The general decline in standards today

[dh66]

Except PCB ain't like it was 30 years ago. It's a nightmare of steroids and vomit.

I have no doubt about that.

Back then it was just skinny kids and vomit. Steroid use/abuse had not become so prevalent yet.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have no doubt about that.

Back then it was just skinny kids and vomit. Steroid use/abuse had not become so prevalent yet.

My family is from the Panhandle, and as a kid we'd go up there to visit. We'd always go see my dad's sister in Panama City and my uncle in Port St. Joe. Places like PCB and Destin were far from the Party Central they are today. Even when I was in college on Spring Break there was a bar or two, but it wasn't the sea of debauchery it is now.

 

[dh66]

My family is from the Panhandle, and as a kid we'd go up there to visit. We'd always go see my dad's sister in Panama City and my uncle in Port St. Joe. Places like PCB and Destin were far from the Party Central they are today. Even when I was in college on Spring Break there was a bar or two, but it wasn't the sea of debauchery it is now.

I can remember the Miracle Strip, and many outings to PCB with my family as a child, but I agree, it is not a place I would be interested to take my own kids these days.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Of course, these days you need a diploma, a college degree, a box full of "There Are No Losers" ribbons, and a recommendation letter from the President of the United States to get a job washing dishes in a greasy spoon just off the highway, so I wouldn't recommend dropping out as a proper course of action for the current generation.

Bachelors Degree: The New High School Diploma :eusa_doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Bachelors Degree: The New High School Diploma :eusa_doh:

Too many people nowadays have high school diplomas. The "bachelor's degree required" bit is just the latest way to keep the working class in their place.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

It's also cheaper for employers who don't have to hire professionals to fill specialized positions when instead they can, if need be, have the regular workforce do double duty carrying out those functions even though it's not part of their job description. I knew somebody who received a job offer in which the requirements were:

Masters Degree in Engineering
Master Machinist with experience in moldmaking
Knowledge of Chinese and Patent Law

And the job only paid $10 an hour!

 

[ChiTownScion]

Just a few random thoughts on secondary school et seq. :

I thought that prom was a childish waste of money, and a throwback to the 1950's at the time: someone would say the very word, "prom," and all I could think of was a C major, A minor, F major, and F7 chord progression on a Fender Stratocaster with a hallway doo-wop vocal backup. Had I been dating someone that I really cared about at the time, I might have viewed it otherwise.

I attended an all-male prep school, and rather than don caps and gowns for graduation, we wore white dinner jackets. The school has since gone co-ed, and has become far more competitive from an academic standpoint. I like my classmates a lot better as adults than I did as adolescents. The guy whom I loathed more than others at age 15 became a co-worker and a dear friend, and he has help me keep my sanity now for over three decades.

We had students from every social strata, from urban ghetto to the wealthiest suburbs. What we learned was that the only "diversity" that really matters is diversity of thought, opinion, and outlook. So long as those were grounded in reason and some moral substance, we learned to respect each other even when we disagreed. Myself, I came from a blue collar background. My dad had to work two full time jobs and rarely took a decent vacation, just so that I could have that shot at a decent education and a better life.

I had a grand total of one classmate who did not go on directly to college: his dad had passed away his senior year and left him the family heating and air business. My understanding is that he eventually got his engineering degree. The vast majority of us went on to grad or professional school... but what always amazes me are the class clowns and cut ups who have become physicians, attorneys, bankers, and business execs.

College for me was a lot more eclectic: in a very un-preppy fashion I didn't attend top tier schools, and through a chain of events ended up paying my way through college and law school. I think that perhaps the most valuable part of my education was taking the really crap jobs that came my way during the summer. Not all of them were crappy... but when I had a decent summer job I think that I appreciated it all the more. I consider myself damned fortunate in having been able to get through those jobs for not only having never been fired (and often having employers asking me to return), but for learning the value of a dollar and that education is a privilege and an opportunity not to be wasted. I learned to apply those study skills that were drilled in when I was fourteen, and to never be satisfied with anything less than my best effort.

 

[Edward]

It's also cheaper for employers who don't have to hire professionals to fill specialized positions when instead they can, if need be, have the regular workforce do double duty carrying out those functions even though it's not part of their job description. I knew somebody who received a job offer in which the requirements were:

Masters Degree in Engineering
Master Machinist with experience in moldmaking
Knowledge of Chinese and Patent Law

And the job only paid $10 an hour!

Sometimes you see that sort of unusual specification. Here in the UK, it typically means they have someone they want to give the job to, usually an internal candidate, but they are bound by fair employment law to ofeer the job on the open market. the tirck then is to write a description close enough to a specific individual to put them ahead of the pack.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's also cheaper for employers who don't have to hire professionals to fill specialized positions when instead they can, if need be, have the regular workforce do double duty carrying out those functions even though it's not part of their job description. I knew somebody who received a job offer in which the requirements were:

Masters Degree in Engineering
Master Machinist with experience in moldmaking
Knowledge of Chinese and Patent Law

And the job only paid $10 an hour!

We pay corn poppers $10 an hour.

I'm not going to worry any more about how to destroy the bourgeoisie. Give it a few more years, and it'll destroy itself.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We pay corn poppers $10 an hour.

Good popcorn is worth it.

 

[vitanola]

I was in the exact same boat. After going to school for 12 years and making excellent grades, I came up one math credit short (I'd never taken a math class past the 9th grade) in order to graduate with my class. I could have gone to summer school or back the following fall for one semester, but instead I immediately got my GED and went straight into college.

I was accepted at college when I was fifteen. I hated High School, and filled my schedule so that I could graduate early. After I was accepted at a couple of good schools I was informed that I could not graduate because I had too few credits in PE. Took the GED and entered Kenyon College that fall. The school later chose to award my diploma to me with my class, and so I received it in the mail at the very end of my junior year. I think that it is still somewhere in my parent's home.

As far as parties were concerned, as I recall I was in New York City the weekend of "my" class's graduation, CBGB friday night (hated the music, loved the scene) and Meatpacking District on Saturday.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I was accepted at college when I was fifteen. I hated High School, and filled my schedule so that I could graduate early. After I was accepted at a couple of good schools I was informed that I could not graduate because I had too few credits in PE. Took the GED and entered Kenyon College that fall. The school later chose to award my diploma to me with my class, and so I received it in the mail at the very end of my junior year. I think that it is still somewhere in my parent's home.

The smartest guy I know...has bachelors degrees in math and physics, a masters in math, a law degree and a PhD in geophysics...quit school at 15. He was attending the most prestigious private school in town and figured "this is pointless. I can't learn anything here, I already know more than any of my teachers." So he had all those degress (and two years as a patent attorney) by about 26. As a PhD student teaching undergrads, he realized he wasn't qualified to take the math class he was teaching because he had neither a high school diploma nor a GED.

 

[jamespowers]

Here in Southern California the graduation tradition was Grad Night at Disneyland, however, I didn't go. My graduation celebration was a nice lunch with my parents at an Italian restaurant after the graduation ceremony.

We did that too---except we flew down.

 

[jamespowers]

There is only one definition of no in my book.

Obviously you don't live in California.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxSI1QsIo8g

 

[jamespowers]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxSI1QsIo8g

:rofl:

 

[Matt Crunk]

. . . I was informed that I could not graduate because I had too few credits in PE.

Too few credits in PE. Isn't that a load of crap! What a reason to not let a student graduate. PE should not even be a credited course. I somehow managed to get out of PE all through high school. I took study hall in the Art Department instead, and used the time to gain more art skills and credits - which I've actually used in life, unlike running track or playing dodge ball.

 

[jamespowers]

Too few credits in PE. Isn't that a load of crap! What a reason to not let a student graduate. PE should not even be a credited course. I somehow managed to get out of PE all through high school. I took study hall in the Art Department instead, and used the time to gain more art skills and credits - which I've actually used in life, unlike running track or playing dodge ball.

PE is a waste of time largely and some schools do realize this. They just happen to be private schools though. My sons have two days a week for PE. That is it. If it was no days I would have been just as happy.

 

[Edward]

I despised games / PE "lessons" at school. I remember being especially angry that the school wasted money on keeping two full-time games teachers and all sorts of equipment when there was a shortage of funding for academic subjects (of course, looking back it's possible that the education board dictated this and not the school). Sport does enough damage to culture without having it forced on kids at school. I only wish I'd had the nerve to refuse to turn up for those "lessons". Over twenty years later, all they've left me with is an abiding contempt for sport.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The big push for physical education in US schools came out of a concern in the early fifties that American kids were getting too fat and sedentary. "The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports" came out of this period, along with mandated phys-ed classes, which were universal by the early sixties, and remained so into the eighties.

You can argue with the way phys-ed is taught -- I hated, and still hate, volleyball with the flame of a thousand suns -- but you can't argue with the fact that kids today are fatter and more sedentary than ever. If mom and dad aren't going to kick their doughy backsides into the street to work off the blubber, somebody's got to. We need more phys-ed, not less.