There I am with momma holding me still. Life was uncomplicated.
Uncomplicated Katie
I grew up in an extremely large family, the child of two hard working parents. We didn’t have a lot of things like most kids seem to have today. We also didn’t have a lot of one on one “quality” time with our parents. In many ways you might think that I grew up in a deprived family. However, we never really thought of ourselves as poor and we never really felt deprived. I do remember going to my aunt’s house and picking out clothes, after her children had already picked what they wanted, from boxes kept in an extra room. I think they were donated clothes. I remember getting a jumper that I wore for my school picture. We didn’t have much in the way of toys and extras but it wasn’t that noticeable by any of us.
When we moved to Kingston I was going into third grade. I had never even been on a bike before. We didn’t even have any bikes. My sister said at one time the bikes were backed over by a vehicle and never replaced. The neighborhood girl who was a year older was very nice. She helped me learn how to ride a bike by letting me borrow her bike. I’d jump on and fly down the hill and hope I wouldn’t fall off. It was a blast and we didn’t wear helmets back then! I did get a bike when I was in seventh grade. That was awesome. I remember the freedom of riding around town and visiting my friends. We used to play games like kick the can. Sometimes at night when it was dark, we’d even play. Nobody worried about perverts back then. My parents were careful about what we were exposed to but everyone kind of watched out for each other’s children. I’m sure someone would have noticed if a stranger was around.
Summer was a lot of fun even though we worked hard. We would go back up north to Maple City. My brothers and I would pick raspberries, strawberries and cherries in the summer. Picking cherries was a dirty job and tiring too but oh so much fun. Cherry juice always dripped down my arms and sometimes itched. When we’d get a little bored we’d throw cherries at each other. I remember the scary walks to the “out house” to use the toilet. It was scary because they’re gross and I was afraid of the “Mexicans” as they spoke a different language and I didn’t know what they were saying. We were generally kept away from the Mexican laborers. You could hear them speaking Spanish but they were kept by themselves as we were kept with the other “locals” picking. At the end of the day, we’d take Ivory soap and go to Little Traverse Lake and clean up. You have to wonder about the outhouse and the cherries. We didn’t have water to clean up. Everything was much different back then. I wonder if people got some kind of bacteria from that!
My education was small town stuff. I wasn’t exposed to some things that I wish I had been exposed to such as art. That is my one real regret about my childhood. I feel like I missed something wonderful by missing all those art classes. It really is amazing that I am an art teacher and artist today for never having been really exposed to the arts in my youth. It never crossed my mind as a youngster as I didn’t even know what those things were. Art, artists, art teachers, I was clueless to all aspects of art. We did have pencil and paper and I did like to draw when I was in high school but I don’t have many real memories of art when I was young. I do remember having a watercolor set and painting many pictures of waterfalls. We visited my aunt in the upper peninsula of Michigan and I think I painted my memories. My sister says that when I was five and my grandma died I drew lots of pictures of her in a coffin.
I have memories of playing under our great maple tree with cars and other vehicles. There were roads that my brothers had set up and I’d drive little cars down them. I also remember playing soccer with my brothers but I always had to be the goalie! We also played croquet and I remember loving kick ball in school. My days were mostly filled with school during the school year and picking cherries and fun in the summer time. I had to help my mom in the house a lot especially on Saturdays. The boys didn’t do much in the house. That was the time when it was the girl’s job. Unfortunately, my sisters were ten and twelve years older than me and were mostly on their own when I was doing the majority of my housework. Weekdays I might have some homework but never remember a lot of homework. I liked reading and I remember my favorite show was the “Monkees”. Davey was so dreamy. I was more like one of my brothers than one of the girls because I have no significant memory of dolls. Besides my sister said the boys buried one of her dolls in some kind of funeral service. I had always wanted a Barbie but my mom thought they were way too suggestive. I got a fake Barbie when I was probably around a fifth grader. I had one other doll in my life and it was a baby doll. As I said, we didn’t have many toys. Our real goal as kids was to be old enough to play cards. I remember many fun nights growing up playing euchre and pinochle. When we were old enough to sit still long enough to sit through a game, we got to play cards.
Life was largely uncomplicated. Nothing like it is today. Today’s kids have a lot more pressure on them than I ever felt. I teach at the middle school level and I am amazed at the pressure our young children have on them. They have to job shadow in 8th grade. I hardly knew what a job was when I was in 8th grade. I certainly wouldn’t have job shadowed an artist as I was never exposed to any. They have to pick a “career pathway” for their classes when they go up to the high school. They have pressure to pass tests that are tied to our funding, so you know we put a lot of pressure on them when they are taking the big MEAP test. We, as teachers, don’t want them to be pressured but it’s unavoidable with the current direction of education. Many students are involved in a countless number of activities that keep their parents and families in a hectic pace. They spend a lot of time rushing from one activity to another. My family always had dinner together. Today it doesn’t seem to be a priority. Very few have much time for uncomplicated play time either. Every moment of the day is structured for them. They have less and less recess type time because more time is needed for “education”. Students don’t have as much creative type playtime like I did as a kid. They are on computers or phones text messaging each other because they are lonely. Many have never had to really and truly entertain themselves. They have either been in front of a TV or computer most of their lives. When they aren’t doing that they are playing some structured sport or other activity. Much is expected of them and I’m sure it must be frustrating at times and I think in many ways they are forced to grow up much too early.
Classes have been pushed down from the high school. Math is harder than it was when I was in school. Students at the middle school level are doing math that used to be taught at the high school level. This year at our school science and language classes are being pushed down to the 8th grade from the high school. The exploratory classes suffer because of this. Very few 8th graders will have art this year and I feel sad for those that won’t have that opportunity. There is more and more pressure to compete and the pressure can be so over the top that it can swallow up some kids. They get discouraged and drop out of school out of sheer frustration and boredom. I wish kids today could have some of the uncomplicated time that I had as a kid. I know some kids probably experience much of what I felt when I did the cherries when they’re detasseling corn but most don’t do that job. Most have much pressure to win on some team or get the grades in school. Legislators have no idea what the modern classroom is like and they don’t see the stress that much of their efforts place on these students.
I wish all students would have the time to play and create as I think it clarifies the thought process. Today kids can pass tests and perform like trained monkeys but many struggle processing the real “thinking” of life. When something happens that isn’t on the test, they struggle with what to do. We can’t teach to a test, we must teach how to think. It takes time to accomplish this task. It isn’t something like rote memorization with constant repetition. It’s a thought process and it isn’t something that is automatically measured on a test. The real test for this process is life. We all know people that could do the book stuff but fail miserably at life’s lessons. The true measure of all these tests we are giving our kids today will not be realized until these kids become adults and live their lives. Will they think they had a deprived childhood much like I did when I discovered art and wished I’d had it as a youngster? Will they be brave enough to try something new like I did taking art in college when I had never had art before? Or will they go through life doing what has always been expected of them by living their lives like programmed little soldiers waiting for their next assignment? Time will only tell