Good student-teacher relationships aren't really all that frequent here...many of our teachers are distant and detached from their students, assume the worst of them to their faces, and openly hate them behind their backs...a lot of them, especially the junior high ones, are there just because they need the money to barely be able to live but aren't really specialized enough in anything else to go to a better job. In fact, because our school is so poor, we hire teachers first and foremost on the basis that all other schools have turned them down...it's ended up getting us a few surprise successes but mostly mediocre teachers who need the job for a few years as a throwaway credential they can put on a resumé to get a slightly better job somewhere that pays more. The woodshop teacher, God rest his soul (was killed in a motorcycle accident last week), told me once that he makes less money here after two decades at this school than he would if he transferred to almost any other school in the vicinity as a first-year teacher. Even last year they tried to fire the calculus teacher just because they thought he was too expensive to keep, and he had only been here five years. We actually had to have a very large, student-lead protest to convince the board to keep him... not to mention that now that the woodshop teacher is dead, the board of education is seeing it as a morbidly-convenient way to get rid of woodshop altogether...usually, whenever an elective teacher leaves, they cut the class that they taught...when my French teacher left to get married to a man in Virginia, they uncerimoniously cut the French program and all people who were already in it were forced to take computer classes just so they could get their honors diploma. When the computer programming teacher was fired for having marijuana and pornography in his room, they scaled back the class to the point where there are only two classes, each of which all the kids do is sit around and play Quake III in...it's infuriating that they continue to do this, especially since they added an extra period to classes after implementing block scheduling on a whim this year...it puts an enormous strain on the few elective teachers we have left because not only did they have to invent new classes but they had to make extra periods of classes that they only have the resources to teach one class of at the most. It seems like even the people who run our school at the local level don't even know what's going on.
But I know how it is for the problem of the school being in disrepair to be an apparent problem. Our school was only built in 1987, but it's in such horrible disrepair now that we had to rent run-down modulars, portable buildings one step above trailers, to run all classes in for most of this year...we had no heat, air conditioning, widespread mold infestations, peeling paint, etc; and I have no idea how, even with a rather dedicated janitorial staff, this could all happen in less than two decades. It was even worse at the place we used as high school before our new one opened, though; until 1987 the students used a five-story building that was built in the 1890s, complete with large, wobbly staircases, broken windows, filth-coated halls, and even a belltower that reeked with piles of dead birds and bats from ages past. I imagine, like your school, that it was an amazing facility when it was new, but no school should be allowed to fall into disrepair if everyone knows that there's no chance of a new one being built in the near future. Pretty much all funding for renovation our high school could have had has been divirted to the grade school, because our property taxes were doubled recently so construction could begin on a new grade school, even though the one we already have is large and accomodating enough despite it being built in the 1950s. Even when I was in it in the mid-late 1990s it was perfectly spic-and-span, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and sparkling clean. I don't know how that was considering the state of our high school, but I'm glad it was. Most of our grade school teachers are crusty, bitter old hags anyway so I suppose good facilities can't prevent a child from having their education ruined, but it's still an important part of any school.
Even though there are other branches of the armed forces that travel to distant bases, Navy is still definitely best because it's useless in a land war except for relatively-safe transport and supply missions. I think the only Naval officers to die in a long time were the people who died when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole a few years back, but that aside there are no conflict deaths I can think of since probably before the Vietnam war. I love the idea of travelling the world; the possibility of being able to live in another country (Japan especially) appeals to me, though I doubt I could ever become fluent enough despite my affinity for linguistics to find someone to marry...I know a girl at school whose brother is in the army and guaraded the U.S. Embassy in N'djamena, Chad and the U.S. consolate in Shanghai, China and he eloped with a Chinese girl, so I suppose it's not that hard if someone who graduated from my school can do it, but it's still a strange thought. I...suppose people get lonely when they're on a base full of men for years at a time XD If I were more fit and less interested in a domestic career I'd definitely be considering joining right now, the money is definitely appealing and I hate the idea that my parents will probably be dead before I get to make their lives better through a good job...it's definitely the fast track to getting your financial matters settled if that's what's a burden on you at the moment. The person from school that I know who's going is almost definitely going to get accepted into the Naval academy in Annapolis, though, and it's basically the Navy equivalant of West Point, which might be why he's talking about getting so much money so quickly, though, but I've always thought that active duty army careers in general were lucrative.
Regarding the incident with the Iraq war vet, I very respectfully explained to him after seeing his reaction that it was sarcasm...I even pointed out to him a poster that I did on the wall that said "America sucks" on the wall that had a drawing of a fat man in a cowboy hat in a hummer running over an arab while drinking a cup of grease, but I'm not sure he was the type that appreciated satire. It turned out okay, but I still think he was pretty mad at me. There's been no real journalism practiced by the media since the 1960s...back then newspaper readers still outnumbered television viewers so reporting was still based on words alone, not shocking visuals. Since then the media has come under the impression that they somehow have the right to control our minds and our opinions, and, in many ways, they do...the majority of Americans choose who they want to be the leader of the free world on the basis of a few thirty-second soundbites they pick up over the course of the election; reason basically gets thrown out of the window. Just look at what happened to Dan Rather during the last election...he tried too hard to discredit Bush and got caught for it, and it would be wonderful if it could happen to more people (not just about politics and the presidency, but people who spin the news in general) but it's not going to because media tycoons are some of the most biased and wealthy people in this country, which is a deadly combination when hearts and minds are on the line. Nobody has a real reason to be against the war because they're either indiscriminant peaceniks who have their head in a bong all day, conspiracy theorists, who have always existed and rarely been correct and yet are given more airtime than rational people who are actually telling the truth, or people who hate the war just because they hate Bush...no one really cares about terrorism anymore; we've all sunk to the low of politicizing death and misery just because it's convenient to make a blanket statment based on the absolutes the media feeds us...you're right, they'll realize they're idiots in time, but there'll be a new wave of irrational voices to drown them out depending on what the nation's involved in at the time. It's always the young versus the old in this country, and it's always going to be like that.
