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Reuther alt high school, now called Reuther central high school.
Its located in downtown Kenosha. Right across the street from the court house which was kinda convenient for some of us. kenosha county family court was actually on the first floor of our school.
we were all the riffraff that the school district was trying to keep from dropping out. mostly single mothers, artists, musicians, poets, you know people who just didnt fit into the nice and tidy educational system. most were from troubled homes. we were all punks, and geeks.
we had our own day care, that was for the children of the students, and used for parenting classes. it was the only place where a young man would change diapers and the other guys didn't give him a hard time about it. Actually it was probably the only class in school a young father would'nt try to cut. the mentality among the guys was "you made it, now you learn to deal with it".
most of us also worked, so we would get vocational credits for our time in the workplace, in place of gym credits. kinda like some places do life crediting.
It was a very unique place, where the people in music class would play jimi hendrix, and jethro tull instead of classical or marching music. in art we would study things like esher, and our lit classes we would study things like beatnik and hippy writings. It was also unique in the sense that the people in the music classes were the coolest. and the less time their instruments spent in the case the better. we would do weird things like skip classes to sit in the park across the street and listen to poetry recitals, almost under the principles window and he never said a word.
it was a great place to learn because it was all based on ability. you would pass a class when you were ready to pass the class, none of this being advanced with the class stuff. geeks graduated early, and us punks went along as we could. we also were under contract, which was also unique about the place. we wanted to be there. and if we messed up they sent us back to the worst place in the world that we could think of. the traditional school system.......shuddder.
its weird the timing of this topic because today i set up a special shelf to place my sons first chess trophy on. I also collected their ribbons from different events and hung them from the self. then my wife dragged out a box i havent seen in many, many years, and i hung up all my art and science ribbons from when i was in high school along with theirs. ive been in a state if nestelgia all day, thinking about schooldays. then i find this topic.
thanks.
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