Students are smarter these days

I first must tell you that, back in 1956, I was salutatorian of the graduating class at Onida High School. 

That's supposed to mean something, and it does. It apparently means that I had the second-highest grade-point average by the time we reached our final semester.

There also is something that that honor does not mean. It definitely does not mean that I was the second-smartest senior in that class. People like Dan Eliason, Tom Terbush and Laurence Byrum, among others, come immediately to mind.

It's no secret, at least not to me, that I took an easier load of classes than some people in that class.  Easier to me, that is. Thank God for electives! I certainly didn't want to sign up for classes I didn't like, didn't understand and didn't enjoy. And I especially didn't want to take classes at which I wasn't going to excel. So I managed to escape chemistry, physics, advanced algebra and the like. 

Now you know why I didn't become an engineer.  Or a mathematician. Or a researcher. Or a scientist.  Or a doctor. Or anything else that pays well.

You hadn't better be thinking about that old not-so-funny joke that those who can't do anything else end up as teachers. I know for a fact that is not the case because in 18 years of teaching, I was in the company of some excellent ones, and before that I was lucky to be a student of some positively great teachers.

But I hate not knowing so much about so many things. The path of courses through which I breezed may have a lot to do with that.