When I was in grade school, I went to a Catholic elementary school called Saint Francis of Assisi. I lived in West Virginia, which is somewhat of a backwards state, but our school system was actually pretty solid. (Proof: A group from Japan visited our school system to gather guidance on how to improve their<\/u> school system. 🤔)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOCIALLY CONNECTED<\/strong> We had a pretty good connection with the Catholic priests at the church. Plus, some of my male siblings were altar boys \u2014 as I was. The priests would even come to our house and be social with us: pool, ping pong, etc. (Two of the priests made a little \u2018too strong\u2019 connections with some female church members, stopped being priests, and married them.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n MY \u2018JOB\u2019<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n AGGRESSIVE NUNS<\/strong> DANGEROUS PLAYGROUND<\/strong> SOCIAL WITH STUDENTS<\/strong> WHO IS THE BUTTHEAD?<\/strong> SUMMARY<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was in grade school, I went to a Catholic elementary school called Saint Francis of Assisi. I lived in West Virginia, which is somewhat of a backwards state, but our school system was actually pretty solid. (Proof: A group from Japan visited our school system to gather guidance on how to improve their … <\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting because our house was close to the elementary school, and we had a pretty good connection with the school and church. Not only that, my siblings and I are pretty smart \u2013 and so the school teachers and other church\/school workers would sometimes rely on us to help them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a problem-solving \/ engineering head. For this reason, it was interesting to me that the school teachers would rely on me to solve problem situations. A few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the day, Catholic nuns were allowed to manage the students using aggressive techniques. I was a generally well-behaved student, but I was smacked multiple times (sometimes with a wooden paddle) when I did something the nuns didn\u2019t like. I remember during a fire drill, covering my ears with my hands as I was walking past the wall-mounted alarm device. A nun smacked me in the head with her hand because of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Decades ago, those building a school playground didn\u2019t think about how safe it was. The playground at my elementary school had tall metal climbing structures \u2014 some with parts 10 feet off the paved ground. I played frequently on these structures and never got hurt, but I\u2019m sure some kids did. Playgrounds today are more sensibly built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was connected with kids in my class who weren\u2019t white skinned \u2014 partly because my parents didn\u2019t teach me to think non-white people weren\u2019t as good as white people (nice). I remember frequently hanging on the playground with a Chinese girl and a black boy. (I actually really liked the Chinese girl, but was too young to have a girlfriend.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember tripping a guy who was running laps around the playground. Why did I do this? I\u2019d like to think that it was because he had previously done something bad to someone else. Strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My elementary school experience was pretty unique and crazy. A lot happened (both good and bad) \u2014 but it definitely was a significant part of my childhood, and I strongly remember my time there more than at later schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n