No Sympathy for Teen Complaints
Re “This Is Why We Can’t Read,” Youth Essay, Voices, May 5: No, I didn’t walk five miles to school through hip-deep snow. In the late ‘30s and early ‘40s I did take the school bus from what was then the corner of Brooklyn and Rowan avenues to Garfield High--a trip of about an hour, as I recall. I always had a breakfast of sorts and a lunch bag with a sandwich and some fruit.
My school day consisted of the usual: algebra, geometry, English, history, Spanish, physics, chemistry (and the books and homework that went with them), gym, Spanish club and student government. Graffiti was limited to the boys’ bathrooms, and the school plant and grounds were neat and clean (with the help of a few students awarded the Order of the Pointed Stick). Of course, the school was not a fortress, there were no bullhorns (some of the coaches just sounded that way), and there were amenities like toilet paper. Why has that changed, I wonder?
We did have some real advantages. There were no CD or tape players, there was no television (just Saturday morning serials at the Unique for a dime), and our material expectations were much lower. I doubt that parents at the time were any more or less involved with school issues. They were busy working and trying to figure out how to pay the bills at the end of the month. Sorry kids, you’ll just have to look for sympathy somewhere else.
W.L. Sibley
Northridge
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You are tired. Try walking 31/2 miles to school in rain, snow, in 20-and 30-degree temperatures, without a backpack, without gloves. Since there weren’t any vending machines we took lunch with us. But you know what? We never complained, and our schools didn’t have any grass or trees. When we became adults we never had time to wear pajamas. While our kids were in school, we went to work at 5 a.m. and came home as late as 8 p.m.
I’ll wager that none of the students who signed that essay have sneakers with holes in the soles as we had, with cardboard inside to keep our skin from being scraped. We’re pretty sure that you can read and get good grades. Your problem is your attitude. How else do you explain that with all these hardships you are in an Advanced Placement government and economics class?
Your conclusion tells it all: “You’re the ones who got us into this mess. It’s up to you to get us out.” Sorry, if you are in a mess, you are responsible and nobody else.
Sid Lazarow
Orange