Franklin Middle School

"I went here in the seventies. I had a music class with Mr. Klause. It was awesome! He had a hi-fi stereo, a pair of reel to reel tape players, and a great turntable. He played every single Beatles album, and we studied the history of the band including all the clues that were rumored to indicate that Paul was dead, including playing some of the songs backwards through the reel to reel tape decks, slowing some down and speeding others up. He taught us how the Beatles manipulated, and assembled the multitrack recordings they made at their famous, state of the art Abby Lane studios where they pioneered many of the techniques used today. I remember him playing Bye Bye Miss American Pie by and explaining what all the imagery described in the song were intended to convey., including the marching band that refused to yield (referring to The Beatles as Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band not yielding in their popularity to the anti war protest songs by American bands of the Vietnam War era). One of his friends had invented a device that was like a speakers magnetic driver, but instead of a paper sound cone it had a metal stud that stuck out and what ever you put the stud on vibrated like a speaker. Pretty cool until we tried it on the old radiator heaters by the front windows on the first floor in our classroom, and suddenly Chicago’s 25 or Six To One started blaring out of all the other classroom radiators! The principle came running in and yelled at Mr. Klause and after the principle stalked out and slammed our classroom door we all looked at Mr. Klause, then each other, and all started laughing sooooo hard! I learned to really understand and deeply love music in that class. It was just so cool to have a long haired, smart, kind, brave teacher push the boundaries of our conservative old school in what was then just a small quiet town. Mr. Klause, if you ever see this or if someone can pass this on THANK YOU! You made a high water mark in this kids mind, and I’ll always remember you and our joyful hours spent learning the joy of music you showed us. I was one of the only fights that I can recall in the two years I was there. Some kid with the last name Swan on the stairs between floors two and three. We didn’t even get caught. Last day of school we all used to empty our loose leaf notebooks out those tall old windows. My last year I had Mrs. Owings. She was the most senior teacher in the school by at least two decades, and wore old fashioned late 1800’s style white button up shirts with high ruffled collars, and ankle length black skirts every single day, no matter how hot it got up on our third floor classroom. She was strict, severe, and always had a wooden pointer stick (the one with the little black rubber tip) in her hand as she lectured, and she knew how to rap you on the knuckles with it when your attention wandered. The ENTIRE student body feared her TERRIBLY and had all heard the stories of what she had done to generation after generation of children at Ben Franklin Junior High. I was your standard long haired ADHD poster child and was absolutely sure I would not survive that last school year, but one day after failing to do anything right she held me after class and instead of the cruel death I expected, she somehow explained to me in the perfect way why I was having trouble, and somehow knew exactly how to explain to that demoralized frustrated scared child, how to multiply, divide add, and subtract fractions while she sat at her desk and ate her brown bag lunch that always sat on the corner of her desk. I remember to this day the respect and love I found for that great woman that day. Tears are falling even now as I write, but I will forever remember her last kind look as I stayed behind to thank her, to tell her how we had all come to love her in our last year, and then filled with joy I ran down three familiar flights, burst through those old doors, and right into the moist smell fresh cut grass, and summer vacation."

"i went to this school and it wasnt that bad, but it was still horrible. senor freedman made me wanna kill myself, so did mrs sunderlin or whatever the hell her name is (i think she left idk). fights happened all the time, which didnt really bother me, but if youre gonna go to this school, expect fights. you wont get a great education here because tbh most of the teachers stopped caring years ago."

"The students are HIGHLY disrespectful. I just came to the school a month ago and i already hate it. There are way too many fights and too much of the schools property being destroyed. The students are immature and the teachers and staff need to do a better job at controlling the school."

"The school isn't horrible. Only one of the Spanish teachers is not that easy to understand and translates spanish to spanish but she taught the kids a different language"

"I would n t want my children being taught by ex con drunk driving teachers 100 % truth does anyone know who the teacher is ? I do"