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Why is Papa Smurf here? That was the nickname the Mendham
High kids gave Mr. Palonsky!
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Some General Information
(Questions & Answers)
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(From the book 900 Shows
A Year!)
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Hello to Alumni (and anyone else!)
This little page has some general information about the book 900
Shows a Year, written by a teacher named Mr. Stu Palonsky.
Nothing captures the history of the school like
this book does! It has so many reminders of how life was back in
high school in the early 80's. Many alumni have emailed me about this book,
wondering what it was about.
So here on this webpage,
some friends and I try answer some questions we been asked!
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Q: Who was Mr. Palonsky and why did he write a book?
A: Before coming to work at Mendham High in 1982,
Mr. Palonsky was a college professor (I think at Rutgers)
who taught education and/or history
courses (I'm not real sure!).
He noticed that many teachers seem very unhappy with
teaching. He decides to return to teaching high school
so he can relate with teachers again, and write a book
about his experiences (since publishing and getting cited are
all that matters to Rutgers professors, believe me I went there!). I think he's probably around
40 years old. He only taught for 2 years before returning to work on the college level again.
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Q: How is the book set up?
A:
The book is actually autobiographical in nature. It is
written in the first person, and Mr. Palonsky is the main
character, as himself. All other names are made-up, I think.
The book is seven chapters long, about 200 pages.
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Q: What's the plot?
A:
The basic "plot" is that he works for a year as a social
studies teacher at a suburban high school he calls
"Oldham High" in 1982-1983. He meets other teachers, he
deal with students, he has lobby duty, he is puzzled by the existence of "the Grove" -
all sorts of fun things! But
mainly tries to figure out why so
many teachers are not thrilled to be a teacher. Also had lots of
educational gobbley-gook academic theory stuff (that I won't get
into since it's beyond the scope of this website, and I don't
understand it anyways).
It's possible some of the book could be fictionalized,
and some characters are composites of different people.
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Q: What did he teach?
A: In 1982-1983, he taught: 2 classes of US History 2C;
2 classes of Freshman Social Studies (called the "fundies" class);
1 half-year class of Psychology; and a half year of Sociology.
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Q: Why was he nicknamed Papa Smurf?
A:
Apparently the students thought
Mr. Palonsky bore a resemblance Papa Smurf! He did have a beard.
But Mr. Palonsky didn't have white hair,
or was blue in color, and didn't particularly wear red
hats everyday, but alas, the nickname stuck! Smurfs were
very important to us kids back then, you know. I still have all
of mine (ooops, probably shouldn't have admitted that). He was also
called "Doc".
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Q: What was his school schedule?
A: Here it is! This was back when the school had a
9-period day (nowadays they have a rotating schedule of some sort).
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| Period # |
Times |
Class |
Room Number |
| 1 |
7:40 - 8:22 |
American History 2C |
Room 24 |
| Attendance |
8:22 - 8:32 |
Activity Period |
Room 24 |
| 2 |
8:36 - 9:18 |
Library/Lobby Duty |
Library/Lobby |
| 3 |
9:22 - 10:04 |
Freshman Social Studies A |
24 |
| 4 |
10:08 - 10:50 |
Prep Period |
Wherever |
| 5 |
10:54 - 11:36 |
American History 2C |
24 |
| 6 |
11:40 - 12:22 |
His Lunch |
Wherever |
| 7 |
12:26 - 1:08 |
Prep Period |
Wherever |
| 8 |
1:12 - 1:54 |
1st half: Psychology
2nd Half: Sociology |
24 |
| 9 |
1:58 - 2:40 |
Freshman Social Studies A |
upstairs |
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Q: Did he succeed in his goal to find out why teachers were unhappy teaching?
A:
Well, sort of! He concludes they need more power and more say in
what goes on. It's complex, he writes.
I have no idea if the teachers are happy today.
Maybe I will go ask some of them.
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Q: Does it deal with Mendham-specific issues, like
the "privilege" or "superiority" some students felt?
A:
Yikes! Touchy subject! But yes, even back in 1982, the book mentions
many things along those lines. Though it more focuses on whether
it makes a student easier to teach when they are wealthy.
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Q: Would alumni like reading this book?
A:
Probably! Especially 80's alumni, even late 70's alumni would see a lot of
their school life described in the book. So many reminders -
the lobby, the grove, our free periods - lots
of things we would recognize. And some of the teachers may
sound a tad familiar ....! If you read the book, do yourself a
favor and skip Chapter 7.
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Q: Ok, Why skip Chapter 7?
A:
This chapter is filled with big scary words. Most of these
long frightening words and phrases are only cared about by people
with PHDs. Here is a sample phrase: "Measures of student
content attainment, where they existed, were of questionable
validity". Yes, got that? Other scary words and phrases are:
insularity, pedantry, critical theorists, "acquiescence towards a
dominant culture", ideological hegemony, estrangement from the
authority structure, remuneration, collegiality, symbolic
interactionist, ethnographic research design, and the
"social constructions of reality". I personally don't know what
most of that means, but that whole chapter made my brain spin!
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Ok! That should cover the basics!
For fun memories of student life
that are mentioned in the book, continue
to the link below!
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Click here to go back to 900 Shows A Year (Welcome back to 1982) Home Page
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Click here to go back to our Home Page (oldmendhamhigh - A Mendham History/Alumni site)
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Oldmendhamhigh Main Page |
The Grove!! |
Journeyman Yearbook Covers |
The Long Sad Story of how Mendham High Was Built |
The New Construction 2006-2007 |
No Place Like Home! |
Old Blurry Photos of the School |
Old Mendham High Stuff found in my House |
Mendham HS Official Site
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This page is part of oldmendhamhigh.com (A MHS History & Alumni Website for old folks)
The absolute address of this page is http://home.att.net/~suelighthouse/smurfybook.html
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Updated: January 2008
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Sue Willis (with some other alumni helping out) - Class of '88, and a librarian, even.
Mendham Borough Historical Society, lifelong Oldham ... oops, I mean Mendham resident!
Email at:
suelighthouse@att.net suelighthouse oldmendhamhigh
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