Tuesday, June 26, 2007 1:12 AM CDT
Column: 'Back to the Future' could be '07-08 theme for Charleston schools
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
Wouldn’t it great if a kid named Marty McFly transfers to Charleston High School in the fall.
Marty McFly?
Because it looks like “Back to the Future” now that the Charleston school district has brought three former administrators out of retirement to serve for the 2007-08 school year.
Remember “Back to the Future”? It was the 1980s movie starring Michael J. Fox as a teenager who goes back in time to make sure his parents meet so he and his siblings actually will be born.
It was a cute movie about going back in time to change the future for the better.
And isn’t that what the Charleston school board is doing? Only they did it without an eccentric scientist who drives a magical DeLorean.
Former administrators Jeannie Walters and Jim Louthan are coming out of their brief retirements to join former Superintendent Bill Hill as the top three officers of the Charleston school district for a year.
Walters was a longtime elementary school principal before serving the district as assistant superintendent for a number of years. She retired in 2004.
Louthan served as Jefferson Elementary principal from 1983 until his retirement in 2005.
Walters and Louthan will share duties as interim assistant superintendent while Hill, who retired in 1994, is interim superintendent.
All three are excellent people who served the district well.
How many communities would be able to call on people with the experience and skills of these three to serve on an interim basis as superintendent and assistant superintendent for a year? Not many, I would guess.
I think the schools should have some fun with it.
The theme for prom next spring could be “Enchantment Under the Sea.” Maybe one of the three returning administrators can get access to a DeLorean to drive to and from work.
Unfortunately, all three have too much hair to be Mr. Strickland, the school administrator who hassled Marty and his father, George, 30 years earlier.
The Charleston school board had a great idea to go “back in time” and bring Bill Hill, Jeannie Walters and Jim Louthan out of retirement for a year.
Many public sector retirees still have a lot to offer and it’s great that these three are willing to come back and serve the community once again.
The recent death of E. Glendon Gabbard and retirement of Lou Hencken as president at Eastern Illinois University took me back to my time as an EIU student.
Hey, at my age, I can reminisce about the “good old days” as well as anybody.
Gabbard, known as “Gabby,” died about 10 days ago. He founded the theater department at EIU and, in retirement, he and his wife, Lucy, acted on stage in Chicago and in several movies.
I actually had Gabby for a teacher in the late ’60s. I was a speech major because I was interested in broadcasting at that time.
Speech majors were required to take some theater courses in case we ended up teaching and had to direct school plays, I guess.
So I had Gabby for an acting class.
Why the head of the department was teaching a bunch of non-majors, I have no idea. But that was part of the great experience of being an EIU student.
The head of academic departments sometimes teach classes of non-majors.
The same guy who directed people like John Malkovich and Joan Allen also taught acting to non-majors.
I recall that Gabby was big in every sense of the word. He was loud, enthusiastic and energetic, and expected us to perform on stage in class as though we were auditioning for some Broadway production.
Actually, what I remember most about that class is that we were paired in small groups and given various scenes to practice and perform.
I was paired with a pretty girl and we were to perform scenes from some play about a young Irish couple on a picnic. During the scene, we kissed.
Now, think about that. It’s probably not unusual for a 19- or 20-year-old to think about kissing someone in one of their classes. But you would get in trouble if you actually do it.
I was in a class where I not only was allowed to kiss this girl, I was required to kiss her each day for several days as we rehearsed for our performance in front of the rest of the class.
It was all for the sake of education, of course.
I got a good grade, at least from Gabby.
I had a couple more theater classes but didn’t enjoy them near as much as that acting class.
But don’t tell my wife. I don’t think she knows about that class with Gabby.
I took another trip back in time when Mike Stallons of our circulation department brought in a Dec. 16, 1950, Charleston Daily Courier.
It was 8 pages long. You could buy a portable typewriter(!) for $92.50 at Charleston Office Service and an FM-AM Radio-Phonograph (no TV) for $189.95 at Carlisle Home & Auto Supply.
And you could have Sunday dinner at Owl Drug Store on the square — a T-bone steak, fries and a salad was $1.25.
Bill Lair is managing editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Lair at blair@jg-tc.com or 238-6865.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
