Mt. Bachelor - I spent many, many days skiing there. Some say I set a record for skipping school. I say I learned more there than I did at good old Redmond HS.

I HATED Redmond - it sucked, even though the area is actually beautiful. I developed a very healthy respect for the high desert during the 10 years I was forced to live there, and I spent a lot of time in the mountains and on the Deschutes river, all very beautiful. I also learned how to play golf and spent a lot of time skiing at Mt. Bachelor, which is a great mountain to ski.

But man, the schools in Redmond, at that time were as bad as public schools get. As my immediate family likes to frequently comment, "it's amazing you turned out to be such a success after going through what you did". Or my cousin, who commented after I became the Dean of the Fine Arts Division at Foothill College "We all thought you would end up stuck there with the rest of those idiots".

My 4th grade teacher just sat at her desk and screamed, and I don't blame her, as most of my esteemed colleagues behaved "somewhat poorly". My 5th grade teacher broke the class down into an "A" group and a "C" group. That's right, no "B" group. Why? Because she could! She had never married, because she had been having a years-long affair with a married guy who owned a department store in town, so if you messed with her, this wanker came after you. So the principal is scared shitless of this woman, so she runs amok with her bizarre system. 

Did she test the kids, or base it on their record? No, she based it on a) how long their family had been in Redmond and b) how much influence they had in the community. Naturally, since my old man had transferred to this dusty little hole as a logging manager for the local mill, we had zero influence, so I was right in that C group. Every day, she praised the A group. Every day, she openly insulted us.. She couldn't teach for shit, and neither could the other folks drawing a salary in that school. Here's proof that karma is real: years later, this teacher is shopping at the local supermarket with the wanker from the department store. He's standing behind the car, loading in the groceries, and she puts 'er in reverse and runs the wanker down by accident! Ouch!

It's no wonder the kids behaved the way they did - kids are innocent, they need guidance from adults, and teachers are supposed to be right behind parents on the front lines. People always ask me why I'm so intolerant of bad teachers today, and I think it's because I had a lot of bad teachers growing up, and bad teachers still infuriate me. Don't even get me started on administrators, because I have zero tolerance for 99% of them (especially after I became one).