MRS. JOHNSON WAS 3RD AND 4TH GRADE TEACHER AT LOVETT. EACH STUDENT WAS REQUIRED TO MEMORIZE THE KJV CHRISTMAS STORY FOUND IN THE BOOK OF LUKE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Can you image the fun and money, the ACLU would have with this?
David Barton has written much about the decline of American education after God was expelled from our schools.
Christmas Story Luke 2:1-20 (No copyright on KJV)
(Luk 2:1) And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
(Luk 2:2) (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
(Luk 2:3) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
(Luk 2:4) And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
(Luk 2:5) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
(Luk 2:6) And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
(Luk 2:7) And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
(Luk 2:8) And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
(Luk 2:9) And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
(Luk 2:10) And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
(Luk 2:11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
(Luk 2:12) And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
(Luk 2:13) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
(Luk 2:14) Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
(Luk 2:15) And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
(Luk 2:16) And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
(Luk 2:17) And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
(Luk 2:18) And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
(Luk 2:19) But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
(Luk 2:20) And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
In our junior year Mr. Weiss made some rather startling projections about the future. Many of us, in 1958, thought he was way off the mark. Turns out he was 100 percent correct!
1. Men would start wearing their hair long like women. This probably came true in the 1960's. Many of the fellows, me included, thought this was nuts.A current personal note: One my deacons and his wife are products of the 60's culture. He has long hear and a beard. He is without doubt the most dynamic and sincere Christian I have ever met. I think Jesus may have looked like this wonderful friend and fellow worker in the vineyard. Another personal note: I wish I had some hair! Maybe I am being punished for laughing at Principal Ira Whitaker!
2. Men will use bags, like brief cases, with long straps---like women. Ever see a guy with a laptop computer on a long strap over his shoulder? All kinds of luggage bags also. I don't know how he knew the future. But he was spot on.
3. The line of distinction between men and women would become blurred. This has happened in many areas of life: Women in combat, sports, politics, and many, many others. Our youngest daughter was a real star in basketball and volleyball. How about stay at home Dads? More and more men are entering nursing.
Mr Weiss was a real teacher and could identify with students. I heard he has written a book about cooking German food. He was special to all of us.
One of our classmates was introduced to her future husband by Mr. Weiss!
Brief Background: A Dr. Pepper bottle in 1959 had a clock with three hands on it. One was pointed at 10am; one at 2pm; and one at 4pm. The Dr. Pepper slogan was "Have a Dr. Pepper at 10; 2; and 4."
I did not know any student who drank Dr. Pepper; maybe it was because the drink was rumored to contain prune juice. But there was one teacher who drank Dr. Pepper at PCHS, a lot of Dr. Pepper. That teacher was the iconic Nolan "Pete" Reece.
Mr. Reece was a legend at PCHS. In addition to teaching, he was the boys basketball coach off and on for many years. Mr. Reece also smoked and was often seen lighting up as he went down to the furnace room in the main building or into the equipment room in the basement of the gym. He often combined smoking with the Dr. Peppers.
My favorite Mr. Reece story happened in Health and Safety class. We had been studying pressure points to stop bleeding. He asked a classmate, now deceased, "If a person was bleeding from the temple what should you do?" He was looking for the student to reply, "Apply light pressure to a jugular vein in the neck."
Instead, my classmate said with the earliest of speed and greatest of confidence, "Put a tourniquet around his neck!" The expression on Mr. Reece's face was priceless.
I remember Mr. Reece wearing a lot of brown colored clothes. His hair always had a just combed look.
After his death, I had several conversations with his widow who lived in their house in Vernon. She seemed very pleased to hear me talk about her late husband and she would tell me how much she missed him.
Rest In Peace Mr. 10-2-4 Man.
The library at PCHS consisted of a small section of a rear corner of the study hall. Few books were in the library. In fact, a typical garage sale today would have almost as many volumes! The set of encyclopedias looked like reading material that came over on the Mayflower!
The library contained very few periodicals. However, one enjoyed wide readership---better make that "lookership." The National Geographics magazine was and is photo driven. Far away places with strange sounding names could be "visited" in just a couple of minutes of rapid page flipping. It must also be noted the magazine was a teenage boy's best source of gazing at topless women from the remotest parts of the world.
But on one day the magazine was used as a tool by Mrs. Dillard to get my complete and undivided attention. Most of our Sophomore class was seated in the front section of the study hall and I was talking, I thought without discover, to a classmate, now deceased. Mrs. Dillard was the designated study hall monitor for this particular hour. She grasped a National Geographics magazine between her thumb and index finger. The stiff spine of the magazine was facing outward.
Out of nowhere came this karate like blow to the back of my neck from Mrs. Dillard's make shift tool of discipline. She had quietly approached me from behind. My eyes watered and for a micro second I had the urge to stand up and confront my attacker. Thankfully, I didn't. I did however stop talking. As far as I know I am the only recipient of this potentially crippling, or even fatal, blow to the back of the neck.
Mrs. Dillard did appoint me as the only boy librarian during my Junior year. All is well that ends well!
Our sophomore class in 1956-57 was many, many years prior to the 'Self Esteem" mantra of our current school systems.
It was equally ahead of the "I'M OK; YOU ARE OK" dictum of interpersonal relations. The book "Born To Win" was years from publication. Teacher physical/verbal abuse of students was never reported. After all, who would you report it to? Township trustee who hired all of the Paris Crossing teachers and guess who he would believe or support. The parents would immediately side with the teachers and promise worse went you got home.
It was the norm for teachers to do and say anything they pleased. Teacher/student fights were well known and it was usually the teacher who hit first. Fear and intimidation was a regular tool in some of the teacher's arsenal.
This lengthy introduction is the prelude to our Principal,
Mr. Ira Whitaker's lumping all members of our class as candidates in training for The Big House. With his bald head cocked at an angry angle he shouted, "This entire class will wind up in the penitentiary!"
Truth must have it's say: Our sophomore class was blessed with a few fellows who thought they were tough and just looked for an opportunity to prove it. I am not aware of either the incident or participants that merited this collective tongue lashing.
Nonetheless, we were all "numbered with the transgressors."
I only personal know of one student in our class that was ever incarcerated. Sadly, that student was killed in an automobile accident shortly after his release from The Joint. There maybe others; however, I know many former members of our class that succeeded in making a living, but more importantly, in making a life. They took their marriage vows seriously; raised well adjusted children; and worked very hard in their daily efforts to earn a living.
If time could be returned to that day and our roles reversed, I would immediately call Ira Whitaker to my office and together we would work on an "attitude adjustment!"
Some readers of this Blog might legitimately ask, "Did you ever go to class?"
Yes, and it was there my horizons and a love for learning took shape. We were blessed with some very good teachers. One that made an immediate and lasting impact upon me was Mr. Kelso Franklin. It was in his Algeria I class I heard for the very first time the word "Infinity." His definition intrigued me when he said, "Infinity is where parallel lines cross." That was a heavy duty concept for a freshman, and it still is for me today. (Very young kids today hear the word " Infinity" in the many futuristic cartoon shows. By the way, I really enjoyed the Toy Story 1,2, & 3 movies. Woody and Buzz Light Year are a permanent part of our cultural landscape. When our son was 6 years old he would trump his buddies with an unmatchable bet: Infinity Bucks!)
Mr. Franklin, taught all of the math classes. Geometry was of particular interest to me. The logic made sense and there was an historical connection with Euclid and those early developers of math concepts that are firm foundations of almost ever aspects of our daily lives.
Another reason I enjoyed Geometry was it marked the first time in high school I was in the same classroom with some upperclassman. (The Bible says in many places that Pride is a sin. I confess I had more than my share in high school and at 70 years old, I still wrestle with it. Time will cure most problems with uncontrolled thoughts of Passion. But Pride, like computer hard drives must regularly be defragmented.) I mention Pride in connection with Geometry class, because I privately celebrated my achievements when I out-scored the upperclassman.
Algebra II was much easier than Algebra I, at least for me. In addition, I took Business Math, because I needed the credits. While I did well in class, I have not done a very good job in implementing all of the principles in our family's financial affairs. (One of the many reasons I so enjoy the writings and movies of Oklahoma's own, Will Rogers, is his pithy timeless wisdom: "God sure must love poor folks because he made so many of us!" If you travel to Oklahoma, a visit to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, OK will be richly rewarded.)
Physics was really eye-opening for me: Inertia, Mechanical Advantage, Light, Heat, Magnetism, Optics, Electricity, and related topics served to explain our world and how and why the things in it work a certain way. Mr. Franklin had very little Physics lab equipment to work with but he always held our attention. One day an upperclassman was handling a mercury filled thermometer and it broke in her hand. Some of the mercury hit her class ring and in just a matter of seconds, the heretofore invisible weld on the ring disintegrated. Today, the HazMat teams from a dozen agencies would show up for an event like this!
Perhaps the main reason Mr. Franklin was a real life changer was his genuine interest in my out of class hobbies: Space, astronomy, and amateur radio. (My first duty assignment, after being commissioned at Purdue University in 1963, was in Research and Development of our ICBM's Name Dropping Time: Among other duties, I served with an independently wealthy officer, who served because of his love flying-- Major Francis MacKinsey , and together we were speech writers for General Sam Phillips. Few Americans are aware that he took over the Apollo moon landing program from a political appointed civilian administrator who had the program way behind schedule. General Phillips, like the Cable Guy, was a hard-nosed advocate of "Get-R-Done!" All Americans celebrated the moon landing in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. General Phillips has never received the credit that he rightly deserves for his leadership in making the goal of our late President Kennedy a reality. While teaching in the Aerospace Studies Department ( AFROTC) at the University of Kentucky, I was responsible for the annual commissioning of our graduating new second lieutenants. I invited Neil Armstrong, who was then the Chairman of the University of Cincinnati Engineering School, to serve as our main speaker at one our commissioning services. He politely responded and said he had long ago decided not to accept outside speaking engagements. Later, I served in an assignment with Astronaut Colonel John Blaha who would later serve as Commander of several Space Shuttle missions and John spent time aboard the International Space Station.)
In addition, today, I have a modest 8 inch Newtonian reflecting telescope as well as a small refracting telescope for studying the Oklahoma night skies. My ham call sign is KE5GK . It is not a stretch to credit Mr. Franklin for his teaching and encouragement in helping me realize many of my Paris Crossing High School dreams.
I warned you:; I still struggle with Pride!
