Unstressed syllable in school was cut

• Soft vowel sound
• Symbol in pronunciation guides
• It's not a sign of stress
• The "a" sound in "about" or "around"
• Dictionary's upside-down "e"
• Upside down, lower case "e"
• The "a" sound in "about"

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "'''a'''bout", represented as /ə/ in IPA and /@/ in SAMPA and X-SAMPA. 2 The character ə, an upside-down, backwards, lower-case E

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1895, from German Schwa , ultimately from Hebrew shewa "a neutral vowel quality," literally "emptiness."

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
Schwa is the underground conceptual artwork of Bill Barker (born 1957). Barker draws deceptively simple black and white stick figures and oblong alien ships. However the artwork is not about the aliens: it is about how people react to the presence of the ...