Your photos and comments are both similar and different to my own. For k-6,=
I attended a parochial school in another town located in the basement of a=
church, and run by nuns. I recall looking up to the windows to see mostly=
sky. Our grades were grouped 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8, and our grade worn=
in the color of our ties. Uniforms. Rooms were separated by temporary=
partitions. Our desks were sometimes facing forward, sometimes in a U=
shape, (So that the nun could reach anyone) and we were frequently placed=
in boy/girl alternation. =20
Our playgrounds were gender separated - the girls collectively occupied the=
paved portion and the boys shared a much bigger gravel space. The boys'=
playground had iron I-beams between segments occupied by the grades as=
grouped. It was our game to hit the beams with rocks and listen to the=
echoes in the metal as it traveled the length of the beam. When in 5th=
grade, a solid concrete block wall was erected between the boys' and the=
girls' playgrounds - about 30 inches thick and taller than any of us. I=
still don't understand why such a measure. It must have been a donation --=
did they think us boys had access to armored tanks? =20
It was accepted wisdom that boys were bad and girls were good in their=
nature. Us boys felt oppressed with the rules. Prompted by the whistle=
we stood in line in the paved lot until the line was accepted by the nun. =
Sometimes it took forever -- a few guys had the idea of testing just how=
long the nun would keep us out there and would continuously break the line=
in conspiracy. Appeals by the girls eventually broke down their=
resistance. Bad and good were materialized in pants and skirts. We all=
knew it.
We attended ceremonies upstairs regularly and performed them as we were=
told. But the guys knew this was pro forma. We were bad and did not pay=
attention. We enacting the rituals by rote, and in exchange the nuns left=
us alone. A deal with the devil. Contributing to our ecology were the=
pews and the stations of the cross, the alter, and the confessional. "Did=
you get hail-mary's or our-fathers?", "How many?" A playground query to=
badness and status. =20
After the church burned sometime in the spring of 6th grade, I moved to a=
public school. There was talk of a kid who went to reform school... and=
then the convent burned a little while later...
That kid was not around for the second fire and it was only talk in the=
first place that he was involved. I mean, he was a bully and we knew he=
deserved punishment anyway. But at the time we thought the first fire=
could have been his, and never paused to wonder who else might have done=
it. After all, it was an ecological revolution. =20
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Lesley College, 31 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790=20
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]