You hear today's young people refer to the music and styles of my generation as "old school." I often heard loved ones and friends talk about how things were at the "old school," meaning the local school in our community when they attended. My brother and I were fortunate enough to attend the "old school" in White Springs until eighth grade. It was the same school our father and his brother and sisters attended and from which they graduated in the 1940's. The old school taught many lessons that still hold me in good stead.
I remember many of those valuable life-long lessons.
•Be a good listener, which means listening more and talking less (this was hard for me).
•Get along well with others. Everyone is unique. Learn to deal with it, tolerate it and even celebrate individual differences.
•Everyone gets to be the line leader.
•We celebrate everyone's birthday.
•We use standard greetings, such as "Good morning," "Good afternoon" and "Goodbye."
•We answer our elders with respect: "Yes, sir" and "No, sir." "Yes, Ma'am" and "No Ma'am." When called by an adult we either answer "Sir" or "Ma'am."
•Learning and reciting the Lord's Prayer, the Twenty-Third Psalm and the Golden Rule.
•Learning all the words of our National Anthem and standing when it was sung.
•Beginning each day with devotional and the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
•Having your hands and fingernails inspected at least twice a week by the homeroom teacher.
•Learning to write in cursive in second grade. This began with learning to write your entire name (first, middle and last) in cursive.
•Learning to read aloud in the classroom.
•Learning that some folks who didn't like to read aloud could "run like the wind" on the playground and, in this, learning that everyone was good at something. We had classmates who were adept artists, singers, storytellers and mischief makers.
•Learning to read the King James Version of the Bible.
•Receiving gold stars for Sunday school attendance. If you had perfect attendance for a month, you received a free ice cream. Your teacher knew all the Sunday school teachers in your part of the county. No chance to cheat.
•Encouraging parents to come to PTA meetings, as the class with the most parents present won a cash prize.
•Knowing if you had trouble at school, you had trouble at home.
•Forging friendships and relationships that last a lifetime.
The old school didn't have computers, cell phones, fax machines, air conditioned classrooms, nor children who were label-conscious, but we did learn to care for each other, respect our teachers and adults, have a love for God, our school, community and nation and to respect individual differences.
The old school, in many ways, had very little and, yet, it had a lot. The old school was not perfect, but it was a good school, remarkable in fact.
From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you a good day. Stay safe.