The ugly side of back to school
Aug. 4th, 2015 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI was last in school in 1971 - so a few decades ago. That was also the lasts time I bought text books. I just read a great entry in another journal about how things have changed just a little.
I love love love back to school stuff in stores. Every year I pour over it and try not to buy any. Sometimes I am successful. But, textbooks? A differnt animal entirely.
Buying books for high school is burned into my brain and still carries a little scar tissue. I went to a snooty all girl prep school in the historic district of Winston-Salem, NC. My friends in public school had all their text books provided - you used them for the year and then turned them in. For free. But Snooty High made you buy them. The historic section was pretty much built in the mid 1700's. People were short. So the doorways are all short. Oh wait, Google the Glorius just found me the photo of the actual doorway I'm talking about!!!
This is it!! The actual fucking bookstore. Now... it's August. In piedmont (the middle) of North Carolina. The humidity is about 100% or 500%... it's for sure over 90 degrees. Those idiots in the 1700's did not, apparently even think about air conditioning. And there was a line out the door. Every year for four years.
Not that nice door on top. That little hovel of a door below it. I was 5'5" and had to bend over to get in there. We stood in line in the heat and humidity for hours waiting for our chance to go into that oven of a store and buy our fuckton of books which we then had to carry all the way back to school which was a hike down one big hill and up another. In the heat. And the humidity.
Wait, google gave me a map. (god, I love you Google)
When I think about my Kindle that can hold all four years of those books and more, I just weep.
I hated school - all of it. Well, actually, I thought kindergarten was cool because finally I got away from my brother and sister and ... new crayons.
But the rest of it? OMG I hated it all. But that high school book getting process??? Not a happy jaunt down memory lane.
Oh and here's the fascinating entry about how the kids are doing it nowadays. Textbook in a binder???? GENIUS!
I love love love back to school stuff in stores. Every year I pour over it and try not to buy any. Sometimes I am successful. But, textbooks? A differnt animal entirely.
Buying books for high school is burned into my brain and still carries a little scar tissue. I went to a snooty all girl prep school in the historic district of Winston-Salem, NC. My friends in public school had all their text books provided - you used them for the year and then turned them in. For free. But Snooty High made you buy them. The historic section was pretty much built in the mid 1700's. People were short. So the doorways are all short. Oh wait, Google the Glorius just found me the photo of the actual doorway I'm talking about!!!
This is it!! The actual fucking bookstore. Now... it's August. In piedmont (the middle) of North Carolina. The humidity is about 100% or 500%... it's for sure over 90 degrees. Those idiots in the 1700's did not, apparently even think about air conditioning. And there was a line out the door. Every year for four years.
Not that nice door on top. That little hovel of a door below it. I was 5'5" and had to bend over to get in there. We stood in line in the heat and humidity for hours waiting for our chance to go into that oven of a store and buy our fuckton of books which we then had to carry all the way back to school which was a hike down one big hill and up another. In the heat. And the humidity.
Wait, google gave me a map. (god, I love you Google)
When I think about my Kindle that can hold all four years of those books and more, I just weep.
I hated school - all of it. Well, actually, I thought kindergarten was cool because finally I got away from my brother and sister and ... new crayons.
But the rest of it? OMG I hated it all. But that high school book getting process??? Not a happy jaunt down memory lane.
Oh and here's the fascinating entry about how the kids are doing it nowadays. Textbook in a binder???? GENIUS!
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Date: 2015-08-04 09:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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