Welcome back to the realm of the almighty school! You ever wonder where and when school first originated? I often have, even if its to go back in time to shoot them. 

 

Blast from the Past

          I have found two people that have been married together for twenty two years. Now that's a good example that many others should follow! I asked them to write me a short passage on how school has morphed itself to suit the new generations. They both come from South Africa and have both chosen different paths in life, yet they are married. Lets hear what they have to say. I honestly think that we are lucky that school has changed the way it has. Imagine all those lashings I'd receive... oww!

"During my school life, so much changed! In junior school, ballpoint pens were invented and inkwells & pens with nibs were done away with. In High school we were introduced to the luxury of …wait…pantyhose and bobby socks were discarded with the nice girl image. You know that adage  -  ‘there are nice girls and there are good girls’… You were cool if you wore bell-bottom jeans, and the chicks wore tie-dyed T-shirts, the guys wore ‘STP’ (Stop Teenage Pregnancy) printed boldly on theirs. Remembering those platform sandals we wore, nothing feminine about those, but the Purdy or Afro hairstyles were just so ‘hip, man’!

Woodstock with flower children came & went, but will live on in our minds as being the most ‘mind altering’ event of it’s time. The Beatles could make a grown man cry!

Discos were the way to go and at least you could hear if someone was trying to chat you up and drugs hadn’t got up your nose yet! Little did we know that those shiny black 7 Singles and LP’s would later become small silver discs, called CDs and would become an integral part of our lives. The invention of the Contraceptive Pill nearly brought the Catholic Church (and most parents) to its knee’s. “One small step for man, one giant step for Mankind” space mission to the moon wasn’t a fairytale anymore. How did we ever survive without MacDonald’s and pizza? Guess those green things on our plates our mothers cooked weren’t so bad after all! The only thing that I believe that hasn’t changed is making out sitting in the back row at movies!

My school years heralded many amazing inventions and earth shattering events, and you know what – given what I know now, I wouldn’t have wanted my school years any other way!"
Cheryl van der Merwe

 

"A Quantum Leap, or is it?  Kids today are being bred as microchip masters or is it…commanders? What with palm tops, laptops, PCs and cell phones? Those were never heard of in my day.

How did we shape up in the 60’s? Poorly, I am afraid to say. Our matric math's is being done in Grade 9, not to mention Science, if I were to write the grade 9 paper today, a fifty per center I would be. and this is from a straight A student!!

Ah, but I get my own back in the discipline stakes. Oh, yes, we win hands down there, our classes were quiet and organized, concentration was the name of the game and what’s with this free thinking thing… broadening the mind, questioning? What’s there to question, teachers knew all the answers didn’t they, and after all they had seen it all before! Today, the microchip mind is taking over! At least, in my day we could write, just check out the handwriting of a few Matric’s today, it’s frightening! Well, I guess time does move along and maybe the microchip might just have something going for it – time will tell."
Martin van der Merwe

 

          Now you can see what I mean by change. I would go mad if discipline is so strict as it was then. Sitting in class in dead silence is enough to make anyone gaze out the window. In my point of view I think school has become more exciting. There is a lot more choice in subjects and sports, classes are fun with nicer teachers and the kids basically control the class. This of course is a bad thing when we get out of control, but how seldom... um often does that happen?

          So what I am trying to say to all those aspiring teens out there, try your best at everything you do. Make sure you have set your aims high enough and do your best to achieve them. One day you will remember this site, with its satisfying look and style, and say "I'm so happy I took their advice. I owe my lovely job to those very caring and supportive teens at C'est la vie!"

Menstralii