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, but not because it is a horrible place to live, it's actually very 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 six years ago, "We all thought you would end up stuck there with the rest of those idiots". My family can be somewhat blunt :-)

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 small department store, 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. Lest you think I exaggerate, my brother actually did what was, at that time, called "September Experience" with this woman some years later as he was getting his teaching credential. What was she doing? Right! Setting up A group and C group!

Did she test the kids, or base it on their record? Hell, 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 youbetcha 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, you know? 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 it STILL pisses me off! Don't even get me started on administrators, because I have zero tolerance for 99% of them. I have made several grown men cry because they were using teaching to support their stupid musical "career", and I hate that! Teaching is not just a dodge, man, it's responsibility. PLUS they were teaching in my program, and that makes me look bad. I can look bad on my own, thank you.