Ole Pappy
“School days, school days, Dear old Golden Rule days. Reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmatic, taught to the tune of a hick’ry stick.” That old song written in 1907 simply called, “School Days,” just doesn’t work for our modern schooling these days.
These days we’re suffering from many days of school being called off due to bad weather. We’re sending kids home to study by using a computer and we call it, “e-learning.” Instead of a pen and tablet to write on, each kid is lugging a little machine they call an “i-Pad.”
There is, of-course, no hick’ry stick anymore.
Teachers today would face serious charges if they struck a child. If a school had a boys’ basketball team with cheerleaders that was about all the excitement the community needed.
Now days, we have boys’ and girls’ basketball — plus wrestling, then a variety of other activities including, Speech Team, Knowledge Bowl Team, Robotics, FFA and so many others.
In Minneota, despite all the days they’ve had off — the Viking girls made it to state and school was called off Thursday and Friday so teachers, students and others can attend the state tournament in the Twin Cities.
The Knowledge Bowl team got to the sectional by qualifying in the subsections a week earlier.
They gave it a good shot, but came up short and didn’t qualify for advancement. Minneota finished 25th out of 38 teams. (See photo of team competing left). These aren’t your father’s school days anymore. Today, it’s a matter of technology, computers and social media access.
If anyone had told me when I was in high school every kid in the school would have a telephone in his pocket — I would have laughed so hard you’d still be hearing me. I remember a movie when “Superman” came out of a building and looked around for a telephone booth because he always changed into his Superman outfit after being Clark Kent, the mild-mannered reporter.
But this time there were no phone booths and people were standing around talking on their cellphones. So Superman just tore his outer clothes off, shrugged his shoulders and flew away.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. Everything changes.
But I remember talking to a friend about the past and a 15-year-old boy was listening to our conversation. When the other man left he tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Byron, I have a question about something you said.” I answered, “Yes, what is it?” He looked at me and said, “What’s a typewriter?” It was at that instant I felt very, very old!
Recently, I was in the Minneota Elementary School for a story and all the kids were carrying little i-Pad devices. Nobody had a notebook ... and forgive me .... there was not a pencil in sight. Again, it’s at moments like that when I feel as though I’ve stepped out of my world into another time zone.
Imagine — they cancel school and send the kids home to learn on their computers for the day and they call it “e-learning”.
In Minneota, while they put a high priority on learning and they’ve become a VERY GOOD academic school, the sports teams still hold a high priority. Imagine in this time with all the snow days piling up that we are closing school two days to watch basketball games?
The school board set this rule a couple of years ago. After studying years past, they found poor attendance on those days anyway. Remember those stories when grandpa used to tell about how he walked two miles to school in a severe blizzard, up hill all the way?
Not going to be any of those stories these days. Frankly, it’s all for the better. If only we could get the weatherman to cooperate with us a little bit more.
Oh, by the way young people, a “typewriter” is a keyboard that is not plugged in. And you need paper. I’ll explain how that works at another time. So grab your i-Pad, throw the pencil in the garbage and climb aboard. This is a new day in education — and we’re along for the ride.
LAUGH A LITTLE: Clever music man. A sign at a music store read ... “Gone Chopin ... Bach in a minuet.”
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: As my Ole Pappy used to say, “Don’t think someone else is more blessed than you are. We are blessed in different ways.” Ole Pappy like to profess the “positive” and stayed away from the negative. He didn’t like us looking at someone else and wondering why we couldn’t be like them. He preferred to let us know we are special, in special ways! Thanks Ole Pappy!