Essay4
Chelsea Swenson
Steve Dalager
Compare/Contrast
Kickin’ It Old School
It is safe to say that a lot of things have changed since the 1960’s. A major change I would like to talk about would be the difference in education. It is obvious education really has come a long way since the 1960’s, whether it is the style of teaching, discipline, information, college, or the graduation requirements.
A question I was itching to ask was about the cliques of high school. I wondered if cliques were like they seem to be in movies and on TV. The movie Mean Girls for instance gives clear examples of cliques. You have the Asian Nerds, Jocks, Sexually Active Band Geeks, Girls Who Eat Their Feelings, Girls Who Don’t Eat Anything, Art Freaks, Cool Asians, and The Plastics. I really want to know if they truly exist. At my school we don’t really have too severe of cliques. We have jocks, popular people, ect.., but everyone hangs out with everyone. Kids don’t really belong to just one group. I guess you could say we aren’t “labeled“. That could be a result of going to a small school, but since I personally haven’t experienced the 1960’s, I asked someone who has. My mom. I asked her about the cliques and she said, “We had the sports kids, the popular kids, dorks, drinkers, and the druggies. There still were the people that belonged to more than one group, but usually we all stuck with one.“ Basically it was like in the movies at her school. I think it would be really interesting to experience these cliques first hand.
I was also curious to find out about when the teachers could hit students, and when that came to a stop. Now a days if a teacher even looks at a student crooked they can get them into trouble. Okay well I am exaggerating just a little bit, but you get my point. When she was in school my mom said, “Teachers back then could hit hands with rulers, and the principal could paddle you. They could also make students clean bathrooms, sweep halls, or anything they wanted. Probably a couple of years after I graduated they stopped with all that stuff.”
Next topic, Computers and cell phones…who would think that we actually didn’t have these at one point in time. In school we have computer labs, we can use our cell phones, and every teacher has a computer at their desks. It amazes me how people got along without the computer. The computer has so many useful tools. I would have gotten so annoyed having to do a research paper from books. The internet is so much faster. Or typing a paper on a typewriter...how lame. At least on a computer you can backspace. I mean, I make so many mistakes while typing it’s insane. I couldn’t imagine having to start all over again every time I hit the wrong key. I asked my mom how they got along without these two very useful objects and she said, “It is really hard to miss something that you never had. You can’t want a computer or cell phone when there is no such thing. Now that we have computers and cell phones it would have been nice to use them while I was in school.“ I thought this to be a very good answer.
Another question I had was the topic of college. I wanted to know if it was the same as it is now. These days almost everyone goes to college after they are done with high school. In order to get a good job you really need to. You can still get a job without the college experience, but you can get a better or higher paying job if you do go. For most people it isn’t even a second thought to go to college or not. You just know you are going to go college after high school, even if you don’t know what for. I asked my mom what the situation of the college life was. She told me, “Not a lot of people went to college because people didn’t have a lot of money, and they just wanted to get a job right after high school.“ People now want to get a job after high school also, but they get a job so they can help pay for college, housing, and bills such as electricity or a cell phone bill.
I am so glad that I was born in the generation I was. We have so much more now than people had in the past it is crazy! I definitely would have not wanted to get paddled or have to use a typewriter. Education has come a long way, and it will continue to grow for many more years. Maybe even someday we won’t need to go to school. Everything could be online!