Ken;
Now 60 years later the family's still gets together and talk about there growing up with so many close to same age.
Went to local school with 2 teachers for entire grade school. then high school and developed friends that still get enjoyment in the rural living there used to be.[/QUOTE said:
Venturing to stray a bit from the topic at hand, it's my personal opinion that one of the things that has made this country great is the fact that we have all assimilated and have become a small part of a larger whole. However, our education system for so many years has been, in the manner of politics, primarily local. I went to a one room school that had grades one through eight, all taught by the same teacher. She was Teacher, Administrator, Superintendent, Principal, Janitor, Grounds keeper and Nurse. She pumped the water, lit the stove, swept the floor, rang the bell and bandaged our bunged up knees...and we learned. It had a flavor all of its own, and I might add an aroma all of its own, partially from the many brown bagged lunches that had sat on the shelf over the years, and partially from the nondescript two holers located not too far from the water well.
I graduated in a class of 18; and wouldn't trade the small school experience for anything. We were part of the community; as were the teachers. They lived in the community; most were born and raised there. My 7th and 8th grade teacher died in the same house where she was born in 1914; her husband was the Superintendent, basketball coach and Science teacher. They lived about two blocks from the school...which incidentally had running water, electricity and steam heat...but no A/C.
In sum, it is obvious that the transition from small locally controlled schools to gigantic, monolithic over-staffed, over regulated schools is not necessarily a good thing. A shiny, tiled and air conditioned gymnasium is a testimony to money thrown at an institution, but Astro-turf does not a doctor, engineer, accountant or a lawyer make, not does it necessarily crank out a cookie-cutter good citizen.
Eaten up with nostalgia? Maybe, but I think we are abandoning something so incredibly special and unique that we are beginning to lose part of our heritage, and to that extent part of the American personality. End of rant.