After switching to the “human” branch, there was no more math for us. Instead, we had Latin. Our teacher was quite young, too, (a man) and he didn’t seem to like it too much. Apparently his father had forced him into it. He even named his son (our teacher) Claudius. We later heard that he went to college and got a degree in English. While we were his students, we did not put any effort into it. We considered it a total waste of time, a mockery. We had scheduled written tests in Latin too, but they were open book tests. We brought magazines to our teacher and we were left pretty much to ourselves. He would also tell us exactly what would be on the test.
At the age of 14, any youngster would receive his/her “Buletin de populatie” (ID booklet). It was not a card, but a booklet, about half the size of a US passport. You had all your basic information there, including address, date and place of birth, and blood type (very useful). If you changed your address, you had to report it and have it stamped in your Buletin at the local police station. Getting a Buletin was a mark of having grown up.
I was increasingly more interested in the English language. I started to go to the British and American libraries (very close to my home) to try to borrow books to read. Unfortunately, you had to be at least 16 to do that so I had to wait to do that. But then I started reading extensively. I also went to shows, movies, art exhibitions, everything that was available at the libraries.
School was very intense. There were lots of subjects, lots of papers to write, a lot to read and memorize. There were announced and unannounced written examinations and the mid-term papers that counted so much in making up the term grade. Although we had no more math after the 9th grade, we still had physics and chemistry. I loved chemistry probably because the teacher was very good. She was very strict but very fair, a no-nonsense kind of person. Physics was entirely different. I found it totally useless and had a hard time with it. Of course, I loved English. The teacher, again, like the teacher in the General School, was very good.
The curriculum was the same in all schools in Romania. No matter where you where, you learned the same thing, at approximately the same time. Periodically, there would be inspections from the Department of Education to check on the progress of both students and teachers.
A lot of girls were infatuated with the biology teacher but I couldn’t understand why. There were no reported inappropriate relations between teachers and students. The teachers knew their place and so did the students. And probably nothing would have happened if a male teacher had patted a girl on her behind. There were no cases of molestation, no abuse, in schools or at home. At least we never heard of any such thing. Like I mentioned, lawsuits were unheard of.
Actually, we were extremely unsophisticated when it came to sex. At 18, we probably were less sophisticated sexually than a 12-year-old in America is today. We did not have boyfriends or girlfriends. There were no pregnancies in school. At some point, there was a rumor that a girl and boy in our highschool had a baby who was placed for adoption. But the rumor was not substantiated. Also, we never heard of anybody in school or elsewhere that was openly gay. We knew of a man in town who liked to wear clothes that seemed somewhat inappropriate for a man, and we assumed that he must have been gay, but nobody cared.
Of course, we did not drive. Having a car was the utmost luxury and very few people had one. So, there were no traffic accidents with teens involved. Also, there was no drinking or drugs. Drugs were unheard of. There was no age requirement for drinking. It was normal to see even a young child going to buy a bottle of wine for his family. And for older teens, it was not inconceivable to have a wine spritzer or a glass of beer with parents or friends. This was never abused. The fruit was not forbidden so the attraction was not there.
There was no violence in schools. Sometimes the boys would punch each other but everybody solved their conflicts on their own. Of course, there were no guns. Nobody had guns. Generally, teachers or parents did not get involved in the children’s disputes. I heard that at some point, a boy was harassing another boy. This boy’s father came to school and warned the bully that unless he stopped picking on his boy, he would get a severe beating from him. That’s all it took for the harassment to stop.
The worst that boys would do was smoke in the boys’ bathroom. When they were caught, they were sent to the principal’s office and told they had to go shave their heads completely. The following day, when they appeared with totally bald heads, we knew what happened. Nobody would question this policy, students or parents. Anyway, boys were not allowed to wear long hair. They would be dismissed from school and asked to come with a regulation haircut if their hair grew past the required length. And girls had to have braided hair or pulled back. The ribbon hairband was still enforced. No jewelry or makeup were allowed. Some girls were known to smoke but they were never caught. Some of the girls in school tried to convince me to smoke but I was never interested probably because nobody in my family smoked and nobody had forbidden me to smoke.
(to be continued)
Simona Georgescu
