The Globe Theater Project

I don't get a chance to go out on weekday evenings, cause I'm usually tending bar, but the other night my friend Val worked for me so I could attend at demonstration. Usually my duties at the bar provide me for a built-in excuse to avoid these things - you know, Tupperware, Mary Kay and such, but this sounded like an interesting evening. They were demonstrating rubber stamping and making your own greeting cards.

Anybody that knows me knows that it peeves me no end to give Hallmark $4.25 for a card that's only going in the trash. But having said that, I'm not so sure about the wisdom of purchasing $432 in rubber stamp supplies to produce some birthday cards.

The evening was quite interesting, as I was the token old broad. All the women were in their 20's and 30's and had kids going to the same grade school. I don't think I said a word all night, and that's IMPOSSIBLE. I talk ALOT. But there didn't seem to be much in common with these young women were chatting on about soccer and homework.

I'm enrolled in classes myself, trying to finish a degree I'd left in a ditch long ago, but these women were talking about working on book reports. OH....I get it....they're talking about the kids books reports, and it seems the more things change the more they stay the same.

Back when Hector was a pup, and I was in grade school, our moms helped us with the books reports too. But now they're doing things called "book reports in a bag"...what's that??? I bet dads are still producing those Cub Scout soapbox derby cars too. Me and Leon could always spot the daddy-made ones at the race, and we always felt sorry for Randall James 'cause he was the only kid that had car he'd actually made himself. The scout leaders had to know what was going on.

My high school English teacher had to know something was amiss when Candy Smithfield and I turned in our final project for our Shakespeare assignment.

Miss Robinson teamed us up into groups of two and said we'd have to produce some type of final project for our semester on Shakespeare. It was to be something other than an essay, a crafty project preferably and it was going to count for 50% of the final grade.

The heat was on and we were sweating like pigs in a barnyard. We heard that Karen and Cindy were making period costumes and were going to perform a scene from a Shakespearean play. Candy and I couldn't come up with a clever idea, and were sitting around her kitchen table discussing our dilemma when her dad piped up, "I see that picture of the Globe Theater there, I can help you build that thing". Hmmmmm....interesting idea.

Wood was purchased, tables saws sawed, nails were nailed, but of course, Candy and I did none of the work. Her dad built the whole darn thing. If I remember correctly the only thing we did was paint the behemouth. I say behemouth because her dad produced a scale model of the Globe that was at least 4 feet tall and just as wide!!

I don't now in hell we got that thing to school, it must have been in her dad's pickup truck. You shoulda seen Miss Robinson's face with the Globe Theater came walking in the door sideways. You couldn't pushed her over with a feather!

She had to know we didn't build it, but she gave us an "A" anyway, probably just for the Chutzpah of trying to pass it off as our project.

That Globe Theater was so awesome, I'm sure that 39 years later it's still in room 304 at the high school.

Now I'm off to figure out how to do a Book Report in a Bag.

Comments

[David]

Hi Ruby:

What's wrong with the teacher who didn't have the guts to call a spade a freaking shovel?

No wonder kids become cynical when they watch the hypocrisy of their parents and their teachers.

Schools are tools of indoctrination and social control not education and your examples of the collusion between functionaries masquerading as teachers and parents who want to help their children "beat" the system is a great parable of where "education" as gone wrong in the U.S. of A.

This is one of the reasons why my Mrs. and I decided to homeschool our brood, because we weren't having it. In the homeschooling world there is a slogan, "Don't let public schooling interfere with your education."

I hope you get more out of you education now as you pursue your degree at this later time in life.

Whatever happened to Candy? She's probably home eating potato chips, smoking cigarettes, and watching Jerry Springer. I'll bet she voted for Bush too because she's afraid of the big bad terrorists and so she voted her "values".

All the best,

David

[barb]

well, now. maybe it's Randall James and Hector's turn to do your Book Report in a Bag!

or maybe you can still ask Candy's dad for help? ^_^