Dick Curnett by Nadiya Radion
Dick Curnett (1970-1993)
I taught at Cascade High School for 23 years from the fall of 1970 until 1993. In that time I saw change and even now in the 16 years since I left there has been tremendous change still. Then population of the school is relatively the same with only a few hundred less students today than in my time. At the beginning of my teaching career Cascade did not have a ninth grade class, the introduction of freshmen into the school meant portables out around where building 6 is now. The transition from portables to the addiction of a new building was part of the big remodel…what a mess it was but that’s the way remodels always are.
In the late 1960’s minimum wage was less than a gallon of gas today and a gallon of gas in the 60’s was less than the cost of a newspaper today. The starting salary for my teaching job was around $6.00 and my job was considerably easier than it would be for a teacher today.
In the time I was at Cascade I coached a little girls’ basketball. I would have loved to have been more involved but I was brand new to the place. I remember that the basketball team was competitive and the football coaching was in a period of transition and although all our teams including baseball were good, there were no particular standout seasons. There was however huge support. I remember the gym being completely packed for basketball games, back then people didn’t have the text messaging, cars, jobs or extracurricular activities outside of school that kept them busy. There was a heavier emphasis on the involvement in one’s school community. The dances after the football games were always popular with the students, now they hardly have any dances after the games and definitely not after every game. The students were active in school even without all the clubs that the school has today. The food drive is a perfect example. The positive press that CHS got has really worked to expand the food drive efforts and now it is bigger than ever, servicing 150+ families each year. The food drive didn’t used to be that big. This change is positive but at the same time I look back and wonder how good things as Cascade seemed to have disappeared at the same time as new things were establishing themselves. The Bruinettes, for example, Cascade’s girls marching team, seemed to die out but when in full swing they were great! Other clubs and classes have taken their place. There didn’t used to be a GSA, Younglife, and art or drama clubs. Then again there also never used to be a WASL or culminating exhibition either.
Beyond the changes in the school itself there have been curriculum shifts as well. The school has upped its standard, probably because of the now popular standardized testing, I taught algebra and geometry which used to be all you had to take to graduate. Now students have to meet standard on state tests or continue with math classes through high school. The pressure on students has increased since I started teaching at Cascade.
Part of the changes in the school is due to the changes in the world. Technology has become available to students in various forms, with this the learning standards are increased and students get more involved with their myspace and facebook pages than their history paper. This is a result of the world we live in, information is easily accessible online. When I was at the school students had to hit the library and search through books to get information for a paper, it is definitely a different time now. In the late 60’s before entering a teaching position at Cascade there was assassinations that shaped the time too. Martin Luther King Jr. was a big one; I really appreciated his nonviolent approach. Cascade had a primarily Caucasian population but today I believe there are more minorities in the school. The Kennedy assassinations also took the world by surprise. A few days before JFK was assassinated I had slammed him in a paper for my history class. It was after his death that I changed my view and realized he really was a good person, after analyzing his policies and life I really began to shift and respect him. Between Dr. King, JFK and Bobby Kennedy my opinions on the world shifted over time.
The 1960’s means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me it means friends shipped off to Nam, the death of some, maiming of others. It means school and change, riots and new beginnings. New discoveries and exciting times like with the first time man landed on the moon but at the same time sorrow and ending with multiple assassinations. The 1960’s was a controversial time period and through my life will probably remain one of the most controversial time periods I will live through.
I taught at Cascade High School for 23 years from the fall of 1970 until 1993. In that time I saw change and even now in the 16 years since I left there has been tremendous change still. Then population of the school is relatively the same with only a few hundred less students today than in my time. At the beginning of my teaching career Cascade did not have a ninth grade class, the introduction of freshmen into the school meant portables out around where building 6 is now. The transition from portables to the addiction of a new building was part of the big remodel…what a mess it was but that’s the way remodels always are.
In the late 1960’s minimum wage was less than a gallon of gas today and a gallon of gas in the 60’s was less than the cost of a newspaper today. The starting salary for my teaching job was around $6.00 and my job was considerably easier than it would be for a teacher today.
In the time I was at Cascade I coached a little girls’ basketball. I would have loved to have been more involved but I was brand new to the place. I remember that the basketball team was competitive and the football coaching was in a period of transition and although all our teams including baseball were good, there were no particular standout seasons. There was however huge support. I remember the gym being completely packed for basketball games, back then people didn’t have the text messaging, cars, jobs or extracurricular activities outside of school that kept them busy. There was a heavier emphasis on the involvement in one’s school community. The dances after the football games were always popular with the students, now they hardly have any dances after the games and definitely not after every game. The students were active in school even without all the clubs that the school has today. The food drive is a perfect example. The positive press that CHS got has really worked to expand the food drive efforts and now it is bigger than ever, servicing 150+ families each year. The food drive didn’t used to be that big. This change is positive but at the same time I look back and wonder how good things as Cascade seemed to have disappeared at the same time as new things were establishing themselves. The Bruinettes, for example, Cascade’s girls marching team, seemed to die out but when in full swing they were great! Other clubs and classes have taken their place. There didn’t used to be a GSA, Younglife, and art or drama clubs. Then again there also never used to be a WASL or culminating exhibition either.
Beyond the changes in the school itself there have been curriculum shifts as well. The school has upped its standard, probably because of the now popular standardized testing, I taught algebra and geometry which used to be all you had to take to graduate. Now students have to meet standard on state tests or continue with math classes through high school. The pressure on students has increased since I started teaching at Cascade.
Part of the changes in the school is due to the changes in the world. Technology has become available to students in various forms, with this the learning standards are increased and students get more involved with their myspace and facebook pages than their history paper. This is a result of the world we live in, information is easily accessible online. When I was at the school students had to hit the library and search through books to get information for a paper, it is definitely a different time now. In the late 60’s before entering a teaching position at Cascade there was assassinations that shaped the time too. Martin Luther King Jr. was a big one; I really appreciated his nonviolent approach. Cascade had a primarily Caucasian population but today I believe there are more minorities in the school. The Kennedy assassinations also took the world by surprise. A few days before JFK was assassinated I had slammed him in a paper for my history class. It was after his death that I changed my view and realized he really was a good person, after analyzing his policies and life I really began to shift and respect him. Between Dr. King, JFK and Bobby Kennedy my opinions on the world shifted over time.
The 1960’s means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To me it means friends shipped off to Nam, the death of some, maiming of others. It means school and change, riots and new beginnings. New discoveries and exciting times like with the first time man landed on the moon but at the same time sorrow and ending with multiple assassinations. The 1960’s was a controversial time period and through my life will probably remain one of the most controversial time periods I will live through.