From the nineteen-fifties:

" Tests were administered simply and effectively. There were no pre-printed forms. Multiple choice, true or false questions and such were completely unknown. For example, for the foreign language tests, the teacher dictated sentences in German. The pupils had to write down their translations in the foreign language being taught. Our time pressure was enormous, for we had to respond to the speed of the dictation. We could not return to re-read questions and think about the answers later. Test results were based on spelling and grammatical errors. Ten to twelve errors of any kind on a language test resulted in failure.

The public schools had no logo, mascot, advisors, curriculum counselors, nurses, and resource officers. No lunchrooms, vending machines, copy machines, clubs, newspaper, sports teams, coaches or bands. We had no teachers aides or tutors. There were no loudspeakers, telephones, movie projectors or sound equipment to distract us. We had no invited speakers or demonstrations, seminars or parent-teacher organizations.

There were no courses in self-esteem, in sex or social agendas. We did not learn how to put condoms on fingers so we would know how to put them on something, and into something. We were deprived and unprotected in this cruel world...

... no teenage pregnancies....

We had no school buses even though pupils came from other cities and villages. They came on trains, bikes and public buses, and payed for their own transportation. We also had to pay for our own books and brought our own sandwiches. There was not even a library or caferteria in our school. We only studied the textbooks that we had to buy. We studied them so much that by the time we were finished, they would be gray and severely dog-eared. Our knowledge was condensed in these textbooks; we concentrated more on quality than quantity. Instead of learning to mix drinks, we learned French. Instead of bouncing around in tutus or duct taping our principal to a wall, we beat our brains out with algebra.

Our courses taught mostly facts and logic. There was no hocus-pocus of any kind. We had no distracting entertainment such as dances or assemblies. School felt like an army boot camp. In other words, we were totally deprived, but we made up for it by learning a lot, including discipline and self-reliance.

But even before Little Brother and I entered school we were the paragons of discipline and urgently needed some hocus-pocus. Unfortunately our school did not provide us with such relief although there were several hundred pupils that we could hocus and pocus with. Like in many other countries, this outstanding educational system has veered off track. Probably because Little Brother and I had left and there was no one who could be spanked anymore.

One American magazine recently mentioned the shocking illiteracy levels of the German youth, and that two successive car models of Daimler Benz had failed road tests. This article continued that: In Germany, some thirty percent of students leave school unemployable due to lack of reading, writing, and math skills.

Wait until no one wants to feed these unemployables anymore. Then all hell will break loose, again.

Nowadays students suffer through intense feel-good-about-yourself yo-yo demonstrations by national champions. Lectures by drug convicts. Cons are glorified and the most qualified to tell our children Just Say No....

....To be children, girls did not paint their faces to attract boys. They did not even shave their armpits or legs, but were disgustingly sexy anyway. "

-- Not Again! (seenit@ww2.com), February 08, 1999

Answers

What is your point or question? The description of school in the 50s is interesting (attractive in it's innocence), but are you saying this caused today's problems, or is their solution?

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), February 08, 1999.

>>There were no loudspeakers, telephones, movie projectors or sound equipment to distract us.

>>...two successive car models of Daimler Benz had failed road tests.

I think the idea is that what we consider to be "progress" in education is largely distraction, if not corruption. I also reflect on the fact that the interdependent computerized infrastructure control-systems that are about to fail are totally new in human experience. Sort of like a new model of car that is being "road tested." There is also the suggestion that if our culture had more focus and discipline and less hoo-hah, we might not have the Y2k problem, or we would have been responsible enough to fix it a decade ago. Or, failing that, we would be responsible enough to prepare as a nation, instead of pretending that it isn't happening.

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), February 08, 1999.

Dear Escherichia Not:

Once again you have great insight. Have you noticed that we must have had a 'social cleansing' without having noticed. What happened to words and meanings of: truth, thief, criminal, discipline, punishment, gangster. Such words have all but disappeared from the mainstream.

A lot of words in my 60's dictionary have been omitted in my newest dictionary. Many of them were of great imoport. Many new words included are foul and rotten. F.. this, and f... that.

Dear Anon99,

Yes, I am convinced that our educational system, and more, are at least partly responsible for Y2K.

By the way the 'Resource Officer' mentioned above is a sheriff's deputy in this little village. Why fool ourselves, he is a Guard! When will he wear the uniform of a national police force?

-- Not Again! (seenit@ww2.com), February 08, 1999.

Hey Seenit,

from previous posts I was wondering if you are the guy who survived the famine of post war Germany? If so please contact me since I believe you are not using a real e-mail address. For everyone else I would like to point out that the mass starvation of millions of Germans during and after WWII is a fitting recent historical example of the reality of TEOTWAWKI. The Depression in this country is a lesser example. These events fly in the face of the conventional unwisdom of " what was yesterday and is today shall be tomorrow". Disaster does happen in modern industrialized nations and sometimes there is no tender loving Big Brother to take care of you.

Back to the off-topic topic, yes education is pretty bad. Too much touchy feely garbage. I am confident things will vastly improve when the state run skools :) close down after the Great Cleansing in 2000.

-- Joe O (ozarkjoe@yahoo.com), February 08, 1999.

A cogent discussion of the critical deficiencies of our system of education is given by Joseph Chilton Pearce in his book, Evolution's End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 08, 1999.

O joe,

yes, I'm from TEOTWAWKI. If possible, I'll be glad to answer your questions.

Not Again!

-- hat chou (hatchou@yahoo.com), February 09, 1999.

I've collected a few good textbooks for schooling in the aftermath, if the situation calls for it. Most of the best, math in particular, are from the WWII period, when there was a real need to gear up for the war effort. Not diluted with entertainment value, just crisp and clear and complete. They weigh about a third what modern kid's texts do, too; the text is dense on the page, as if paper had value. Compare with what they're giving kids now - hard to believe it's not a plot to stupidify us.

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), February 09, 1999.