Baldur

Happy Birthday to:
Matthew Perry, LeAnn Womack, John Stamos, Tipper Gore, Bill Clinton,
Gene Roddenberry, and Orville Wright

Baldur

My first year at school, which here is called Kindergarten was from 8AM until 12:30PM Monday through Friday.
The next 8 years of Grade school
Was scheduled from 8:30AM until 2:30PM Monday through Friday.
There was a 30 minute lunch break, for the fist 6 years we generally ate lunch at our desks and could then go outside into the Schoolyard for the remainder of the half hour.
In my 7th year I transferred to a school that had a Cafeteria were one could purchase a meal. Generally I still brought a lunch from home as it was cheaper that way but we all ate in the Cafeteria dining room.
In the US the 9th year begins a 4 year period called High School.
The schedule was the same. There was however a much larger Cafeteria with a larger selection of food.
The first years had a standard curriculum but in the 2nd through 4th years we were permitted to choose more and more specialized courses.
My School was considered to be 'College Preparatory' as opposed to being a 'Trade School' where one would learn specific job skills in addition to the typical mathematics, language and science courses.
My school was also run by the Roman Catholic Church and there was a required religion class each year, focusing as should be expected on Catholicism. Even the nonCatholic students, were required to attend these.
As more and more elective courses were permitted each student over the 4 year period you could tailor your education somewhat to what you felt were your future needs.
Baldur took 7 Grammar/Literature writing courses when only 4 were required. Only 3 years of Science were necessary and 2 of those years needed to be 'Biology'. Most students went on to 'Chemistry' for their 3rd year and 'Physics' for an extra 4th year.
Baldur managed to get himself out of 'Chemistry', which I would have loathed by taking a 4th year 'Physics' course instead.
My grades were good enough to permit this odd step and I actually ranked highest in final marks of all the students who took that course that year.
This is not to say I was a brilliant student.
I truly struggled with 'Mathematics', but only because I had no interest in it.
When Baldur sat himself down studiously and paid attention to the teacher or even the textbook everything made sense. Unfortunately I just refused to learn it.
'Math' was the only course that really bored me beyond belief, we can blame Sister Mary Barbara from my early schooling for instilling such a hatred in the subject. My mind would wander whenever numbers were placed in front of me

Baldur

fist + r = first

Baldur

were + h = where

Baldur

Baldur also sidestepped 'Trigonometry' amd plunged headfirst into 'Geometry'. Dear Lord.
I doubt this was any better than 'Geometry' but there was no choice, I was required take another year of 'Mathematics'.

My first 3 years of language were 'Spanish'. My instructor could not believe I was foregoing the 4th year when I attempted to take 'Greek' for that final year.
This was the first time 'Greek' had been offered in the school, but not enough students elected to take it. The course was dropped.
In retrospect Baldur should have asked to be placed in 'Beginning Latin' instead. I regret not doing that to this day.
Instead I went into a 'Mechanical Drawing' course.
This was quite interesting, and I excelled at it but it should have been 'Latin'

Baldur

3 years of 'History/Social Studies' were also required.
I could not believe how dull the instructors made these subjects, considering how fascinating they should be.
Baldur probably does not remember a thing taught in these classes though I did reasonably well in the tests at the time.
Most of my history knowledge is from independent reading, so certainly there are great holes in it. I try to remedy this by reading on several different topics each year.
The Internet has been a great help in this as whenever something is mentioned that I have little knowledge about, it is a simple matter to quickly research the topic

Login

Ah ... History/Social Studies. Fortunately I encountered good teachers in both subjects, during secondary ('grade') school. Through their enthusiastic approach to the subjects, they opened up a whole new world to me. Our first lesson in Social Studies was to research and write an essay on Wool Production and its Uses and Bi-products. That was the first time I had ever had to find my own information on a subject and it did me the world of good. History came alive for me when the other good teacher mentioned displayed such enthusiasm towards the subject, it rubbed off on her class and became one of the most favoured subjects. My thanks to those two teachers.

Polenta, our school hours were never called a double shift. Those hours were normal to all British School children at the time. Gym, sport and music were compulsory and were included in the standard school hours. I think school may finish one hour earlier these days but then there are non-compulsory 'after school activities'.

Hazer

The subject of History always brings to mind a particular teacher I had in Grade 10. The man loved his subject and did everything in his power to make it interesting for us. I remember coming into class one day and there he was dressed up as Henry VIII. The walls and windows were covered with larger than life size drawings of all the wives. He had constructed a guillotine and I believe there was a Tower of London somewhere too.
I know that as a fourteen year old, I didn't appreciate all the effort he went to then as much as I would today.

polenta

I bet Baldur would never name his own daughter Mary Barbara. He would commit suicide before doing this!!!!!!
Login, I was thinking that maybe there weren't or even still aren't enough school buildings to teach so many hours. Or else they imported this model from somewhere else like France or Italy. We have always been such francophiles! And also I don't remember to have any dining room in my school although it was quite a big one. Of course pupils didn't eat any lunch there.
And Hazer, what this teacher did was F A N T A S T I C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

polenta

I forgot something. My brother is 6 years younger than me. And when he went to school it was only for boys. Can you believe it?
When I began it was co-ed and another memory from my first grade in 1956 I guess. My father or mother took me to school by streetcar. It was the last year they ran in the streets of our city.

polenta

Non-Catholic children going to a Catholic school? What for? Couldn't they have chosen at least a secular school?

polenta

MISTAKE My brother is six years OLDER . He was born in 1943.

Baldur

My High School (years 9-12) was only for male students at the time.
It has since gone co-educational.

Students who attended public school up here in Rhode Island did not get as good an education as those that attended private schools. This may possibly still be true, I have no way of knowing.
There are a few private schools run by other denominations but there are far more Catholic schools up here.

Baldur

It's time for Baldur to add an odd topic, inspired by a recent picture posted by Clorophylla.
The drawing is called 'Five Notes for a First Encounter'

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=116012

Baldur

Odd discordant notes seem to haunt me at times.
A couple of months ago Robert changed our internet service to a company that bundles it's offerings.
We now use the same provider for our home telephone lines, internet service, and by default cable television. Boughbreak has never had cable television before. Even now it is only the most basic of packages which is fine with me, as I endeavor to avoid television whenever possible.
What I do appreciate is getting the 'Turner Classic Movie' channel.
Robert and I have been watching old movies.
How is this relevant to Clorophilla's picture?
Just before each movie begins TCM shows a grey screen with the movie's rating in bold letters accompanied by a repetitive series of 3 very drawn out notes.
Not being a musician I can do no more to describe these notes, but they are haunting and dreadful. Baldur finds himself humming the same series, almost as it is a dirge that I cannot shake from my mind.

Hazer

LOL Baldur...that's got to be maddening.

Just today we have done some major updating. Hubby's going to be thrilled when he gets home and finds out that he can record three of his favorite shows at the same time while he's away during the week, and then watch them at his leisure when he's home on the weekend. He never has to miss a football game or hockey game again. Plus if he's watching live TV, he can pause it at anytime, and not have to miss a thing.
How spoiled is he?!

Baldur

Heavens, television can be a serious addiction.
Baldur has never personally recorded a television show but know people who do it frequently
When I moved to Boughbreak back in 1995 there were stacks and stacks of VHS tapes everywhere. None were labeled. Plus, he has never showed any interest in watching them.
Robert recorded just about everything.
I'm still slowly coercing him to get rid of them, they leave a few at a time.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to:
Demi Lovato, Al Roker, Robert Plant, Connie Chung, Isaac Hayes, Jacqueline Susann, Benjamin Harrison and H.P, Lovecraft

indigo

TCM is my FAVORITE channel! Unfortunately we have had to
downsize our cable bill and I no longer have it I LOVE these
old movies, actors, directors, themes....they are the best! To win
the lottery I would purchase a lot of DVD's, especially the Fred Astaire
movies, and also Gene Kelly.

polenta

I adore the succession of these four musical notes: G G G E flat. In fact, I asked my hubby, who is a musician, the names in English. We would say: "sol, sol, sol, mi bemol"
Can anyone say what important musical piece was composed around these four notes?
I like this game even if at home, it's my husband the music expert!!!! I'm a naughty girl today!!!! LOL LOL LOL