I let them do a number of things (that wouldn’t kill someone) their way after a discussion of the pros and cons – then sat back and watched it blow up – then said “Told You”. They learned fast and they now get the results they set out to obtain for the most part. I was trained the same way. Maybe I have become the people who taught me.

And Jesse – If you think what you’ve seen here is being “criticized” it’s not. You are too thin skinned – and that’s an observation, not criticism. You are the one who got this post started in public. This is what happens. No biggie. Deal with it.

One day soon, and sooner than you think, you may be in an occupation or just in a situation where you hold the lives of other people in your hands, or their property. If you should perform less than standard, you will see what criticism is. All this, your life at Skyline – is part of your training for that day.

Keep your posting up and don’t take any of this personally. It goes with the job you have undertaken of being a poster – and a representative of your class at Skyline. Imagine what Katy Murphy goes through at work, get a thicker skin and continue making your own points your way.

And you don’t have to “defend” yourself – just explain your position and why it makes sense to you at this time. You are a high school student and you are not expected to agree with the rest of us most of the time. The trick is in how you communicate your point.

As for you Nexset, thanks for the defense, I’m just afraid we will hardly ever agree on much of anything. Perhaps when I “grow up”.

I don’t think the OUSD kids are getting anywhere near the quality of education that my cohort had in the 1960s. I think they are being coddled – being treated with kid gloves – being spoken too kindly and treated like breakable dolls. Simply put they are not being roughed up enough. I’m afraid they are so conditioned to stay in their comfort zone they can’t compete. They certainly dress comfortably.

I’m afraid these OUSD kids will fall apart the first time they have to deal with a meter maid, a store clerk, a cop, an employer, or even worse, a Southern CA competitive student who wants the job/spouse/school slot or anything else our East Bay kids want.

If I interview OUSD products and play with them at all they go nuts. They get emotional. They can’t take a position and defend it logically. They can’t write a business letter. They are trained NOT to think logically. They have poor verbal skills. Even worse is the lack of discipline – in their personal, social, financial & occupational affairs.

I blame the schools for this – forget the parents. School is where a lot of these skills are developed. My schools – primary through college but especially high school – knocked the childishness out of us. I wonder if these schools are brave enough to order a kid into an assigned seat.

You don’t have to have an IQ of 90 to have a lot of the skills I mentioned. And those OUSD kids who do have higher functioning – and I have relatives in OUSD – they are developing none of the above at school, and they are developing a toxic self esteem and political correctness which will not serve them well as the compete for college and careers.

If they don’t learn the basics of what life is about in high school they won’t wear well in the next 5 years.

Maybe I’m not the one to listen to because my cohort were among the first black students certain in East Bay public schools. We had to prove ourselves all the time – there were fights, physical and political. So we turned out harder than the current crop. We had to be at the top of the game to justify being around, plus our parents would kill us if the grades or scores slacked off. They had their own issues and we’d better not add to them. Our public schools were tough enough to turn my siblings and cousins into high earning professionals and I want that opportunity for Jesse’s generation also. And not just for the money, but for the working and living conditions and the ability to be creative and to set policy. It’s better than “will you have fries with that??”

Back to the thread… Getting emotionally involved with a 3rd world civil war and it’s effects on the foreign children isn’t in the mix of the education needed. If they need to cry, I’d give them something more productive to cry about.

Just my point of view. Just ignore it and form your own!

I’m not offended. I just thought her reaction was not mature and said so. The sarcasm was not necessary. There was no need for atiitude. I doubt you are extinguishing the hopes of children in OUSD. Is that your goal?

Turner

You seem easily offended. What’s your background here?

Jesse, you are a child. You have no clue how an effective education system is run. You should listen to those who went through one when one existed.

Back in the day, they never asked for our opinion or how we felt about what was being offered. They knew what kind of professionals the country needed. They built an education system that produced those professionals. That led to a strong and very competent workforce that allowed the United States to maintain its position as the most powerful country in the world.

When these people talk, you should listen to them and think about what they are saying. You do not have to agree with what they say but you shoudl appreciate their insight and perspective that comes from experience and wisdom. Even I am learning from John and Nextset yet I have been there!

Your reaction sounds like one of a spoilt brat. I have really enjoyed your blogging so I am shocked to see that kind of response from you.

It just shows that you have not yet grown up.

Turner

Some schools promote foreign travel and have students interning in businesses and agencies that deal with foreign affairs (anything from the state dept to trade organizations to medical relief flying surgical centers). I think that is great. In the case of the flying surgical center, a local 16 year old I’m referring to was flying around on a large jet into Africa and serving as a surgical assistant for Cataract Surgeries in the on-plane operating room. So he had something to discuss on his college application essays when he wrote them – then went to on UC for undergrad.

It’s one thing for for an education program to push a student to get hands on experience in foreign travel, language and eye surgery.

It’s another to involve high school students in propaganda & political projects involving abstrict altruism and political meddling with foreigners. I see a big difference and I am satified I know why it’s being done. And it takes time and study to appreciate why it’s being done – done to you.

Thus my reaction, and my story about the hapless friendly chem instructor that wasn’t instructing very well as we all had a good time. The various parents who were trained in Chemistry realized at once what was going on and put a stop to it.

I’m not your enemy – the posters who take the time to post the contrarian views have life experiences that underlie their points of view. When you post in public discourse – you get to hear points of view you never would have heard as all your family and friends pat you on the head. That’s why public discourse is so valuable and not always very pleasant.

Take whatever you want away from the exchanges. I know it’s unsettling to hear the other side of the situation. It is the most unsettling if the other side has a point.

We – I suppose, John and I – are deeply worried for what waits for you and your classmates in the next 5 to 10 years. You have to get through your occupational training – whatever that can be – and find a comfortable place for you here. We question your preparedness because we know the quality issues of your school, and this issue gives us no further reason to believe you are being prepared by your school for your immediate future.

And we’re only preaching because we’ve been there, not so long ago. Our points have nothing to do with the urchins of the world whom I’m sure are very saintly people. It’s about you and the competition that awaits you for anything in American Life – school, employment, spouse, health coverage, happiness.

I don’t believe you are really aware of the challenge you face nowadays for what I took for granted – Tuition at UC was $600/yr when I went. UC Law School was $1200/year. And there were more seats – they have been cut back since.

My father had a Masters’ degree in Chemistry. I liked my Chemistry instructor in High School. We called him by his first name and he was hip. Dear Old Dad was home when I had friends over who were in chemistry class one November. None of us knew what a mole was. We all liked the instructor. Dad got on the phone and called some of his other Dr friends who had kids in that high school – and they all called the school board. The Chemistry instructor was let go.

Our parents would attack anything that they deemed in the way of our progress – and my younger brother did take Chemistry at that school and go on to become a physician. The other families also got at least one child into and through med school.

We were unhappy with their meddling – and we learned a lot from the parents. It was no accident that they became lawyers and physicians – or that their children advanced also.

This is no different. Enjoy your school – you’re young. Let them take you by the hand and explore all those emotions that go with alturism and “feeling good about yourself”. But don’t be surprised when my generation looks at your school and your fun the way we do. You only have so many years to compete with the best that Beverly Hills/Los Angeles has to offer for limited seats on the train to higher education. We want you ready. We don’t care a fig for sub sahara africa.

It is entertaining to see that the difference between somebody making it in life and not can be a very discrete thing – the influence of people passing through their lives, being in the right place at the right time – a well timed impulse to take a step.

It’s still possible to make a difference in the fate of a person with education and exposure to – reality I suppose – at a crucial time.

Things are about to get really interesting. The OUSD kids really don’t have much of a chance. If they don’t make the jump soon they will never catch up to their future superiors and rulers. The public schools will serve to choke off social advancement.

Their “graduates” will not even learn to read, write and speak conversational english required to pass into the higher (professional-middle?) class. The public school mores will be so far removed from the higher classes there will be no fraternizing of the groups.

I see this now in young people coming into the workforce. Middle Class wanna-bes who are not from a family of that rank and just can’t make the jump to middle class occupations. They don’t understand how to behave, how to think. They can’t fit in. They didn’t learn anything in school. At 18 they are full grown children who remain children.

Children who have been taught nothing of duty, loyalties, boundries, authority, fidelity – and who have situational ethics. You see these people on Judge Judy a lot. They have been taught that if one need something, they have a right to it. And other people are to provide it for them. Right…

Brave New World.