<p>I would just LOVE to see my own high school’s graduation requirements. (Illinois public school, class of '76.) They had to have been almost non-existent. </p>
<p>We were the peak of the baby boom, so the whole focus was to get as many of out of the building as possible. There were ony 7 class periods a day, and unless you were in band, choir or orchestra, all 9th and 10th graders got 1st hour off and alll 11th and 12th graders got 7th hour off. 12th graders also got 6th hour off. I think only one year of math was required, one or 2 of science. I don’t even recall social studies. I remember you had to either take a year of Civics as a freshman or one semester of Government as a senior. Honors courses were not given any special weight. I got terrific grades taking such fun electives-Ceramics, Landscaping, Shakespeare, Creative Writing. When I look back at it, I am amazed at how low the standards were.</p>
<p>How about you? Did you take courses are hard as your kids are taking now?</p>
<p>I did take the harder coursework (rural Texas public '73-'77)…but not at the level, pace or depth my children have experienced. </p>
<p>Back in the day, we had very few options, but I did manage to take math and science through Trig/Calc and Physics. No APs of course…and there were only 7 of us in those harder classes most of which were mangled by a football coach. We did have one excellent math teacher who drove 45 miles from another high school to teach Calculus at our high school in the afternoons. But most kids at my h.s. opted to take Vo-Ed which allowed them to go to their part-time jobs during the first or last half of the school day. Some opted to fill their empty hours by working as an attendance assistant in the principal’s office rather than take anything beyond the required math and science (for us…two years math, two years science).</p>
<p>(My one regret…not squeezing in home ec and learning to sew. My d has this elaborate Halloween costume planned for the big Franklin Street Halloween party…and I can’t help her at all…lol!)</p>
<p>I forgot about home ec. A few years before my time “every” freshman girl took home ec and “every” freshman boy took shop. (And boys were not allowed to take home ec and girls were not allowed to take shop.) Thank heaven that trend had passed by the time I came along.</p>
<p>My high school boyfriend and his best friend knew they wanted to go to med school. My boyfriend graduated 1st in a class of 823 and his friend wasn’t far behind. They took every advanced math class that was offered in high school, which wasn’t very advanced. They got to University of Illinois and almost failed math. What a culture shock. Most of the students were from wealthy Chicago suburbs that offered much more advanced courses; we were from down state. They hadn’t known they had received an inferior education until they got to U of I!</p>
<p>I went to a private school in NYC, and yes, the courses were difficult. I took 4 APs (this was in 1975 and the courses weren’t called “AP”, we just took the exams). When I got to college I felt very well prepared. That said, I had much less homework than my D, who went to a similar school, and I didn’t feel nearly the pressure that kids do today.</p>
<p>Rural eastern Washington public HS in the early 70s. No APs, no Honors.
About 6-8 in my class took 4 years of science and math. Everyone was required to take typing. Senior girls had to take home ec. (I could sew better than than the teacher). I had to petition the powers to take mechanical drawing and wood shop (dreams of being a furniture designer at that time).
No real college counseling. No real expectations from the school system.
No Title IX. Really ugly cotton jumpsuit outfits for gym classes.
No pants for girls until fall of my senior year!!!</p>
<p>Very different for my DDs. They were offered excellent educations and they took advantage of the opportunity.</p>
<p>I was in the last pre-title IX class to take gym. There was the “Boy’s Gym” (the new, air conditioned one) and the “Girl’s Gym” (the one that I think was built in 1910.) </p>
<p>Senior year, there was one girl who wanted to take Drafting and Mechanical Drawing. Her request was denied because only boys were allowed to take shop classes.</p>
<p>Another class of '76 grad here. Took 2 AP classes, was president of a silly school club, competed in speach (did not do terribly well) and still got into a prestige university. </p>
<p>Public HS in MA and CT. Mine was a mix: accelerated foreign languages, english and math and science, but also cooking (why should just the girls get free food?) and at least one study hall a day. </p>
<p>Minimal college counseling.</p>
<p>I would say that I had about as much homework as my kids, but with less pressure from my parents (who had six kids to look after, so you older ones fend for yourselves.)</p>
<p>Private Philadelphia-suburbs school, class of 72. I took AP Calc (got a 5, too) which was all that was offered in the way of APs. We had a lot of math electives–logic, P&S, non-planar geometry–and I took all of those too. Also took organic chemistry at Haverford College, walking a mile and a half three days a weeks to go to lecture, and missing gym class to go to lab one afternoon a week. I loved organic chem but barely passed–74 the first semester (70 was passing) and 76 the second semester. I still remember how excited I was to create crystals of sulfanilamide (an early antibiotic) and have the lab instructor hold it up to the light and say “this would have been worth $500 on the black market during World War 2.” (He was a Jewish refugee with a concentration camp number tattoo. He never mentioned it.)</p>
<p>My parents had to fight for me to take four years of science instead of two years of science and a second language. They actually waived the graduation requirement for the second language specifically for me. I did take 6 years of French, though, starting in 7th grade.</p>
<p>Oh, and yes, a lot was expected of me. I was <em>expected</em> to go to Harvard (as my sisters and father did) and I clearly disappointed my father when I chose instead to apply to Yale and MIT (and that was it) instead. (My sisters recommended that path. Strangely, so did the Radcliffe interviewer.) My parents didn’t buy the concept of a ‘safety school’–if I didn’t get into either of those schools, THEN I could apply to Penn State.</p>
<p>I took the hardest classes my high school offered but I recall these being called Honors, not AP (no AP exams). My children’s high school was WAY smaller than mine but the hardest classes were also called Honors except two were called AP. Like them, I took Calculus in HS. I also had French from 7-12.</p>
<p>However, I was not nearly involved in ECs to the degree that they were in HS. I was in one as a freshman and I don’t recall a lot after that. Kids were apathetic at my high school and left after school got out at the end of the day mostly. In fact, due to having enough credits, many went to HS for a half day senior year, including me, and got a job too. I still went onto a selective college.</p>
<p>I had truly never HEARD of AP classes until about 5 years ago. (Back in the day, we took CLEP tests; I was instantly a 2nd semester college sophomore!)</p>
<p>I wanted to take typing, but my guidance counsellor wouldn’t let me because I was going to college (i.e. was not going to be a secretary.) Once I got to college and had to hunt and peck type all my papers, I figured that my counsellor must have had his girlfriend type his papers or something.</p>
<p>Class of '73. Not much in the way of expectations. I did take more math and science than most, but there were no AP classes or anything like that. There were two paths, one involving shop or home economics, the other not. We did have to take specific courses to graduate, but hey, we really didn’t have that much choice.</p>
<p>For the most part with the war, civil unrest and race issues, they were happy none of us blew up the school. I still have Che’s favorite recipe for fertilzer explosives around here some where.</p>
<p>This, as I see most of us remember, was back before we took the SATs that seriously (what do you mean, “take it again?”) and getting into college was generally a binary thing: you could or you couldn’t. Only one person I know even applied to an Ivy (he got a polite, but personal rejection letter). The rest of us just went instate where ever we could afford to go. It never even occured to me that the one school I applied to wouldn’t accept me.</p>
<p>Mid 70’s Illinois…AP English, and a couple of honors courses. No Math after Trigonometry. No extensive ECs, save the yearbook and a school literary mag. Above average SATs, but nothing to blow your socks off (although this was before re-centering, so no one got 700’s in those days).</p>
<p>Graduated with honors from a top 20. They wouldn’t even look at me if I applied today.:D</p>
<p>Oh, and gym class one hour each day, in a gym “uniform” (some horrid one piece thing). In the winter we swam every day. </p>
<p>And I walked a mile or two to school each way, even when it was pouring rain or snowing. My mother wouldn’t have dreamed of picking me up.</p>
<p>Class of '73. I went to a girls prep school near Washington DC. I had a hard schedule with some quirks. I can’t believe how little science I took! Strange because I mostly dated and eventually married a scientist.</p>
<p>Four years of English. (Took AP as a senior.) Four years of math. (Took Calc BC exam.) Four years of history. (Took AP Euro.) One year biology, one year of chemistry. Four years of French. (I was in AP French but didn’t take exam which I certainly would have flunked badly.) Four years of Art. (Took AP art.)</p>
<p>My ECs were Girl Scouts (Gold Award or whatever it was called then.) Played in a musical recorder group. Performed in modern dance. Was on the yearbook and the newspaper as a senior. Took art classes out of school and during summers at various times.</p>
<p>Our school told us to take the SAT twice and we all took three SAT achievement tests.</p>
<p>I applied to Harvard, Brown, and U Penn (safety in those days!). Thought about Yale, but would have had to write a different essay.</p>
<p>We all just showed up on a Saturday morning and took the ACT. No prep whatsoever. I didn’t even take the SAT because I was admitted to the one college to which I had applied before the SAT test date. </p>
<p>I did lots of ECs (speech, theatre, orchestra, newspaper) because they were fun. I didn’t know anyone who was doing stuff just to put on an application.</p>
<p>I graduated from a rural hs in central IL—class of 110 kids. No APs, no honors courses…Applying for college wasn’t nearly the effort that it is today. For those of us who DID go to college (not the majority, by any means), it was a choice of the local JC, or one of the 5 state U’s… </p>
<p>My mother “highly suggested” that I take typing and advanced typing, so I could “always” be a secretary (altho it did come in handy in college for jobs and making extra $$ typing others’ papers)… Our guidance counselor said that CLEP tests were evil, evil things—that you miss out on so much. Unfortunately, I listened to him…(lovingly referred to as Chrome Dome for his shiny, bald head )…</p>
<p>My high school was not even accredited back in those days, and had minimal facilities, particularly science facilities. They did offer science through physics, and math through “Advanced Math” which was past Trig, and had a little calculus. We actually had an excellent math teacher, who had been recognized as one of the best in the state, and some good English teachers. History tended to be a joke (landing spot for coaches) and science was pathetic, although the teachers meant well. NO foreign language at all.
I quit taking science after biology, because I thought it was a waste of time - I took bio and environmental science. I did music, band and chorus.
I was very odd, and I’ve often wondered how well I would have done had I gone to a “real high school” - I didn’t take typing or home ec or shop, and the home ec teacher never forgave my class for the fact that I won the FHA award because I made the highest grade on the test, even though I’d never taken home ec - I COULD take tests, though!</p>
<p>I come from a family of iconoclasts - my Mom took shop at the same high school back in the 40s, and was well remembered for that.</p>
<p>CLEP tests…yes…lol! I took those, not after my h.s. counselor recommended it, but a college counselor. Same thing…rec’d about a year’s worth of credits. And never prepped for SAT or ACT. (missypie, we must be living in a parallel universe…lol!)</p>
<p>We had the worst ‘bloomer’ type gym rompers. Scratchy itchy cotton things to go with the scratchy itchy cotton bras we wore back then. Deodorant was that wet sticky roll-on stuff too…lol! I was in Band just to get out of those rompers. But then, one of our band uniforms included real leather rodeo chaps and cowboy boots…so ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’.</p>
<p>I was class of '80, large public hs in NJ. I took 2 AP’s (my hs offered a total of 5) and 11 honors classes in 4 years. They were challenging. But my Senior year I took only 3 academic classes, plus band, choir, phys ed, lunch period and a study hall. That wouldn’t cut it in today’s college admissions world! (Although of the 3 classes I took, one was honors Physics and one was AP English). In order to graduate, NJ only required that you take sufficient credits, and pass 4 years of English, 2 years of US History, and 4 years of Phys Ed. That’s it. I’m not kidding.</p>
<p>Yes, kids today take much heavier workloads than we did!</p>
<p>Class of '77, public hs with grades 10-12 in the upper midwest, graduating class of about 750, primarily working/middle class but was already on its way to becoming your stereotypical inner city school. No APs. The only accelerated class offered was math, plus a couple of English classes that only the college bound kids took (eg English Lit). We did not rank except for the top 10 students (I was one of them, despite my only C - in typing back in soph yr; I was thinking of going into journalism and thought it would be helpful even though my manual dexterity leaves a lot to be desired!). I also never took science beyond biology in 10th grade, although I did take the accelerated math throughout. Instead, I also took courses I LIKED each year and these were also most of my ECs: journalism (was editor of school paper), band (which I actually did not start until 9th grade and then mostly so I could play in the pep band at football games in hs; and for a nerdy misfit who did not like math or science this was probably the smartest “social” move I ever made in hs), and German. In addition there were the required math, english, social studies/history/humanities type classes. I think we only had 6 classes a day, and for “regular” students, one of those was study hall (college bound kids NEVER took study hall, although most of us were in band/choir. And some like me did not take much science or math since they were not state requirements!). Vo-tech bound kids often took OJT (on the job training) and went to work for half the day. No required home ec or shop in hs, it was required only in jr high (and it was not co-ed) and no phys ed after 10th grade.</p>
<p>I don’t even recall whether I took ACT or SAT or both (probably just whatever they offered at our school, and without any prep) or what my scores were. It really didn’t matter, though, since very few students ever went out of state from my hs. and nothing instate was very selective back then; it never even occurred to me that going away to college was a possibility (I was truly clueless with no guidance at all and financially, it probably was not possible anyway). </p>
<p>I remember a group of the “accelerated” math students going to the local state flagship one Saturday (which is where most of us ended up going to college) to take a math placement test that was being given to hs seniors throughout the area; we all sat next to each other and after just a couple of minutes one student (our future class valedictorian) stood up, glanced at the rest of us and walked out. We ALL followed. It wasn’t worth our time to take a test on material we had never learned. On the other hand, I DID place out of a yr of German (but due more to the quality of the specific German teacher than the school’s academics overall. And ironically I think it was from my German classes that I finally “learned” English grammar beyond the basic noun, verb; even though English was always my best subject, it was more intuitive for me than learned and I had pretty much faked my way through grammar tests in the past!)</p>