Jerry Halbert by Megan Honari
Jerry Halbert (student 1972-1975, teacher 1981-1986)
Jerry Halbert was born in 1957 in Tacoma, WA. As a child, he grew up in a small condominium with five other siblings. Although poor, he was not deprived of entertainment. He often tells stories of how, back before all the popular electronics we have today, he and his siblings would entertain themselves with simple games, such as hide-and-seek and tag, that aren’t valued as much in today’s world. When he moved to Everett in August of 1972, just before his freshman year, he was a bit nervous. He had watched the few cartoons that were on the TV that his family owned about the high school bullies and such, so CHS was originally quite a scare to him. However, when he entered it, he didn’t find high school too bad; the people were actually quite nice except for one thing. Given that he was in high school during the Vietnam War, certain racial slurs were incredibly common. Any Asian (whether Vietnamese or not) were often the targets of ridicule and threats, due to all the negative publicity they received. In addition, during his first year, America still had active troops in Vietnam. This especially affected the seniors, as he recalls. Some were puffed up and bragging about how many “Vietnam f***s I’m gonna kill when I get there,” as he remembers one person saying. Most seniors were quite terrified though. “Very few people wanted to get drafted and sent to war,” Jerry stated. “It was truly a relief when the troops were pulled out not too much longer into my sophomore year.” Even with the stress of schooling during a major war, Jerry pulled through, ending his high school career with a 3.79 GPA and being on the honor roll. When Jerry went to college in 1976, he originally wanted to major in biochemistry. However, after realizing his skill working with kids in mathematics, he changed majors. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in teaching. In 1981, he was hired as a math teacher at CHS, were he taught algebra and geometry for 5 years, until he was offered a position at the University of Oregon, where he taught until 2007 before he stopped teaching so he could home-school his son. At this point of his life, he had acquired a PhD in applied Mathematics. Now that you know Jerry’s background lets look at his inside view of CHS from 1972 to 1975!
Jerry claims that “school was essentially the same as it is now, but without the tension of a full-on war. Sure, there is the war-on-terror now, but it didn’t affect you as directly as this war did.” First he told us about several social differences in our school. Of course, the first difference he discussed was the technology. He directly talked about lunch, and how you couldn’t talk to everybody at once by hitting keys. If you wanted to tell somebody something, you had to go find them and say it, not use your psychic powers. In addition, the courtyard that we have today was the cafeteria and was always FULL of students. Being outdoors was simply part of lunch, not listening to an iPod for 40 minutes. In addition, he referred to the lenience of many rules back then. Before 9/11, he claims, it was easier to be a teenager. You could be far more care-free, and no one would really mind unless someone got hurt. When all the restrictions truly came into effect, Jerry said it must’ve had a bittersweet effect on kids today; “It was good, but it limited the fun. I mean, it’s for our own safety, like helmets on bicycles, but it can feel suppressive sometimes. It’s hard to get used to not being allowed to do something after you’ve done it for so long.”
We also talked to Jerry about racism at CHS, where he claims that it was only school-wide racism towards Asians during Vietnam. Otherwise, issues such as segregation or black vs. white were minimal, and never were issues that came up as extreme problems in his high school career. As a matter of fact, he remembers CHS as being far more welcoming than his elementary or middle school, probably due to the fact that segregation hadn’t ended entirely until the late 60’s. Jerry said “even today change is happening. Not as radical as the end of racism or wars, but simply an evolution of the way kids live. Kids don’t spend their time outside as much as they used to. Back in the day, there was nothing better than taking a hill and a tire, and sending anyone brave enough down the tumble to see if they could hold in their lunch. Nowadays, time is usually spent gaming at a friend’s house instead of quality time outdoors!” he finds these changes disappointing, but not entirely worthless: “I didn’t grow up in the world you two have. What seems like fun to me may seem dead boring to you today. It’s just the way time works.” Even so, his memories of CHS still live on as a school of respect.
Jerry Halbert was born in 1957 in Tacoma, WA. As a child, he grew up in a small condominium with five other siblings. Although poor, he was not deprived of entertainment. He often tells stories of how, back before all the popular electronics we have today, he and his siblings would entertain themselves with simple games, such as hide-and-seek and tag, that aren’t valued as much in today’s world. When he moved to Everett in August of 1972, just before his freshman year, he was a bit nervous. He had watched the few cartoons that were on the TV that his family owned about the high school bullies and such, so CHS was originally quite a scare to him. However, when he entered it, he didn’t find high school too bad; the people were actually quite nice except for one thing. Given that he was in high school during the Vietnam War, certain racial slurs were incredibly common. Any Asian (whether Vietnamese or not) were often the targets of ridicule and threats, due to all the negative publicity they received. In addition, during his first year, America still had active troops in Vietnam. This especially affected the seniors, as he recalls. Some were puffed up and bragging about how many “Vietnam f***s I’m gonna kill when I get there,” as he remembers one person saying. Most seniors were quite terrified though. “Very few people wanted to get drafted and sent to war,” Jerry stated. “It was truly a relief when the troops were pulled out not too much longer into my sophomore year.” Even with the stress of schooling during a major war, Jerry pulled through, ending his high school career with a 3.79 GPA and being on the honor roll. When Jerry went to college in 1976, he originally wanted to major in biochemistry. However, after realizing his skill working with kids in mathematics, he changed majors. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in teaching. In 1981, he was hired as a math teacher at CHS, were he taught algebra and geometry for 5 years, until he was offered a position at the University of Oregon, where he taught until 2007 before he stopped teaching so he could home-school his son. At this point of his life, he had acquired a PhD in applied Mathematics. Now that you know Jerry’s background lets look at his inside view of CHS from 1972 to 1975!
Jerry claims that “school was essentially the same as it is now, but without the tension of a full-on war. Sure, there is the war-on-terror now, but it didn’t affect you as directly as this war did.” First he told us about several social differences in our school. Of course, the first difference he discussed was the technology. He directly talked about lunch, and how you couldn’t talk to everybody at once by hitting keys. If you wanted to tell somebody something, you had to go find them and say it, not use your psychic powers. In addition, the courtyard that we have today was the cafeteria and was always FULL of students. Being outdoors was simply part of lunch, not listening to an iPod for 40 minutes. In addition, he referred to the lenience of many rules back then. Before 9/11, he claims, it was easier to be a teenager. You could be far more care-free, and no one would really mind unless someone got hurt. When all the restrictions truly came into effect, Jerry said it must’ve had a bittersweet effect on kids today; “It was good, but it limited the fun. I mean, it’s for our own safety, like helmets on bicycles, but it can feel suppressive sometimes. It’s hard to get used to not being allowed to do something after you’ve done it for so long.”
We also talked to Jerry about racism at CHS, where he claims that it was only school-wide racism towards Asians during Vietnam. Otherwise, issues such as segregation or black vs. white were minimal, and never were issues that came up as extreme problems in his high school career. As a matter of fact, he remembers CHS as being far more welcoming than his elementary or middle school, probably due to the fact that segregation hadn’t ended entirely until the late 60’s. Jerry said “even today change is happening. Not as radical as the end of racism or wars, but simply an evolution of the way kids live. Kids don’t spend their time outside as much as they used to. Back in the day, there was nothing better than taking a hill and a tire, and sending anyone brave enough down the tumble to see if they could hold in their lunch. Nowadays, time is usually spent gaming at a friend’s house instead of quality time outdoors!” he finds these changes disappointing, but not entirely worthless: “I didn’t grow up in the world you two have. What seems like fun to me may seem dead boring to you today. It’s just the way time works.” Even so, his memories of CHS still live on as a school of respect.