The Carlmont Scots

[Alan H]

OK, so I went to substitute at Carlmont High School today. I subbed in for two sections of US Civics, where the kids did skits illustrating some of the principles contained within the Bill of Rights. All well and good.

Sixth period, though, was Western Civilization, and we wound up talking about Galileo
Copernicus
Tycho Brahe

and those astronomers influence on Western thought...specifically moving thinking out of an Earth-and-Human centered view of the Universe. I stretched them a bit further and brought in Huxley and Darwin, and we got on to how the thinking revolution of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Elnightenment made the Industrial Revolution possible.

I couldn't believe how sharp and well-behaved these kids were. Incredible. The contrast between today and yesterday is stunning AND depressing.

The seventh period of the day was "Economics". Their exercise was to learn how to read a stock report page in the paper, and how to read bond prices. I was REALLY surprised to learn that the kids were working on this, but ooohhh-kaaayyy. But this soon devolved...

..mind you these are juniors in high school..... into a discussion of the difference between Bond and Stocks....Municipal bonds and Corporate bonds....What Morningstar does...how California State politics has affected the rating of California General Obligation Bonds in the secondary bond market, and WHAT the secondary bond market really is. Those kids now know what a mutual fund or a bond fund is, and that they can choose investment options depending on any number of factors, inlcuding hobby interests, social conscience,and the lot of it.

But the KILLER things is....Remember, these are the Carlmont Scots...was that the word got around that a teacher was wearing a kilt. So I went down the hall and met the OTHER teacher that wears a kilt to class now and then.....that was cool.

But a couple of girls dragged me down to see the teacher that runs the School Spirit program and HE wants "The Screaming Scots"...basically his booster club kids, to wear kilts and ties to Homecoming in about two weeks.

I turned him on to the USA Kilts and Stillwater kilts, so Jerry and Rocky, you OWE me one if you get 40 orders in the next week! You might get a MESS of orders for Black Watch Budget kilts, Jerry.... and Rocky, I told the teacher that a USA Kilts Semi-Traditional in Ramsay blue would look MIGHTY sharp up next to the dark-medium blues of the Carlmont uniforms. I gave the teacher both the USA Kilts and the Stillwater kilts URL,and I also told him about XMarksThe Scot.

I had ONE kid....mouthy, and yes, dressed in baggy pants about to fall off and three t-shirts down to his knees give me grief about the skirt. Every single other interaction...girls, guys, staff, faculty, the lot was positive. At least half the boys I talked to,and we're talking twelve-fifteen boys, want a kilt. One girl asked me, in front of about five office staff and some teachers, what the little sword pin was on my kilt. I told her that it was for holding the corner of the kilt down in a breeze, and told the story about Queen Victoria and the young Scotsman in the regiment. I had at least a dozen listeners for this story.

Don't be surprised if there are 40-50 more kilt-wearing teenagers here in the Bay Area, after today!