I Am Not Sending My Daughter To School In A K-Mart!

DetroitDad · January-04-11, 08:24 PM

And I used to think Grosse Pointe North looked like a prison!

http://www.bigboxreuse.com/sugarcreek.html

DC48080 · January-04-11, 08:34 PM

If you would move to the ever so unsustainable suburb of Grosse Pointe you could send her to the other high school; GP South.

Unlike GP North, this school hardly looks like a prison.

Or, you could stay in Detroit, the ultimate example of sustainability, and send her to Mumford

You've got to love a high school surrounded by a 10 foot high cyclone fence.

DetroitDad · January-04-11, 08:45 PM

It's still better than a K-Mart

Of course, it's nothing compared to this old beauty out my window....

**old guy** · January-04-11, 08:46 PM

Is this actually a school?

**DetroitTeacher** · January-04-11, 08:46 PM

That fence is on the side or the back of Mumford, no? That doesn't look like the front of Mumford. I'm really shocked it's still there. As soon as we put up a fence at Cooley for the athletic fields, they'd tear it down for scrap [[not the kids...but the hood thieves).

**Gistok** · January-04-11, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

Is this actually a school?

Yes it is... venerable Grosse Pointe South High School.

Here's a side view of the 1928 original building... and a view of the new matching 2007 addition....

DetroitDad · January-04-11, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

Is this actually a school?

Yes! I agree, that is the type of inspiring design that a school should have.

Here's a comparable school out in Canton, Michigan.

PS: This post was made mainly to illustrate the stark contrast design and environment has on our own psyche. Whether you like or dislike that type of architecture, one seems to be a factory of creativity and self expression, while the other seems more like just a factory for getting children through the system and out into the labor pool.

Ravine · January-04-11, 10:52 PM

You should send your daughter to whatever school, from among those within your geographical & financial reach, offers the best available combination of education & safety, and if it's a re-conditioned K-Mart, so be it; send her there, and be happy about it.
Trying to make Life Decisions, for yourself & your family, based on what does, or does not, match up with your aesthetic visions of a preferred world is, in my opinion, overly self-indulgent, and that self-indulgence can lead to choices which are not in the truly best interests of yourself & your loved ones.
No matter what else anyone can write about you, here, one thing that is damn clear is that you do love your two girls-- the elder, the younger-- so I hope you give at least a moment's thought to the particular piece of advice I just passed along.
Contrary to what They say, love is not all you need.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 09:33 AM

But see, Grosse Pointe South high school was built in a different, far poorer time in American history, when we actually gave half a shit what our public buildings looked like. It was important to those fools back then that public buildings have a sense of dignity and respect, in-line with their noble purpose. Morons!

We gots to take these dumpsters of cash and drive them over to the highway contractors! Got bags of loot to throw at companies we HOPE will locate in our town. Have to make sure Walmart gets their new sewer line, 8-lane highway, and 28-acre parking lot, or else we ain't gonna have anyone to sell plastic Chinese crap! Better leave some for Pulte homes, who is building a new fantastically-marketed "neighborhood", where you can buy your own 3000 sf McMansion in any shade of beige you choose!

By the time we finish with feeding the sprawl machine, we simply don't have money to build a structure like Grosse Pointe South. Makes you wonder where the fuck our priorities are.

**maxx** · January-05-11, 11:20 AM

The old Cass Tech looks like an old prison building to me. So a school should look like Independence Hall on the outside to be a good school? I've been inside a lot of schools looking like the old Cass Tech and inside they are pretty much all the same, some darker than others. But students and teachers decorate them and they become welcoming spaces. Recycled K-Marts can do the same. Sounds like you're teaching your kids to look down on anyone whose school has not been designed by some famous architect or does not resemble some historic building.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by maxx

The old Cass Tech looks like an old prison building to me. So a school should look like Independence Hall on the outside to be a good school? I've been inside a lot of schools looking like the old Cass Tech and inside they are pretty much all the same, some darker than others. But students and teachers decorate them and they become welcoming spaces. Recycled K-Marts can do the same. Sounds like you're teaching your kids to look down on anyone whose school has not been designed by some famous architect or does not resemble some historic building.

I'm saying that places of learning deserve a bit of dignity, as befits the purpose of the building. If you're teaching kids in a building that looks like a prison and falls apart after 10 years, what are you teaching them about the value of education, and their importance in the world?

**Johnlodge** · January-05-11, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by ghettopalmetto

I'm saying that places of learning deserve a bit of dignity, as befits the purpose of the building. If you're teaching kids in a building that looks like a prison and falls apart after 10 years, what are you teaching them about the value of education, and their importance in the world?

Did you see where Laura Ingalls went to school? She turned out OK.

**Planner3357** · January-05-11, 11:58 AM

My high school moved from a cool old building on Outer Dr. to a boring middle school in Redford. The best educational experience of my life. All of the people I was friends with then are still my best friends to this day. Since then, the school has built a huge new building in Novi and my old school in Redford is a subdivision development.

What I'm saying is that it's not what the building looks like, but the teachers you have and the people you surround yourself with.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by Johnlodge

Did you see where Laura Ingalls went to school? She turned out OK.

The difference is, of course, that the community in which Laura Ingalls went to school was poor. We are the wealthiest society to ever exist on the face of the earth. You can't tell me that we're poorer now than when schools like Grosse Pointe South were constructed.

You fine folks are illustrating my point perfectly: We've created a culture where dignity no longer has any importance.

**Johnlodge** · January-05-11, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by ghettopalmetto

The difference is, of course, that the community in which Laura Ingalls went to school was poor. We are the wealthiest society to ever exist on the face of the earth. You can't tell me that we're poorer now than when schools like Grosse Pointe South were constructed.

You fine folks are illustrating my point perfectly: We've created a culture where dignity no longer has any importance.

We may not be poorer, but I bet it would cost many times more money to build the same building today, for various reasons. Would you rather tear down the K Mart than reuse it as a school if no other use can be found?

**old guy** · January-05-11, 12:53 PM

Can't seem to post anything but a quick reply on this thread. Anybody else have this problem? All other threads work fine.

Ravine · January-05-11, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by ghettopalmetto

The difference is, of course, that the community in which Laura Ingalls went to school was poor. We are the wealthiest society to ever exist on the face of the earth. You can't tell me that we're poorer now than when schools like Grosse Pointe South were constructed.

You fine folks are illustrating my point perfectly: We've created a culture where dignity no longer has any importance.

Dignity? Are you sincere?
A true cultural problem, and it is one that is especially prevalent in Detroit, is a flawed idea of what dignity is about.
We've got legions of young wanna-be men, scuffling up & down the streets, with their goddam underwear showing, like prison pansies, and you think the issue of a school's construction has some impact on dignity?
Yeah, "dignity" & "respect." I hear those two words a lot, around here.
Sadly, it seems as though most folks think both are some kind of privilege, things which the world owes to them.
If one's sense of dignity is injured by the idea of going to school in an odd-looking building, that is tragic, truly tragic.

**Detroitnerd** · January-05-11, 01:49 PM

"Mean surroundings make mean people; things of beauty cleanse our hearts. True architecture, as any other artistic expression of the human mind, has a social function to perform in the liberal education of mankind."
--Adam J. Strohm, 1917

Ravine · January-05-11, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

"Mean surroundings make mean people; things of beauty cleanse our hearts. True architecture, as any other artistic expression of the human mind, has a social function to perform in the liberal education of mankind."
--Adam J. Strohm, 1917

What a load of pompous, flowery horseshit. Spoken like a pampered aristocrat who is accustomed to the luxury of being able to sit around on his fat ass and spout nitwit philosophy.
Some of the finest, and most refined, people to ever walk this earth arose from mean surroundings.

**Jimaz** · January-05-11, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

Can't seem to post anything but a quick reply on this thread. Anybody else have this problem? All other threads work fine.

Check out DetroitYES Forums > Detroit Connections > Lowell! We're missing some functions.... Gannon was having a similar problem with Adblock plus.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

What a load of pompous, flowery horseshit. Spoken like a pampered aristocrat who is accustomed to the luxury of being able to sit around on his fat ass and spout nitwit philosophy.
Some of the finest, and most refined, people to ever walk this earth arose from mean surroundings.

"Here, ya brat. Go learn in a windowless piece-of-shit building that was designed to last 20 years. We're too lazy and cheap to build something respectable for you. Now go be inspired, dammit!"

"We shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us."
--Winston Churchill

**bailey** · January-05-11, 03:26 PM

C'mon GP, the schools being mocked in this thread are 30+ years old ...in the case of GP north, the original 'prison school' it was build in 1968 for cripes sake.. They're all still here and seem to be standing the test of time...just not aesthetics. GP North is butt ugly, but it's not like they skimped on construction. The new schools out in Macomb...and places like rochester aren't exactly shitboxes either. The issue with the drab school buildings has more to do with what was the fashionable, reasonably cost efficient way to build institutional buildings in the 70s when the populations around here blew up.

Rochester Stoney creek for example... yeah it looks a little low rise office building-y, but it's not a windowless p.o.s.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 03:44 PM

Bailey: My previous post was directed toward the [[mis)appropriation of the K-mart in Charlotte into a charter school. Although I suppose it could be worse--they could have moved into an abandoned Dollar General.

The part that kills me even more is that it's a charter school that has adopted the former K-mart. In other words, we're all about creating a second publicly-funded school system "in order to foster competition". But we're not serious at all about committing resources to the second system, either. That's just fantastic.

**bailey** · January-05-11, 03:45 PM

haha ... ok gotcha. But the second system is privatized... which means it's automatically better in every way.

**ghettopalmetto** · January-05-11, 03:52 PM

In fairness, I have to give credit to the folks who run that charter school in Charlotte. They did a bang-up job making lemonade, restoring a vacant building to productive use, and finding a space to educate the kids of the community.

Which makes me ask, though, why [[as the website claims) there were so few educational facilities in the area to begin with? Certainly, no one would simply gloss over an area with 500 kids. I'm looking at you, Mecklenburg County School District.