> > Beginning in the third grade and on thru college, I carried a pocket knife every single day. I still do. I have a little pearl-handled beauty in my pocket right now. I hope they leave one in my pocket when they stuff me in a pine box. I have never stabbed anybody, but I did cut my finger once in high school and bled on the floor. The girl sitting behind me passed out, but they didn't take my knife or kick me out of school. I remember going to the office for a band-aide. The principal kidded me about the girl who swooned over me. It was different for those of us who started school in 1939.
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> Not entirely so different, Howard. I carry a pocketknife, and did all through high school (and would have before that, except that I didn't have one). I've never actually gotten in trouble for having it, even though it was against the rules at every school I was at. And faculty and administrators saw me with it, too - in fact, they'd often ask to borrow it. Things aren't really all that different everywhere.

It just goes to show that faculty and administrators have more smarts than the school boards who make the rules. Many school board members have an education, but the only requirement, in most cases, is that they have enough votes to get elected. I've known a few who could barely read and write. Others only ran for the office so they could have a say in the hiring and firing of coaches. Most have inflated egos. Teachers get stuck between the board and the parents. Most people think teachers make policy!
We used to have a school board member who often prefaced his remark with "When I was teaching school..." We did a little checking and found that he taught half a year and quit at Christmas because he couldn't take it.
It's pretty scary when you think about who is really running the nation's schools.
How"glad I'm out of it"ard