Weigh in on your education

[Tom Montgomery]

Weigh in on your formal education

Elementary level: public or private?

Middle School level: public or private?

High School level, public or private?

Undergraduate College level: private or state?

Graduate College level: private or state?

My education was provided by the public schools and the state of Ohio.

Yours?

[Glen Longino]

What's the catch, Tom?
Is this a trap?

[Paul Pless]

My family moved from Ohio to Alabama right before I was to start first grade. The public school I would have attended was the former 'black' school for the county during times of segregation. My dad was unimpressed. He got the company he worked for to offer to make improvements to the school, including air conditioning all of the classrooms. The school board and the PTA called him a damned yankee carpet bagger. and turned him down. Thus I began my educational career in Alabama at a private school.

[Tom Montgomery]

What's the catch, Tom?
Is this a trap?

No catch, Glen. Simple curiosity about the Bilge denizens.

Of course, honesty sometimes involves some embarressment.

[Ian McColgin]

I had a wonderful education. My elementary through junior high was the Setauket public school with good tax payer support, plenty of young dynamic teachers, and all that. High school was a scholarship to The Taft School in Connecticut, one of the finer schools in the world. University was Stony Brook, rapidly growing so no one was in charge which was great for me and well on its way to being a very serious powerhouse. And then Andover Newton where I had the chance to mingle with some of the most brilliant theologians and historians alive. Can't be beat. And talk about cost-effective. In those happy days I could pay my own way through college and grad school. The evaporation of real student support is one of the great evils of the last forty years.

[David G]

Kindergarten was private.

From then thru grad school was public.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Over here - "Public Schools" are actually Private - i.e. fee paying.

All the schools I ever attended were not fussy about who they let in - and none asked me for money.

[B_B]

Private
Private
Private/Public
Public
Public (D.N.F.)

For the haters; I spent the first 15 yrs of my life in countries where all schools were private

[Tom Montgomery]

In those happy days I could pay my own way through college and grad school. The evaporation of real student support is one of the great evils of the last forty years.

After graduation from public high school 8th in my class I was accepted by the private College of Wooster. For four summers I worked as a temporary employee of Ford Motor Company at their Lorain Assembly Plant. That pay covered my expenses for books, and fooling around each year.

I did not graduate. My priorities did not include education when I was 21. I was just happy the draft ended.

Nevertheless I was able to quickly get fulltime employment at Ford Motor Company and pay-off my college loans within 2 years.

These are hard times.

[johnw]

I went through kindergarten in France, on an Air Force base, then had to go through it again in Maine because they said I was too young for first grade. When I was 12, we moved to Salem, Ore., where I went to a middle school that I've since learned had a rough reputation. The teachers were not in much control of the place, and I'm not sure how anyone learned anything. Then we moved to Okinawa, where I went to three different schools, mostly in Quonset hut classrooms. We came back to the states when I was 16, and I went to Lakes in Tacoma, then moved to Vashon. My credits were a sufficient mess that I was quite fortunate to win a scholarship to a creative writing class in the summer at the Cornish School of Allied Arts taught by three UW professors. That gave me enough credits to graduate on time.

All told, it was 12 different schools in six different school systems. The best school system I attended was in Kittery, Maine.

Having bounced around to so many different schools, I was relieved to be able to do my entire university education at one school, right through the masters degree. That was Western Washington University, which gets ranked surprisingly high, possibly because lots of smart people want to live in such a beautiful place, so they'll work at a public university that can't pay all that well.

The whole thing was public except for Cornish, and that class convinced me that I didn't want to be like my teachers, who seemed to live to get published in incestuous little poetry journals that were mainly read by people trying to get published in them.

[ron ll]

Sure hope whatever you post here agrees with your resume that you submit for your next job.

[Paul Pless]

Sure hope whatever you post here agrees with your resume that you submit for your next job.

I've never written a resume. Sure don't plan on starting now. . .

[pumpkin]

Sure hope whatever you post here agrees with your resume that you submit for your next job.

School of hard knocks for 46 years and in the public view all the time!

[ron ll]

I've never written a resume. Sure don't plan on starting now. . .

Any plans for getting elected mayor of Hell?

[Horace]

The whole thing was public except for Cornish, and that class convinced me that I didn't want to be like my teachers, who seemed to live to get published in incestuous little poetry journals that were mainly read by people trying to get published in them.

And here you are, in the Bilge.

[Norman Bernstein]

I've never written a resume. Sure don't plan on starting now. . .

Spoken by someone who finds it inconcievable that the circumstances of their life might change.

[brad9798]

K-12 public ...

University- Private, Jesuit. Two degrees in 3.5 years.

[Paul Pless]

Spoken by someone who finds it inconcievable that the circumstances of their life might change.

I'm unemployable.

[Glen Longino]

I endured Texas public schools for twelve(12)long years.
Looking back, I realize I was incarcerated and misused by a mindless system that cared little for me and much for Itself.
If I had it to do over again, I'd apprentice myself to a sculptor at age two(2)and never look back.
18-19 I attended The Badlands Junior College studying chemistry and biology.
Met a lovely Texas girl and married her at twenty(20) and turned my back on further formal education.

[Glen Longino]

And here you are, in the Bilge.

Some things turn out right!

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

I quit school at 15.

[Tom Montgomery]

Let us pay close attention to those who do not address the op and instead try to turn this thread into another turd.

[Peerie Maa]

Over here - "Public Schools" are actually Private - i.e. fee paying.

All the schools I ever attended were not fussy about who they let in - and none asked me for money.

My parents tried to do the best for me by sending me to a private infants school. Then I went into state education through secondary school and University. Any benefits of the dame school were wiped out by some unimaginative and slightly thick primary school teachers.

[Tom Montgomery]

Two posts and still no direct response to the op. A third off-topic post will confirm Tall Boy to be a troll.

[2MeterTroll]

6 public schools before 7th grade.
2 public jr hi's
2 public high-schools till i was 14. take ged go to collage.till i was 16 them the military
then 4 years in public university.
4 more years till i got my unlimited. Dont know what maritime schooling equates to.
amid all that lots of life passed and hard knocks happened.

[johnw]

Some things turn out right!

Yup, I'd sure as shootin' rather be here than in one of those poetry journals. It's funny, people used to care about poetry, and there was a lot of doggerel around. Once the academics got hold of the genre, it stopped being fun. These days, there would be no market for a piece like "Casey at the Bat." Ogden Nash said he decided he'd "rather be a good bad poet than a bad good poet." Now, there's no market for the "bad" poet, and hardly anybody cares about poetry anymore. Even the worst stuff led to some brilliant satire, which is what most of Lewis Carrol's was.

Robert Frost said that poetry is "that which is lost in translation." It's probably also that which evaporates under analysis, like humor.

I wonder if any other areas of human endeavor have been devastated by excessive study?

[Sailor]

Catholic school K-12 a year at community college, nautical college for a diploma in nautical science, then joined the navy. I hope to finish my undergrad this month in Maritime Studies. maybe a masters degree later on, we'll see.

[Phillip Allen]

Public school in Arkansas
Two semesters at College of the Ozarks
US Navy where I learned all about how to be a nukie (the year long course was secret so some will know and some won’t know what that entails).
A number of semesters at University of Arkansas (Mechanical engineering and later education)… no degree.
Much self-administered home schooling after that

[johnw]

What, you didn't catch the catholic school part?

Was that seminary or kindergarten?

[Joe Dupere]

My education from kindergarten through my bachelor's degree was all on the public teat.

[Tom Montgomery]

Tall Boy: That's three.

If you cannot be specific get lost.

Haunt some other thread, troll.

[Todd D]

K-12 at a variety of public schools in western Washington from Vancouver to Lacey. Undergrad at USNA (public) and then U of Washington (public)Grad school at U of Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Alberta (all public)Post Docs at U of Illinois and Alberta (public)Faculty at University of New Brunswick (public)Visiting Professor at Caltech (private)Wife was puclic K-12 then private for undergrad (GWU) and Ph.D (Yale), but back to public for law degree (U of New Brunswick).

[Keith Wilson]

Public schools in New Jersey though 8th grade, then public high school in North Carolina, Macalester College (private) for four years, then a bit at the University of Minnesota.

I'll put my wife in as another data point - public elementary schools in New York City, Hunter College High School grades 7-12 (public), SUNY Binghamton (public), University of MN for MSW (public) then MDiv at Starr-King School for the ministry (Unitarian, private).

[Phillip Allen]

Tall Boy: That's three.

If you cannot be specific get lost.

Haunt some other thread, troll.

I don't think that's necessary, Tom

[Tom Montgomery]

Sure it is.

But I completely understand why you sympathize with poor Tall Boy.

"Birds of a feather," etc.

[Glen Longino]

K-12 at a variety of public schools in western Washington from Vancouver to Lacey. Undergrad at USNA (public) and then U of Washington (public)Grad school at U of Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Alberta (all public)Post Docs at U of Illinois and Alberta (public)Faculty at University of New Brunswick (public)Visiting Professor at Caltech (private)Wife was puclic K-12 then private for undergrad (GWU) and Ph.D (Yale), but back to public for law degree (U of New Brunswick).

Good lord man, get a life!
Just kidding!
Kudos to you and your wife!
Must have been a struggle for both of you?

[johnw]

Good lord man, get a life!
Just kidding!
Kudos to you and your wife!
Must have been a struggle for both of you?

Some folks just love learning.

[Glen Longino]

[B_B]

Originally Posted by Tall BoyWhat, you didn't catch the catholic school part?

Was that seminary or kindergarten?

What's the difference?

[Yeadon]

K-12 in public schools.
Two degrees from a public university.
And I once took Eric Hvalsoe's lofting class at CWB.

[ccmanuals]

K-12- public in Victor, NY
undergrad - Webster Univ
grad - Columbia
post grad - Univ of Tx

[McMike]

K-4 Private

4-12 Public (had to repeat the 4th grade because the Catholic school I went to in Bridgeport wasn't all that good at teaching. We found this out when my family movet to Trumbull where they determined that I was only performing at a 2nd grade level in math and writing.)

2 years attending a state univ.

[johnw]

My daughter would disagree, John. There's a healthy poet community in Chicago.

Healthy poets? I thought they were required to have consumption!

[Waddie]

My father was career military, so;

over 20 schools through K - 12. All overseas. Didn't even make it back here during that time except for a couple short trips. Became fluent in a couple of languages, a smattering of others.

Hitch with US Navy - several aircraft schools.

Bachelors and two masters at both public and private universities. Taught in public HS school for over 25 yrs. Retired, then college prof for 7yrs. Final retirement 2009.

All the while owned a full time construction company.

regards,
Waddie

[brad9798]

YES- SLU!!!!! Fred Z! (am I yelling? HOPE NOT)

[elf]

Private nursery school run by the Univ. of Penn.
Don't remember kindergarten
Grade school started in Philly public schools. One day in 3rd grade I came home and told my mother about the belting that it was said the principal had adminstered to an older boy in the school
Took the train daily to public suburban school from 3-8 for which my parents paid tuition
College prep, gender-segregated public high school - Philly
UWMadison undergrad degree mostly on financial aid, work/study and scholarship
Univ of Ill Champaign-Urbana for part of unfinished master's degree.

[Lew Barrett]

A little known factoid: Ian and I went to the same college (SUNY Stony Brook) and graduated in the same class ( '67, though I stayed on and took some more classes through '68) yet didn't know each other. This was at a time when all four classes, freshman through senior, numbered less than (I think....correct me Ian if I have any of this wrong) 2000 students. It's a different school now, of course. My budget for a complete year of college at the time was about $1500, books, room and board and beer money included, although I did have a full tuition scholarship, so that helped.

[B_B]

A little known factoid: Ian and I went to the same college (SUNY Stony Brook) and graduated in the same class ( '67, thoug I stayed on and took some more classes through '68) yet didn't know each other. This was at a time when all four classes, freshman through senior, numbered less than (I think....correct me Ian if I have any of this wrong) 2000 students. It's a different school now.

I still don't admit

That's not that unsusual - I went to a school with, IIRC, 1,700 full time undergrads and another 3,000 part timers and grad schoolers. I couldn't pick more than a handful out of a lineup today if you paid me a trillion bucks, and I ain't nearly as old as either of you

The fact that two people from the same place way back when, however, choose to frequent an obscure place like the WBF goes to show how small, and weird, and wonderful, life really is.

Amazing.

[Lew Barrett]

You could have blown me over when I discovered we were classmates, but as you say, it's not all so surprising. My memory of the time is more than just a bit dim, but I do have some excuses for that. I am confident Ian paid more attention in class than I did. How I got out of there with a diploma is a minor miracle!
As I type this, my high school classmates are announcing and preparing our 50th year reunion. Fiftieth Year Reunion! Oh my.

[hokiefan]

Kindergarten was private, in some little old lady's home. Probably 10 of us in the class.

First grade through high school were the public schools of Franklin, Va. Most of the kids in kindergarten were there all the way through. One girl moved away, then came back in high school. The public school system was segregated when I started, integrated at the beginning of fifth grade.

College was Va Tech, a state university. One of the better engineering schools out there. My freshman year budget was $3500 for tuition, room & board, books, and play money. Scholarships covered a big chunk of that.

Grad school... well, they didn't let me in!!! Something about that 1st junior year where I played a wee bit too much.

Cheers,

Bobby