, yes the best is yet to come, but it will get worse before it does get better.

So, you are predicting a Demo victory in November???

No, just nine more months of GWB before somebody, anybody, else.

[peacock2121]

The problems we have today were solutions to the problems we had yesterday.

The problems we will have tomorrow will have been the solutions we had for the problems today.

[marrymeflyfree]

And cloth diapers sucked. They were stinky and unhygenic.

Cloth diapers are making a big comeback...but they're a lot different than the old ones.

[Beebs52]

There is no particular human progress, if progress is defined as people getting any better/smarter/more apt to do the right thing, yada yada. There's just change and redefinition. People are wartridden and succumb to the same old stuff they've always succumbed to. The same people try to fix it, whatever the current "it" may be, and it all highlights that some things do remain steadfast, while everything else swirls around.

I'll let you enter your own "steadfast", good or bad.

But, I think my childhood was probably less hindering than those of today's kids. By that I mean simple stuff like staying out of the house all day, riding bikes all over the place, coming in finally at dark. Small town, yes, but I've heard that city folk also had a bit looser rein as well.

To counter THAT statement I've heard my kids actually rave about their childhood as far as school and friends and whatever. That would have been 80's, 90's. And I thought I was being a miserable mom at points or too paranoid or fill-in-the-blank. I guess it's what you know.

[TheConfessor]

The fact of the matter is you are more apt to get car jacked now than in 1955, black or white. More apt to get murdered now than in 1950, especially if you are black.

Actually, murder rates are about the same now as in the 1950s, down sharply from the 1970s and 1980s.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/hmrt.htm