Walking through simpler times. . .
The biggest news this week it seems was the announcement of school grades by FDOE (Florida Department of Education). Jackson County has reason to be proud with three schools receiving an ‘A’ grade, three receiving a ‘B’ grade, and three earning a ‘C’. If you’ve ever looked at a report card (now I’m talking about ones back in the day) they said, A=excellent, B=good, C=average, D=poor, and F=failing. So, with that being said, Jackson County did very well, no failing grades and no poor grades. Can we do better? I hope so as do parents, students and everyone involved in education.
As soon as I heard grades were being posted on the FDOE website, you know I was all over that. Of course, I didn’t give it 199% of my attention because I knew it was way above my paygrade to figure what the letter grade would be when in just a few short days, the state would have done that for me. I did look at increases and decreases from the 2024-2025 school year and the 2023-2024 school year. I was 99% sure from looking at individual grade levels from all nine Jackson County schools, that we as a district were in good shape. That is always welcome news.
It brought me back some memory lane moments over the last few weeks. As most of our readers know, my needle has been stuck on memory lane. The ‘my needle is stuck’ comes from an episode of Hazel where Barney repeats himself one too many times and Hazel tells him his needle is stuck. I’m going down memory lane with another one of my favorite shows, Leave it to Beaver, for this week’s Prissie column. Mrs. Landers and Mrs. Canfield were two of Beaver’s teachers and he really liked them both.
In one episode, Beaver was busted for skipping school. He and Larry Mondello decided it would be better to miss the whole day than to show up late for the third time. When Ward was made aware that Beaver was on a TV show that day, at June’s insistence, he went to find him. When he found him, he took him to school to explain to Mrs. Landers. In his apology he said something that triggered Mrs. Landers to clarify what he had missed as only she could have done. I was very impressed, impressed enough to put it in my memory bank. She said, “Beaver, it’s as though you took a day of your life and threw it away, you didn’t learn anything today.” Everyone who’s ever watched an episode of Beaver, knows that was probably the best medicine for Beaver because he never wanted to disappoint Mrs. Canfield or Mrs. Landers.
With so much transparency today through social media, video cameras recording your every move, and other modern technology, I am made vividly aware of things that just get under my skin. Students missing school is one that definitely fits that category. At one point in time, there was a policy in place that four unexcused absences would result in failing a class. I don’t know that that was ever enforced because I’ve heard kids actually boast about missing “X” number of days of school in a given time.
I never understood kids who liked to miss school. Shoot, I wanted to be there because there was always something happening and I wanted to be in the know. I was in the eighth grade before I missed my first day of school. That was the day I was called that my dad was at the hospital. I knew it wasn’t good because he would not have allowed us to miss school just because he was in the hospital. May 06, 1968 still seems like yesterday somedays.
Back at the ranch. I’ve always believed that attendance is important from day one. If you start something, you finish it. You do your best every day, give 100% to every detail, and strive to compete with yourself the next day to be one “inth” better than you were yesterday. That brings me to another quote from a Beaver episode, “As you go through life, you try to improve yourself, not prove yourself.” If I’m not mistaken that was quoted in an episode but not from a ‘Beaver’ character. But think about that, why would you not try to improve yourself every day? As everyone knows, I am obsessed with the TIMES, and making it the best paper it can be. I come up with all sorts of features, stories that I think would interest certain groups, and the list goes on. That’s my motivation – to find just the right article that pleases at least one person. That may be the only good news they have that day or even that week or month.
I know there are times when children are sick and they don’t need to be in school for one, not to contaminate other children, and two, to heal themselves back to 100%. I’m talking about the many, many times I hear, “I let Johnny stay home today. He’s not missed a day in two, three, or four weeks!” REALLY? You’re celebrating that? Sorry, that didn’t happen when I was growing up for sure. School is out for the summer – get in your ‘special’ times with your children now so that when school starts, they’ll be ready. Let them know how important every day is because you never know when a Mrs. Canfield or Mrs. Landers might just have some words of wisdom that stay with them a very long time.
When I was in fourth or fifth grade, the World’s Fair was a really, really big deal. I remember a classmate (please forgive me for calling you out) Lisa Turner Pelt was fortunate enough to attend the World’s Fair. If I’m not mistaken, it was in New York. That was certainly deserving of a few days from school (especially since she brought the entire class candy from there). Like with everything else, pick your battles but attendance at school should not be one to be cast to the wayside. It teaches at a very young age that attendance is secondary and believe it or not, it carries over into adulthood. Employers cannot check attendance today due to all the new rules and laws, but if they could, they might could save themselves a few less hires.
We have so many awesome teachers who go above and beyond and both Mrs. Canfield and Mrs. Landers fell into that category. I’ll close with a Mrs. Canfield quote, “A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to light the way for others.” And I was so fortunate to have so many Mrs. Canfield’s and Mrs. Landers’ and that’s all there is this week from Prissie.