It is difficult to see the success or failure of our schools until it is too late to set new standards.

I remember my grandmother making a decision to put me in a private girls boarding school as she saw in me a lazy brain with no interest in anything but surfing. I was smart and made very good grades all the way from first through 7th grade and if there had been homework assignments I would have completed them as I was a proud and popular girl in Santa Monica. I was tested for admittance and failed acceptance. What a terrible shock! In order for me to be accepted I had to give up a summer of swimming and surfing for a series of bus trips from Santa Monica to UCLA where I then had to hike up Beverly Glen to a series of streets leading me to my new academic school. I was in a state of utter shock at what I had to learn before I could enter 8th grade. School had been a breeze but I learned that I might never catch up with the other gals in 8th grade. Math was my weakest point and my choice was to do it; or die trying.

Pearl Harbor had just brought America into WW2 and the Private School of my grandmother’s choice needed more students so they gave me a chance but only if I boarded after attending summer school. I literally worked my ass off but caught up with the English requirements because reading was a habit from early years. I caught up with the book list even before summer was over. Math was another problem and still is to this day.

My first week at Westlake was a huge shock as these other girls had been there since first grade. They terrified me and I stayed in my room and refused to mingle with the other girls out of a fear of giving away my ignorance. I did not go home on weekends as I met with many of my teachers who helped me catch up. The extra help saved me from jumping off the roof as the only solution to my inability to make even strong “Cs”

Four years later I was on the honor roll with all kinds of extra honors in music, and more book reports than necessary and swimming awards. Those were four years of hell and I made up my mind that if I ever had children they would have the best academic background possible. The feeling of being inferior to the other girls seriously had me thinking of suicide. I was not alone. 4 girls in the class ahead of me had also been brought to Westlake and were facing the same horror of being inferior to the other girls. We all passed with flying colors and the last 3 years we bonded as best friends and we still meet every two years as pals. There are only 2 of us left.

I learned from Westlake and started my older girl with a brand new school in Encino and starting up a Mother’s club we decided on uniforms. I had to wear them and it simplified my getting ready for school. The kids did not object and if there was a difference in family incomes, nobody knew it.

Looking back at the kids from Santa Monica schools, I could not locate a single one who attended a first rate university. I just spent 3 days with an old friend who was a teacher in the L.A. Unified School district who told me that Santa Monica is now considered high income families and they do better in schools thanks to this income. What crap! Her son chose a home in Manhattan Beach because it is filled with rich people so the schools would be better. My response was “Crap!”

Only the parents can set the standards for the academics and a quick check up of the Universities and where they get their students indicates the best high schools. I owned property in Santa Monica but their graduates were not found in the best Universities without 2 years in state schools. I discovered that two great private high schools had the best records and I choose from them.

This meant that homework must never be late, holidays meant catch up reading and no trips to Disneyland or 6 flags if their grades slipped. I worked the Renassiance Faire and the girls found jobs there and if their grades were good, our summers were complete and a lot of fun. I went to work for Will Geer and did costumes for his Shakespeare plays and J.J. was in every play they presented so Summers became English classes.

My neighbors all drove new cars as did their kids. Not mine who used the Bus system from home to school. My neighbors took their family to Hawaii for summer vacation and mine worked at the Faire or the theater. We lived like church mice as the saying goes and my girls ended up tutoring my neighbor’s kids in English, Math and a foreign language.

I would never do to my kids what my grandmother put me through and my sympathy for the kids who come from excellent school districts and are put into schools where there are no standards can be a tragedy. Too many kids are bored with school and often start using drugs out of boredom. I was an extreme case and I often send my poor dead grandmother a secret thank you for what she put me through. It had nothing to do with money and everything to do with academics.

Today, getting though school with passing grades will not get the kids into universities where the job market is supposed to be and if the kids accelerate only in one class, let it be an important class. Mine all through high school was music and every paper I ever wrote was on either a composer or comparing the operas of Verdi and Mozart. Give your kids a speciality for their own research. I will never write a paper on Math!!!

Do not expect any elected official to take on the missing academics in our schools. The one exception might be Sec. of Defense Leon Penatta. He and his wife took the old Fort Ord in Monterey and opened a college that specialized in preparing the kids for the first rate universities. I think it is now part of the California Unversity group.

I do know that if a Republican is elected to the White House and the House ends up in Republican members, the Academics to be found in our public schools will be heavy in religious doctrine and a sprinkling of white supremacy racism and homophobia thrown in.

The choice is with the parents and the choice improves when the parents take on the public schools, or at least supplement the classes with strong academics.

Catchy slogans and campaign cliche’s won’t fix it. Blaming Obama won’t fix it, and surely throwing more money (mine and yours) at the problem won’t fix it.

This government is virtually useless domestically, but we can sure as hell bomb the piss out of any one in the world with the utmost effiency and dedication.