[Rhodes22-list] Slim's issues

[brad haslett]

To All,

This discussion about education reminds me of a
lecture I listened to a few years ago.  Both of my
boys attended all-boys Catholic high schools.  My
oldest, Spencer, attended Little Rock Boys Catholic
High which was run by Father Tribou for over forty
years.  The non-Catholic parents (his mother and I for
example) had to attend a special orientation.  Father
Tribou's lecture to the parents was so memorable I can
almost quote it verbatum.  It went something like
this:

"Welcome.  Most of you are familiar with our school or
you wouldn't be sending your child here but in case
you're not, here's how we work.  This is a meat and
potatoes school - no spices, no dessert, nothing
fancy.  Four years of science, english, and math -
meat and potatoes.  Our textbooks are old, when they
have completely fallen apart we'll change them.  It's
been our experience that the boys have enough trouble
learning the basics without worrying about what
changed in the last five years.  We don't have metal
detectors like some of the public schools.  If guns
and knives became a problem, metal detectors would be
of no value anyway because all the lead in your boy's
ass would constantly set them off anyway.  Now I'm
sure some of you have boys with learning disabilities.
 Frankly we never heard of ADD and some of these other
"challenges" until recently and haven't done anything
to address these issues.  If your boy has a handicap,
chances are he'll have to deal with it for life so
he'll just have to learn to overcome it here.  Study
harder or accept lower grades, we have no intention in
changing our methods that have worked so well for us
for over a hundred years.  I'm sure a lot of you have
kept up with all the new science and theories
associated with education, we haven't.  If you insist
on sharing them with us, Father David will refund your
money as you leave. ... One last thing, no doubt your
son will come home and say things about his teachers. 
Ignore them and we'll ignore all the things your son
tells us about you."

Father Tribou had cancer his last several years but
wanted to live long enough to see the Class of 2000,
Spencer's class, graduate.  He died in 2001.  The
public school system in most parts of the country
could use some of his wisdom.

Brad Haslett
"CoraShen"


--- R22RumRunner at aol.com wrote:

> Slim,
> You have to understand where Ed is coming from. In
> SC, the SAT test scores  
> are the worst in the nation and have been for ever.
> 1/2 of all 9th grade  
> students today, will not graduate from high school.
> Now, the state is throwing  
> millions of dollars into constructing new schools
> and getting rid of the  
> portable classrooms. They are also at the same time
> making the requirements  tougher 
> on the teachers. Property taxes have gone up some
> since I moved here,  but 
> they are still ridiculously low compared to taxes in
> Wisconsin. About 1/5th  of 
> what I would pay in WS for the same house.
> Since all this money has been thrown at education
> (the past four years)  
> everybody is expecting the test scores to come up
> proportionally with the  level 
> of spending. I'm afraid it's going to take a few
> generations to do  that.
>  
> Rummy
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help?
> www.rhodes22.org/list
> 



		
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