School Daze

Let's do a little "Back in my day....." today.

Back in my day, we didn't need "practice bus route day".  The Oshkosh School District and Kobussen are sending their buses out on practice runs this morning and this afternoon to make sure drivers know where they need to make their stops starting next week.  But the district is also encouraging parents to "practice" getting their kids to the bus stop and getting on the bus.  Here was my "instruction" for riding the bus as a grade schooler: "Go stand at the end of the driveway until the bus comes.  Don't cross the road until they put out the stop sign and the flashing lights.  When you get to Valders High School, get on Bus 33 and take that to St Mary's"  Somehow 5 and 6-year old me remembered that and got to class everyday--no practice necessary.

Back in my day, the schools didn't need someone to post every single ingredient and calorie count for all of our hot lunch choices.  The Oshkosh School District will be hiring a full-time employee dedicated exclusively to updating an internet site with the contents of every food item in all school cafeterias and their nutritional values.  That way, parents can log on and see if their child might be at risk for consuming--or even just coming in contact with--peanuts, tree nuts, gluten, dairy, wheat, sugar, meat, fish, shellfish, sodium, caffeine and any other thing that might cause an allergy or dietary issue.  Of course, back in my day, there were a lot fewer kids allergic to anything.  And if you didn't like the food plopped down on your tray by the lunch lady, you just went hungry that day, Kid.  Back in my day, bigger kids were allowed to go back for seconds too!

And back in my day, parents didn't complain about any of that.  It was the same way they were educated and how they learned to take care of themselves--and they were okay with their kids learning the same way.  I would note that we were far more adventurous as kids.  We figured out how to entertain ourselves without technology.  We were allowed to leave our homes without supervision--without our parents being able to call or text us at all times.  We were even allowed to fall down, get dirty, lose at sports and fail at something we may not have been able to do.

Back in my day, school wasn't as much "fun"--but we certainly learned a lot more.  And back in my day, running schools was much cheaper--with a much better return on a community's investment.