In a comment submitted to the previous post, somebody referred to the change in the student demographics. In that respect, the district certainly has changed. When I graduated Allen in the mid 1960's, I do not recall one minority student. The quickness of this change is somewhat of a sociological phenomenon, but beyond that observation, such discussion does not benefit our current students. There certainly has been some
white flight because of these changes, but then again, that's just another frank observation. Although Allentown's total numerical population hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, it now has the same problems of much larger urban centers. As the previous post reveals, there's quite a difference of opinion on the school board on how to process the tight school budget. I applaud all nine members for their dedication.
photo courtesy of Sandy Paul
Just a note about one of my pet peeves. No one uses English correctly anymore. One does not "graduate Allen", one "graduates FROM Allen".
ReplyDeleteMM, hear we go the grammar police? That picture depicts something that has been stolen by most of the political parasites of the nation,not to mention the banking institutions and the realestate entities? This would be joy and happiness with simple things in life not all this plastic and gagetry?
ReplyDeleteStep back before going foward?
redd
patent pending
When I was in 1st grade at St. Francis school I remember in catechism classes, in preparation for 2st holy Communion the following year the good sisters were very diligent in making sure we knew our catechism and doing their best to help our families help us develop a good sense of right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteOne day, when we were going over the 4th commandment about honoring our mother's and father's, sister told us that we were to honor them, and do what they told us to do, UNLESS what they told us to do was morally wrong. Then my teacher said something puzzling to me at the time. She said "For instance, if your parents don't like Negroes (don't jump that's what they were called) and that you shouldn't make friends with them, that's wrong." My thought at the time was - "geez sister, there aren't any Negroes in the school,(few blacks are Catholic) we only see them on Hamilton street shopping, and there aren't many of them at all, how could we discriminate against them if just in our day to day lives we never run into them?" Looking back I now realize that the reason she made a point of it was probably because the Birmingham bombing had recently happened -- at age 6 the only news I remember hearing about in particular was the Cuban Missile crisis, so I had completely missed the news about the bombing of the church and the little girls dying. Didn't hear about that until I was older and wiser.
But it's quite true, the area I grew up in is mostly all black and Puerto Rican now.
As regards Puerto Ricans, I had a Puerto Rican nuns for 2nd grade and she was the 1st one I ever met. I don't recall meeting any other when I lived in A-town in the early to mid 60s.