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Brian

Jun 22, 2010, 5:57 AM

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What did you learn in school today?

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When I was a kid, we had "bomb drills" in school and practiced tucking down under our desks at the teacher's signal. Today, Mexican children are being taught how to protect themselves from grenade attacks and shootouts. The difference is that none of us were really fearful and considered it a game. In Mexico, the threat is very real and, unlike paranoia about communists, fear of narcoviolence is all too justified.

http://correo-gto.com.mx/notas.asp?id=167588

(This post was edited by esperanza on Jun 22, 2010, 10:58 AM)

Bethie

Jun 22, 2010, 9:06 AM

Post #2 of 9 (3038 views)

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Re: [Brian] What did you learn in school today?

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We have told our daughter that at the first sound of gunfire to drop flat and protect her head. It is hard to figure out whether you are running away from gunfire or towards gunfire.

BTW, My mother, who is 77 never thought of bomb drills as a "game". She was very much fearful.

Gringal

Jun 22, 2010, 9:09 AM

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Re: [Brian] What did you learn in school today?

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I don't know about the kids in your school, but when I was a kid, everybody was scared spitless, including the kids. The black humor current at the time was : " Bend over and kiss your sweet ash goodbye."
No comparison, however, with hearing real shootouts in your own neighborhood and seeing real blood and bodies in the streets, as in some parts of Mexico today.

We also learned that Commies were evil and they were everywhere. Sen. McCarthy told us so.

For a great description of the times and a terrific read in general, get "La Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. It covers life in Mexico from the 20's on up to the late fifties, and weaves in US history during the same eras, complete with commies, the Great Depression, Diego and Frida, Lev Trotsky, Mexican revolutions and so on.

NEOhio1

Jun 22, 2010, 9:24 AM

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Re: [Gringal] What did you learn in school today?

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I just got that on my Kindle, looking forward to it, hear its a great read.

We cowered under desks in Texas. Have pretty much decided to stay close to home these days. Heard last week, "When they start finding bodies in bags and heads rolling on plazas in this are Ajijic will empty out in a hurry." I suppose they are right, I figure 1/3 of the people we know would leave, maybe not permanently, but they'd be off to somewhere else for a while.

joaquinx

Jun 22, 2010, 10:52 AM

Post #5 of 9 (3011 views)

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Re: [Brian] What did you learn in school today?

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I remember when I was under that wood and steel desk that the thought kept coming back to me: There is no way that this cheap desk is going to protect me from an A-Bomb and why, for heaven's sake, would the Ruskies want to target our poor, little town. Never did any of my teachers give me a decent explanation. The last year we had these farces, I wondered if it wouldn't be better to stand in the street and take for full blast of the nuke and get it over quickly rather than the slow death of radiation poisoning. Lastly, I wondered if the desks would really give us protection and we would only lose our teachers who were standing up monitoring us and no doubt filling out forms stating that all the students were safe having ducked under their desks avoiding the nuclear holocaust.
_______
My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.

Reginald

Jun 29, 2010, 5:27 AM

Post #6 of 9 (2845 views)

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Re: [Brian] What did you learn in school today?

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My son learned multiplications in his school today..

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Peter

Jun 29, 2010, 6:27 AM

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Re: [Reginald] What did you learn in school today?

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In Reply To

My son learned multiplications in his school today..

It was in elementary school that some older kids began telling me about the fundamentals of multiplying. In Jr. High is when I spent most of my time thinking about multiplying almost to the exclusion of everything else and began touching on the subject. Finally in High School I was able to put it into practice. I am glad I never obtained a product then, some did.

(This post was edited by Peter on Jun 29, 2010, 7:16 AM)

YucaLandia

Jun 29, 2010, 1:43 PM

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Re: [joaquinx] What did you learn in school today?

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joaquinx's experiences were so similar to mine, I wonder if he/she was in our school too. The flickering films of giant glowing mushroom clouds, houses exploding into splinters from the invisible blast & shock waves, trees being stripped of their branches by invisible forces ripping through them all, also left me wondering how my little desk/chair combination would help, unless maybe I could cling to it like Dorothy in some Kansas tornado.

It was no joke for us either, since we had so many WW2 combat vets in our family, all scarred both inside and out, that war seemed a very real thing, particualrly with the weekly Wed. noon air-raid sirens. Later, living with Washington DC's gunfire in rundown neighborhoods, violence across the city, and the aftermath of the MLK riots were still just a small taste of what some Mexican kids face daily.

Still, a bunch of people on Mexconnect seem to have survived to be online several decades later telling their stories. Fortunately, Mexicans, like humans across the world, are resilient, and most will survive, raise families, and generally go on to live pretty good lives.
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Read-on MacDuff
E-visit at http://yucalandia.com

Peter

Jun 29, 2010, 2:14 PM

Post #9 of 9 (2728 views)

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Re: [YucaLandia] What did you learn in school today?

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Do you recall also how we used to pick on some meek and unfortunate soul by all the bad boys ganging up and calling him a "comuniss" until he ran home crying? Our government had a Cold War going on and needed to make a lasting impression on us how important their war was by all those "duck and cover" drills. Without them how would we know there was a real threat?

Without the Soviet Menace causing us discomfort any longer we need something to let us know there is a Drug War threatening the very nature of our being. It is not enough to learn to duck behind something and stay low when there is gunfire, but for those fortunate enough to nt ever be exposed to live gunfire we need something else to make that lasting impression.