And I used to think Grosse Pointe North looked like a prison!
http://www.bigboxreuse.com/sugarcreek.html
And I used to think Grosse Pointe North looked like a prison!
http://www.bigboxreuse.com/sugarcreek.html
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.
Last edited by DC48080; January-04-11 at 08:39 PM.
It's still better than a K-Mart
Of course, it's nothing compared to this old beauty out my window....
On Detroit's East Side There is a charter school that used to be a old children's hospital. It's on St Antroine and Fredrick Douglas Ave. It's called University Prep Academy.
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.
Last edited by DetroitDad; January-05-11 at 08:49 PM. Reason: Post script added.
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.
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.
While Ravine has a point, in that we should always remember to count our blessings. Still, we can aspire to greater things, and still be humble.
I like Detroitnerds quote:
While environmental psychology can not be ignored, I think a couple other people already touched on my view of the subject quite nicely. So, I'm going to bring up another thought.
Recently, I have been working in the historic Tobin Building in Downtown Detroit. Occasionally, we would take the steps instead of the elevator, and the architecture in that back stairwell was simply amazing. More amazing is that few people got to see it, being a back stairwell. They [[past generations) just seem so different than us, today. It just seems sometimes that past generations wanted to contribute to their society, like it was an honor to be a part of it.
Today, you seldom see such things happening as regular occurrence. Today.... we are all take, take, take... and seldom seem to want to give anything back. When and if we do, it is a rare occasion.
It just seems like, those ruins we live amongst, are something from another time... a product of a society of a past civilization.... a lost world. I think that also explains some of our infatuation with Detroit, and it's ruins. It's something so mysteriously different from what we are used to today.
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).
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?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.
Did you see where Laura Ingalls went to school? She turned out OK.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?
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?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?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.
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.
If it's falling apart, that's another matter. What I read sounded like a question of aesthetics.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?
"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
And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How many people still think the all glass skyscraper box is the most beautiful form in architecture? It's functional and probably financially efficient with the right glass, but that doesn't make it beautiful except, maybe, to an accountant watching a city's/business's bottom line.
I was told that windows were a source of distraction. And with the population changing locations frequently, not to mention technology, it doesn't make sense to pay the added expense for a school that will last for a couple centuries. Kids could get a lot of inspiration and artistic beauty if they used the internet for more than playing games. The main thing most kids wanted at the charter school I taught in was air conditioning when the temp rose to over ninety."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!"
Last edited by maxx; January-05-11 at 04:16 PM.
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.
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.
"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.
"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!"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.
"We shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us."
--Winston Churchill
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