Bryan/College Station/TAMU
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9/29/2015
I am amazed at what I read on these items about the twin cities of Bryan/CS and Aggieland in general. I was dragged there from Houston by my husband in 1980, kicking, screaming and cussing. Because I was too old to be transplanted in a place I had never been before and no intention of going. It was twice the size of College Station. The main thing wrong with it was it was not HOUSTON, where I had lived as an adult for 17 years. Also, there is a very serious difference in the cost of living as to if you are buying or renting a house. Those that bought when things were cheap, thought it was a low cost of living. Those that bought after prices sky rocketed were paying far more than we had in Houston for fantastic houses. Now, if this was not bad enough, MY salary was about 65 percent what it was in Houston. Those friendly people were head over heels jumping with joy about my husband coming there. They thought I was very lucky to get out of Houston (that I loved). Now, I was 40. Finished my M Ed 18 years before, never planned to take any courses again that I had to make any specific high grade in. You guested it. Plopped right down in TAMU to do a doctor degree is there was anything at all for me to do in my "spare" time. Praise the Lord when I learned about what had taken place since I had done my BS at Lamar U in Bmt and M Ed at Sam Houston in Huntsville. A little thing called grade inflation. All those people carrying on about got to make all A's, etc thought that was normal/average. I had done my college work in the normal years of age 17 to 21 and graduated youngest in the class at Sam Houston. No difficulty, all you had to do was go year round at Lamar and then also at Sam Houston and also take the recommended number of courses in the catalogues and you could get two degrees plus a few additional certifications. If you are not eaten up with thinking you got to make all A's, so drop six hours after school starts and before Q drop day. I never heard of anyone dropping something already paid for. So, I worked full time year 'round at BISD, until 5 pm. Was the mother of 2 elementary aged children, wife and hostess for numberous dinner parties in my home trying to get some kind of social life going by guests and then get two doctoral degrees at our house finished and wave good bye to Bryan, say see you at retirement time, we are keeping one of our homes here and rent it in the mean time. In a reasonable lenth of time. My goodness lady, all of those schools area good. I cannot imagine anyone paying for private schools. The subjects you named as classic education are dead languages and not anything to help anyone make a living, cook meals, raise a family or read the Bible and discuss it and apply it to your own life. How on earth did you get to Aggieland, the hub of Texas and Stephen F Austin's old 100 families and freedom and so forth. The only grip I had was the Bryan marking system that got my quiet as a mouse little daughter P's in conduct because she made bad grades. See was a very ordinary to poor student and there was no help for her in math due to the step program. When we left there 8 years later my hubby said. Not sure we did any good here at all, but I put a silved bullet and stake in the heart of that step business. That basically was a thing help over by a prior Supt where students repeated and repeated over and over what they did poorly in seeking mastery or when they reached gr 8, which ever came first. Another thing I could not believe was how my rowdy little son got away which so much he dished out to such nice teachers and he never got his little backside treated in the traditional way because they did not do that in Bryan. He got G's in conduct. By the 3rd day every semester the teachers were calling ask me what it was he wanted. I said; he wants to be the leader and control of your classroom that is what. Please do not let him have it by default. Well, I am not so sure how it happened but several decided it was a good time to add a new baby to their own families. I said; if you cannot paddle him then how about sending him out there to run a few laps around that track. They said can't do that, he needs to be kept in a recess as the only penalty we have for his fits and bad behavior. I said he needs to run off that excess energy, dear and gentle people. Well, part of the problem was he was the smallest one and so cute, then he would turn on the charm and win them back only to repeat it over and over. Now I visited Bryan recently and looked at every thing. This description above is not what I saw. And not the Bryan of the 1980 to 1990 area. I grew to like Bryan and it took about 30 days. My husband and I were so thankful the college professors who taught our classes, all of which were younger and none of which had the experience, etc we had were realistic in the amount of work assigned. Hubby said to me after my first classes, when I was complaining that I was afraid I was only going to learn what I already knew; My gosh. Don't you know that could make it hard as nails and work us 'til our tongues hung out and what we learned would just be the same? Now, there are some poor folks around but how does that bother other people? There are many TAMU professors and families who live in Bryan also, preferring a more normal distribution of people rather than college students etc. Bryan was a big town way before the land grant college came and College Station was build 4 miles away. They are both wonderful places. But lady, you only have to go once a month to Austin? I had to go to Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Waco to see some traffic, tall buildings, red lights you had to sit through twice before you got to move a block, eat Mexican food, etc to keep from going stir crazy. I told someone early on this place is in the middle of no where. She said; we say that when you are in Bryan, you are half way to every where. 8 years passed for my family in Bryan. We kept our favorite home over near Johnson ele school and Bryan High and the Wynn Dixie grocery store. It is so beautiful and I wish I lived in it today, but things changed for our family in 1991 and we were schattered to the 4 winds. The one over on Oak Ridge looks just like it did. I never liked it, being a 2 story with all Bedrooms up and me running upstairs 17 times a day carrying loads of clean folded laundry. I think of all the friends and associates that were there. I remember them as they were, not 35 years older. And my little girl now deceased 15 years and my rowdy little boy still rowdy but he knows more about turning on the charm now to his superiors and handing his two young sons. And we did both finished those Ed D degrees although we had already done about all we were going to accomplish before arriving. But we finished them and those professors came, went, wrote books, went to Germany twice, all the things they do to cause their students to take 8 years, not 3 and never even know it because after all, you live here anyway. But we finished. Many many could never finish because their time just ran out and they were not going to take the same courses again with the same professors and the same text books. Overall, it was our best decade for my family. Not sure we knew it at the time. The things that happened to us that were less than great were not anything caused by those people, the schools, the university, the weather, etc. Guess what. When we returned to the Houston area, Spring Branch, it had all changed also while we were gone. And so had we. Enjoy Bryan while you are there. Just give a bunch of dinner parties in your home and leave the education issue to the public school people. They are doing a really good job. If you have money to throw away on private schools than that is your business. You are just paying twice. Public through your taxes. Private through fees and tuition. I do not know how to make corrections on this and I am not an old lady alone, so don't sneer and say how come her spelling and typing is not better. I can only see three lines at a time in this little window. Your item looks like it was written by either someone who has not been there very long, or someone who has not gotten around much. If you don't study the situation I think you will lose one I Q point a year. I did doing all I have described. It came back when I had to really hump it to tread water in the greater Houston area when I returned at age nearly 50.
Ted | Beaumont, TX