Now that class is out I find myself watching a lot of TV whilst I catch up on chores. I was just putting away my laundry and I heard this little snippet from The Andy Griffith Show. It's the episode where Aunt Bee learns to fly.
A group is gathered at the Taylor's for dinner. Opie asks the group how to spell Renaissance. Andy tries and can't. Then Miss Crump spells it for Opie and incorrectly if I do recall. Opie then says, "I thought it was R-E-N" to which Andy responds, "Miss Crump is your teacher and a state spelling bee champion." Opie apologizes. No one bats an eye and story goes on as if nothing happened. There is no further discussion of the event for the remainder of the episode.
I wish I could say that I miss those days. But I can't because I wasn't born yet. I wonder if we will ever return to those times. It may not seem like it today but perhaps it will. I mean could cavemen foresee electricity?
You mean a return to the days when elementary school teachers misspell words?
ReplyDeleteOh, my mom witnessed that about 5 years ago when she visited my nephew's class on an open house-type day.
This is what happens when ed majors with low GPAs get recruited to teach the kinderfolk. I wonder how the competent teachers feel when they encounter these people in the faculty lounge?
Now, if you're referring to the respect issue... that door closed a long time ago.
I await the publication of "A Guide to Classroom Management" by B. Fife. Bad behavior? Nip it in the bud!
ReplyDeleteAh, I remember insisting to my 3rd grade teacher that soccer had two c's. Not to mention wincing at the bulletin boards when I went on kindergarten tours two years ago.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the good old days. That existed only in the minds of Republicans. I don't really get your point here: that blind authority is good? I admit our kids are entitled shits (isn't that the whole point of this blog?) but if the teacher spells it wrong then it isn't "better" to sit back and learn the wrong thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't miss the cold war. I don't miss assassinations. I don't miss black and white television, jim crow laws, misogynist laws.
Polio! Eek. Give me my interwebs and leave me in 2011.
I understand the nostalgia; I really do. And equating respecting teacheres with assassinations and jim crow laws is purposefully inflammatory.
ReplyDeletePrissy Prof: AM's point was the era and not equating/correlating one with the other.
ReplyDeleteAs an exercise in a class I teach, we look back at the different eras (2000s, 1990s, 1980s, ..., 1920s) in the U.S. and the world and discuss whether the "good ol' days" ever really existed (which most will agree is a fantasy).
Whether teachers got more respect is another issue. Certainly they may(?) have in homogenous, all white, upper/middle class schools (or Mayberry). However, does anyone remember "The Blackboard Jungle" (movie from 1955 that probably shows up on AMC or wherever)? That certainly didn't look like the idyllic Mayberry or the town in "Leave it to Beaver".
I grew up in a medium-sized urban area in the 60's and I remember thinking that Mayberry would be a nice place to live. Same with where The Jetsons lived, too. Real life isn't/wasn't like TV.