Comments to long ago posts get buried. Down there somewhere is a Purple Tabby comment that definitely needs to be exhumed:
"Remember taking those tests every year? Then next year we were divided into five groups according to our scores? The top sections were giving College- prep classes. The middle sections were steered to Commercial classes and the last ones steered to General classes in home-ec, industrial arts etc.
A boy who lived down the road from me was always in the Fifth Section; he learned all kinds of things everyone needs to know. And he certainly wasn’t dumb!
I think grouping people by test scores did a lot of damage; it was common practice then, and maybe still is.We had a Counselor in JrHS, Mr B.; he had a daughter in our class but she dropped out. Remember him? He liked to keep girls in their place. :::sigh:::
He had a terribly sad life so I have decided against smacking him until he loses the ugly part of his face! I know he is relieved at my decision.! ;) "
First, I think he died some time ago, PT, so you can rest easy........maybe he's being smacked by a higher power now.
His daughter popped up at our 25th reunion, and was welcomed with open arms.
Secondly, this is the second time I have had classmates discuss this "grouping" of students, and I have to admit I was oblivious to it.
Anyone else have comments about it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I agree with PT here....I think Mr.b. liked to keep everyone in their place - where he decided that they needed to be.
I do remember taking some type of test at different times throughout school. Like Greybeard, never gave them much thought, nor the boxes that people got put into because of them. I really had no interaction with Mr.b. during that time. I took College prep type classes because everyone said that if you didn't go to college - that you wouldn't be able to compete with those that did. BS then and even today not true in many cases. That may be a little closer to the truth today, but, not by much. Character,drive,family,belief that you 'can'(even some good luck is involved)etc.,etc.,etc. in making it in this good old U.S. of A. READ MY LIPS - Go to College if you must, but a strong belief that you can make it and the support from those close - does wonders. College does make it easier, I'm sure, But College does not make the Man or Woman that we are. SATs did nothing except to give the Mr. b's of the world the tools to put people in boxes and that is never good. Enough of that...
By the way, I visited Vandy yesterday. Had a great visit. He had some great old pictures that he shared with me - lots of stories that went with them, also. I had printed off several pages of Blogs and comments from Vandy's Kids and he really thought that was neat. He couldn't help but get teary eyed as he was reading them. I let him know who was who (PT, GB, GH, TD, etc) As far as I could see, he did not have access to the Web. He does get around slowly, but, doing well. PT and GB-he is very appreciative of those that cared so much to put this together. He Thanks You - We all Thank You.
I got off the subject, Forgive me for I am old. BTW-Happy Birthday, GB........ Funny thing here - all those Birthdays for GB and I'm still older. How does that work?
Since I first wrote about the way we were placed into sections, I’ve had some time to reflect further on it.
I am feeling guilty of my criticism; I was too insensitive of those who cared about us and did what they thought was best.
Although I was crestfallen when my best friend was placed in a higher section than I was, I haven’t come up with a better way of grouping a large number of students.
Is there a better way to divide them into manageable groups, give them classes that prepare them for the future and the best chance to be successful?
I can’t come up with one.
I like to listen to audio books and have recently listened to stories about people who grew up in the middle of war, in poverty and bigotry without the protection of loving parents; I am dumbfounded by my harshness toward my upbringing
If a child is born to loving parents, is healthy, well fed and given an education, well, as far as I can see, that child caught the brass ring.
All thing being equal, it seems that all good things after that is gravy; bad things can be managed.
I certainly grabbed the brass ring and will be forever grateful to my parents, my teachers, and my extended family for all the opportunities I was afforded.
A friend once told me that if we are lucky, we receive perfect love (meaning God’s love) through imperfect vessels (parents, friends, spouses).
I have been very lucky indeed.
I too, remember those tests, it seems we had them about every two years and they were used to measure our intelligence and how we were faring. I remember once being told that if you scored like a 9-2, you had the capability to be a second month freshman. We always seemed to score way above our current grade. I had no idea they put us into categories, but then again, I was oblivious to many things. I just took most everyone at their word and had no idea, we could ever question anyone about anything. Not like kids nowadays.
For whatever reason, I actually liked those tests and they got us out of regular class for two days. I thought they were fun and kind of interesting. Gosh, what am I thinking here.....
Maybe they also had something to do with government money for us. I know it counted if you showed up or not to class.
Post a Comment