Title: Senior Year Class Schedule, Arlington Martin High School
Date: August, 1992
Category: Schedule
Current Status: Recycled
Ahhh... High School. High School, particularly Junior and Senior year, were pretty good. Partly because most of my classes were with kids who were more interesting than annoyingly popular and so I didn't get picked on as much and partly because it wasn't Boles Junior High.
I look at this schedule and I suddenly remember things about classes that I had forgotten. And I also see that those bozos couldn't get some of my info right. I've blacked out some bits of info that doesn't really need to be displayed on the web (and also had no comedic potential).
The first line at the top seems pretty straight forward, although I am unclear what "URSH" is, the blank right after my Student ID number.
The second line, sadly, has no information listed for "Other Name", despite the fact that during my 3 years at Martin, I went by several names other than "John." In pre-calculus, I was "John Bob." In Chemistry, I became "Brad" (that's a story in and of itself). In MOCE, I went by the alternate name of "Bob" in order to try and hide my embarassment at being in the class.
Dropping down a bit, I am bewildered as to where they got an "H" for my mother's middle name. Her name was Elizabeth Ann Fox Lamberth... no "H". Even more bewildering is why the line below for employer is listed as "DECEASED." I assume they meant my dad, but it would be pretty weird if your parent worked for a dead person. They actually did get mom's employer correct on the next employer line, which was supposed to go with the second parent line where deceased should have gone. Confusing? Well, that's public education for ya.
Then we have my classes. I had no zero hour. Let's face it, 7:45 for first period was early enough... who wants to be in class at 6:45. That's just insane.
Fall semester first period was Mrs. Harry's Government class. I liked Mrs. Harry. She was also our sponsor for Academic Decathalon. And she was the wife of Joe Harry, then principal of Boles Junior High. During that semester, the Dallas Observer did a cover story about some controversial happenings at Boles under Mr. Harry's watch. I was quoted. Despite saying things that were not complimentary, Mrs. Harry never mentioned it.
Spring semester first period was Creative Writing with Mr. McBride. One of the best classes ever. When I find all that stuff, I'll be sure to post it.
Second period- AP Chemistry II with the famous Mr. Powell. I was lousy at chemistry, but the class was always entertaining. Sometimes we blew stuff up. Sometimes we had contests to see who could write the best "Deep Thought" (Jack Handey style). Mostly we just listened to a science teacher who fit right in with Bill Nye.
Third Period- AP English with Mrs. McBride. I wasn't overly fond of world literature, but the class was enjoyable anyway. Mrs. McB found all sorts of entertaining assignments. And, once each grading period, each of us at to present a poem to start the class (Poetry Du Jour). I liked it so much that the last grading period of the year, I asked if I could read something everyday. I think Mrs. McB was shocked... she gave me that look that you get when you let on to a teacher that they are actually having a positive impact on you. They have that happen so rarely, they have trouble hiding that look of amazement.
Fourth period-Lunch... mostly spent racing around trying to get to a fast food restaurant befor ethe rest of 4th period lunch got there creating massive lines.
Fall semester 5th period was MOCE, Math of Consumer Economics. That was embarassing. In 11th grade, I failed the second semester of pre-calc. Not because I couldn't do pre-calc, but because I didn't do the homework. See, the teacher didn't take grades on the homework so I didn't do the homework. I passed the tests, but at the end of the grading period, we had folder tests, meaning we were tested on all the stuff, like homework, that was supposed to be in our folders. If you didn't do the homework, you couldn't answer that part of the folder test. So I would fail the folder tests. I still think that's kind of stupid. I showed I understood what was being taught, but I failed because I didn't do the homework that apparently didn't prevent me from understanding the material.
So, I needed another credit in math and the only thing open was MOCE, which was about as remedial as you could get. I mean, we learned how to write checks. We started out doing fairly simple addition and subtraction, like most people learn in 4th grade. Here I am, an AP student, in the top 10% of my class, in remedial math. With the extra credit and bonus points, I had an AVERAGE of over 100. In fact, at the end of the semester, I only needed to score 16 points (out of 100) on the final exam to earn an "A" for the entire semester. The class was taught by the golf coach, who realized at some point during the semester that I was smarter than he was. At any rate, I went by "Bob" to try and protect my identity.
The Spring semester had Economics with the infamous Mr. Danielson. He was nuts. I'm not sure I can describe him, really. He was very passionate about economics, that's for sure.
6th period was originally going to be Tech Theater, but after 2 classes, I decided building sets sounded less fun than acting on sets and switched to Drama. I ended up with the lead in the class play and also played Schroeder in our production of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I'm hoping that video does not exist of my performances.
I had no class for 7th period. Some might say "no class" refers to me outside of 7th period as well. Typically, I ended up hanging out in the journalism room and bothered the newspaper staff and their teacher, affectionately known as "The Griffin." My best pal Ray Grabeel was on the newspaper staff and we spent a lot of time doing silly things like making flyers for the "Warrior Falconry Team" and convincing other people that we had a band. I think I became the unofficial mascot for the class. It should also be noted that the entity known as "Keithney" was birthed in that 7th period and it still exists today, living in Houston with some children. Perhaps I'll explain that later.
Okay, I rambled a bit on this one. The next one will contain more funny, less chatter.
and the business card of the guy who made his living taking pictures of crappy youth soccer teams.
Apparently, he also took pictures of pretty much anything that involved a paying client. You don't see "Banquets" mentioned very often anymore. And I doubt that many people who hold "Banquets" automatically think of a guy who calls himself "Captain Photo" as their first choice for official photography.
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