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Actual recollection, 1950s. Every boy, from kindergarten on, carries a jackknife to school. During recess, they play games that involve throwing the knives. Some of the knives are switchblades (particularly handy in a fishing tackle box, one doesn't always have two free hands when needed), which are thought particularly cool by other boys.
Some high school boys keep fishing rods in their lockers. On nice days, when the art teachers says go out and sketch, you sketch with a line in the water You keep your fish in the sink at the back of the art room until it's time to go home. I'm not sure if guns were ever tested for hunting at school.
Then along came the government and the media................
Actual recollection, 1950s. Every boy, from kindergarten on, carries a jackknife to school. During recess, they play games that involve throwing the knives. Some of the knives are switchblades (particularly handy in a fishing tackle box, one doesn't always have two free hands when needed), which are thought particularly cool by other boys.
Some high school boys keep fishing rods in their lockers. On nice days, when the art teachers says go out and sketch, you sketch with a line in the water You keep your fish in the sink at the back of the art room until it's time to go home. I'm not sure if guns were ever tested for hunting at school.
If I remember correctly switchblades were outlawed in the early 50's in Texas.....
Bullseye!, every word of the OP is right on target. As a boy growing up long ago, I either experienced or observed several of the scenarios, and the reaction by authorities and outcomes happened just as given.
I just love our society today. I would love to be able to go back to the '50s and before (of course without the sexism, racism and discrimination) just so I could live among sane people.
The decade comparison examples in the OP are exactly the type of thing my elderly dad and his friends email back and forth. They are good folks that share one thing in particular.....an almost non-existant input of real news sources for information on current events and culture. Combine that with time burnished memories of the past and you have people who have a distorted vision of the past AND the present.
Growing up in the 60's in a small Appalachian town closely qualifies for 50's experience . I witnessed many of those school yard and after school fist fights, and I don't remember them as being pre-manhood friendship rites. Because "that's what boys did", fighting wasn't taken seriously when it should have been. I'll never forget one particularly brutal fight that shocked even the seasoned onlookers. Years later this man who once savagely attacked a classmate, died in prison where he was serving life for double murder. Would "meddling" intervention and school psychologists have helped him as a child? Who knows, but anyone can see the necessity of those services.
Just curious why, in scenario #3, the student given huge doses of Ritalin would become a zombie? I guess the old codgers haven't figured out yet that Ritalin, given for ADD and ADHD is... wait...a STIMULANT.
Ahhh.. the false nostalgia is wonderful! Smells just like apple pie!
Just curious why, in scenario #3, the student given huge doses of Ritalin would become a zombie? I guess the old codgers haven't figured out yet that Ritalin, given for ADD and ADHD is... wait...a STIMULANT.
Ahhh.. the false nostalgia is wonderful! Smells just like apple pie!
AHHH... that STIMULANT you speak of actually has a paradoxial effect on those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.
In many ways, this is so true. LOL Unfortunately though, there were some bad stuff happening then too, but I think you made it pretty clear in your opening statement. There ARE some changes that have happened for the good though.
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our society today. I would love to be able to go back to the '50s and before (of course without the sexism, racism and discrimination) just so I could live among sane people.
. I witnessed many of those school yard and after school fist fights, and I don't remember them as being pre-manhood friendship rites. Because "that's what boys did", fighting wasn't taken seriously when it should have been. I'll never forget one particularly brutal fight that shocked even the seasoned onlookers. Years later this man who once savagely attacked a classmate, died in prison where he was serving life for double murder. Would "meddling" intervention and school psychologists have helped him as a child? Who knows, but anyone can see the necessity of those services.
