Fifth Grade Radical Manifesto

In sorting through my Grandfather's personal effects this weekend, we ran across a forgotten chapter in the 1970's radical movement, a typed half-page manifesto from a free-thinking 10-year-old. At the time, I was living in Cygnet, Ohio (Wood County) and attending fifth grade in the Elmwood school district. Fifth and sixth graders from several small rural communities in the district were bussed to an isolated, aging building whose name I have forgotten and that I'm not even sure I could find. It may no longer exist.

I have almost zero clear memories of fifth grade - the twins Cheryl and Carol Tyson. Hamburg gravy on mashed potatoes in the basement cafeteria. Kickball. The kid on the bus who could turn his eyelids inside out.

> School
> > These following few paragraphs are about what I, Paul Bradley Reed, think about school.
> > First of all, I think they have a lousy system. For instance, they have one lesson after another and never a rest except lunch and recess.
> > And of course the busses. They don't even run half the time. Just Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1970 we got all loaded up and the bus wouldn't start.
> > Talking about the busses being crouded (sic) ! They're so crammed up you can hardly sit down with three but when you try to get four, well, that's another story. And they never heat the busses. Well, that's all I have to say.
> > Truthfully,
> > Paul Bradley Reed

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