What did I learn about the public education system in high school in the late 70' early 80s? The school’s primary mission was keeping warm bodies in chairs (head count for tax dollars) and moving you through the system as expedient as possible regardless of outcome.
My experience:
My freshman year I had Algebra 1. This had been the norm for freshman. The first semester went fine, and I did well. About two weeks into the second semester, I got lost (those darn polynomials) and I waited too long to ask for help. I learn by example and when the homework did not follow the in-class instruction it was game over. I got so far behind my school counselor told me to drop it and take again the next year.
Junior year and Algebra 1 once again. The first semester was a breeze as I had already aced that the previous year. This time I was ready for what was to come. As soon as I started to have trouble I went to the teacher (not the same as the previous year) and asked for help. Her response? If you can’t keep up, you don’t belong in the class. WTH????
Now at the time my father was the dean of the local community college. When I told him about what had happened, he didn’t believe me. Assuring him of the situation he scheduled a meeting with the teacher. He was a professional educator and administrator, so this is his wheelhouse so to speak.
I waited outside while he met with her. I expected to be called in to discuss how I would get help. Instead, my father came out seeming upset and said, “let’s go”. We marched to the principal’s office where my father read him the riot act about how worthless my teacher was, had no business teaching anyone anything and would be pulling me out of her class. Things got heated, and words were exchanged I did not hear very often from him.
That set the tone for the rest of the year. I’m fairly sure the principle put a target on my back as many of my teachers became openly hostile to me the remainder of the year. It got bad enough my father had another “contentious” meeting with the principle and in the end, it was agreed I would transfer to another high school for my junior and senior year. The principle did not want me to leave (lost warm body to collect tax dollars on) but my father prevailed.
At the start of my junior year my new school counselor, thinking I was just a screwup, advised me to take general math as it would satisfy my math requirement to graduate. Fine whatever, I was done with the system at this point.
General math was an eye opener. The first day I was given a work sheet to do in class. On it were four squares divided equally into four connecting squares with some of the areas shaded. The task was to figure what fraction represented the shaded area. It was multiple choice! There was no time limit and students turned them in as they finished and started on the next. I was a bit shocked as this was grade school level math. It took me all of 10 seconds to do the first sheet. I felt so bad for the other students, some of which I knew, who were really struggling.
Two weeks into the class and one day my teacher tells me I cannot be in her class anymore??? The problem was I had finished all the work for the semester and she had nothing else for me to do. Now, by this time Algebra 1 and been broken up into two courses, 1a & 1b, so Algebra 1 over two years. This reaffirmed to me that grade and middle school was no longer preparing students well enough for high school. I was seeing evidence of this in other classes.
My new counselor in his infinite wisdom put me in Algebra 1a, which is the first semester of Algebra 1 over a whole year. I told him I would rather take 1b as I had already taken the equivalent of 1a twice already. The bureaucracy says NO! you must take 1a before 1b! No exceptions! Ugh!
Algebra 1a, Wow, being in a class full of freshmen as a junior. That was fun. The class was taught by the swim coach who I believe was about one chapter ahead of the class. He did figure out quite quickly that I was well versed with the course. So much so I was promoted to teachers aid which meant he spent 10 minutes on the lesson plan and then I was left to answer question while he went and tanned by the pool!
Half of my senior class had to take at least one summer class to have enough credits to get their diploma even though they could participate in the graduation ceremony. Really disappointing. I managed to graduate on time by taking five English classes my senior year.
After high school my girlfriend (now wife) wanted to take some refresher courses over the summer before college started. I took an Algebra 1 class with her just because I wanted to actually finish it. It was a fast paced three-week class, six hours a day at the community college my father worked at. The instructor was amazing. He was one of the best instructors I ever had. He could tell by looking at you if you got it or not and if he sensed you didn’t he would present the material in a different way until you did without ever asking. It was awesome. I liked him so much I signed up for all his summer classes up though calculus.
None of which I can now remember without looking up, except fractions and decimals!
