© 2015, 8/24/2018 Alan John Mayer, Mirror Image Presentations.
Remember when 7/11 opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 11 p.m.?
Maybe you are too young to remember a calmer world in spite of the Cold War threat. Back then, there was only one threat. Today we live with dozens of threats, the most dangerous threat of which is our Democracy.
Until the Greed Grab of the 1980’s, department stores and malls remained closed on Sundays. There was a time when there were more schools in America than shopping malls. Today, with Internet shopping, the extensive number of shopping malls that sprung up in the 1960’s, are closing as fast as they sprung up. Sunday’s closed was a blessing many European countries still enjoy, but people got greedy. They wanted bigger, better, different, and more.
Remember, if the phone rang while you were driving, it was on the radio? Can you remember when a person last answered your last phone call to a place of business? There was a time people walking around talking to themselves were labeled crazy. Now that the whole world is crazy, they fit right in.
I consider myself still quite young. I remember filling my gas tank for $2.25. Minimum wage was $1.65. That means, to equate, the minimum wage today to fill my tank ($45.00) and math is not my subject, but should it not be somewhere around $33.00?
Remember how United our States (and the world) were that day in early June 1969, when man walked on the moon? Today, man seems unfazed by the numerous vehicles we have sent out to explore every planet but Mercury, from the rings of Saturn and Neptune, to Jupiter’s 61 moons, not to mention landing on Mars in 2020.
When I was in sixth grade, I learned there were eleven moons circling Jupiter.
There was a time the world was quieter. It did not beep and chirp. There was a peace I did not recognize nor appreciate as a young boy. Certainly our ancestors felt the same about flying contraptions and horseless carriages that frightened the horses to terribly the operator of a motor vehicle was required by law to send a man with a lantern ahead, to announce ones coming.
I remember when teacher led prayer (meditation by another name) was mandatory in public schools. Until 1963, when some stupid atheist woman, a Russian immigrant, challenged one of our school systems and the court, to make a name for herself. She won, and drew the entire world down with her and her atheist thinking. I understand atheists. My sister and I were raised as atheists. She remained in her thinking. I grew. Atheism is nothing more than defense of the ego. If anyone is responsible for taking Christ out of Christmas, and BADLY NEEDED prayer (MEDITATION) out of our schools, it was That Woman.
And today, with gun lobbyists and politicians trying to put guns into our schools, A MOST DANGEROUS INSANE MOVE, our children need prayer more than ever. What has become of our nation? Intelligent thought would have us re-label school prayer as Our Quiet Time to Go Within.
Back in 1963, major teacher complaints were:
* gum chewing
* talking out of turn
* making sounds
* running in the halls
* getting out of place in line
* dressing improperly
* talking out of turn
* not placing paper in waste receptacles.
In 1983, twenty years later, when I joined the teaching force, teacher’s complaints were:
* rape
* robbery
* assault
* burglary
* bullying
* arson
* bombings
* murder
* suicide
* vandalism
* extortion
* drug and alcohol abuse
* gang warfare
* pregnancy
* inability to focus
* lack of tolerance
Today, thirty-five years later in 2018, to the list of teacher complaints one can add:
* fear of being shot and killed * fear of being forced to add “Bodyguard” to the list of teacher’s duties * fear of ones colleagues being silenced by a three percent pay raise * fear of churches, mosques and synagogues being next on the list.
While substitute teaching in South Central Los Angeles during the 90’s, I myself was assaulted by a large African American high school senior who slapped me. I had to withdraw and contain myself. I have made a conscious choice to avoid other such instances with right thought.
As a nation, United in One, we need to re-evaluate that decision, and fine tune it. My post ‘Ten Tips to Restore America’s Schools to Their Former Post War Glory’ presents a plan that needs to be embraced. I know whereof I speak. I attended ten schools on three continents before graduating from high school. I took thirteen years for me to acquire a Bachelor of Humanities degree from the University of California, Irvine, after dropping out three times, changing my major three times, and changing Universities three times.
Between 1980 and 1998, I taught every grade from substituting Kindergarten through Junior College. My focus those years was on upper elementary, junior high, and high school. I spent a year substituting high school in Alhambra, California, and I worked as an English instructor at Glendale College for nine years.
What do I have to show for it? A small, miniscule retirement fund that does not even cover half my rent. I have my memories. I have my satisfaction of knowing most of my life, I have chosen to be a part of the solution. I have followed my heart, not investors’ advice. Perhaps I am a fool. More than likely, I am. ‘Ten Tactics to Return America’s Schools to Their Former Glory’.
I cannot locate the quote right now, but Deborah Kerr sings it in ‘The King and I’. ‘It’s a very old saying, commonplace but true, to he (she) who wants to teach, your student will teach you’.
God bless out teachers, our administrators, our schools, and our children.
Amen.
AmerIcanValuesRestored 