What's something your kids don't believe you had to do in school?

Parents Forum
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We said the Lord’s Prayer every morning (in a public school in Massachusetts!) until a court case changed it to a “moment of silence” (i.e. every kid could either pray according to their own tradition, or just be quiet to respect everyone else).

UCB- the lockdowns isn’t about the crime rate. It’s about school shootings which were rare “back in the day”. My teacher friends have ENDLESS trainings because every year “best practices” around evacuations, safety, disarming the shooter, etc. change. It is beyond sad that instructional time is now being spent showing 6 year old’s how to hide in a supply closet…

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42

Forgot about typing. To music!

And taking driver’s ed during the school day. And driving on the running track!

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43

Kids still say the Pledge every day in NY. Or at least where my kids attended school, they did.

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44

This. I was very glad when they erected the fence around the school and locked the doors except for the main one. Every morning for many many many many years, when the kids arrived at school and had breakfast, they’d be sent to the gym with only H to supervise. Anyone with bad intentions and that knowledge could have walked into the gym from outside and had the whole school full of kids sitting down with only 1 adult supervising and only one set of doors to run out of, and into a long hallway directly across from the exit door. Very unsafe.

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45

We had “nuclear bomb drills” that involved hiding under the desks. My kids rightfully pointed out that no desk on earth would help if there was a nuclear bomb…

We also had square dancing (in VA, just outside of DC) but that wasn’t too weird to them, as they definitely have line dancing units now (no, I do not know how to do the Cotton Eyed Joe dance, or the Cupid Shuffle, among others but my kids do).

They are moderately entertained that I took a class for a semester in HS that was typing. Just typing. On a typewriter. I’m not that old so there were computers, and we had school computer labs, but it wasn’t common to really use one at home for anything other than typing. They may have mocked my class, but I earned a LOT of cash my first few years in college by typing papers for other people. To this day, I type really really fast.

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https://www.chds.us/sssc/charts-graphs/ indicates that the highest number of deaths (not necessarily only students or teachers) in shootings at or near K-12 schools was 51 in 2018 (followed by 50 in 2022 and 35 in 1993).

In contrast, Youth homicide victims, 1980-2020 lists 1,777 homicide victims under age 18 in 2020, up from 1,366 in 2019, but down from the 1993 peak of 2,840.

In terms of mass shootings at schools, which is probably what people are mostly thinking of, List of school shootings in the United States by death toll - Wikipedia contains a list.

Back in the day, some “closed campus” policies were enacted out of fear of general crime, which was much higher then than it is now.

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And while all tucked under your desk all you wondered about is what part of you was still hanging out. In all fairness it might save you partly from the roof falling on you. Those desks were pretty sturdy! And don’t forget to pull your chair in up close for extra protection…

It really is sad that school grounds are so closed off. We used to spend many a weekend playing games on the outside basketball courts ball fields or playground areas.

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Yup. NYC public school and we had square dancing, wood shop where we wired things, and HS gym uniforms that only came up to a woman’s large and the girls were not allowed to wear the boys uniforms. But the thing that my kids don’t believe the most is that I was as smart as they are and knew the answers to all of the math problems (ha!!)

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49

A very good friend swore to her kids that she did this. Every single day until she graduated from high school. We were in her old neighborhood one day…and she suggested we clock the miles so she could let her kids know. The “long” walk was actually under a mile. And it was only uphill on the way home from school. She was shocked…and swore me to secrecy!

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50

Our local district still does the Pledge of Allegiance. Every PTA meeting starts with the Pledge as well.

When the morning bell rang, my elementary school had everyone line up on the blacktop say the Pledge together. It was followed by children’s versions of You’re a Grand Old Flag, America the Beautiful, My Country Tis of Thee, etc. Each week featured a new song and we learned the lyrics to all of them.

Drivers ed was required at my HS.

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Or have to do rope climb and a certain number of sit ups for the President’s Physical Fitness (exam? award?)

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52

California still requires fitness exams. Students are assessed at grades 5, 7 and 9.

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Drivers Ed here in NJ is part of the PE/heath curriculum, junior year is a marking period of drivers education instead of health toget a permit. Back in my day, my guidance counselor taught me behind the wheel, others got gym teachers.

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54

My kids loved this, me, not so much.

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I’ll have to say that telling PE teachers “NO” gave me good back bone practice. No threat of a bad grade was worth life and limb.

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I’ve done most of the things listed.

Required 12 weeks of square dancing (8 weeks), waltzing and polka for sophomore and jr year (9 grade was in a different school). Also one swimming unit was required for all students 7-12 grade per year, even if you were on swim team. Having to take swimming sucked because some of the other units were really fun - bowling, curling, archery, golf.

Home Ec for girls in grades 7-9, industrial arts for boys. My brother is 3 years younger and by then they’d split them 50/50. But senior boys in hs took Bachelor’s survival and they all loved it.

No snow days. Okay, we had TWO in 10 years. In Wisconsin. Sometimes the kids who lived on the farms around town couldn’t get into town for school so they had more. And a few times we went home 2 hours early, but once they started cooking lunch, we stayed in school until lunch was over, about 1 pm.

Cursive? Yes (but my kids also had that)

Public school prayers? Yep, also in Massachusetts. Pictures of the Pope and JFK in the classroom, side by side.

Could go home for lunch at the Catholic school, but I never did. Instead, because I was a ‘good student’, I got to eat in the classroom with a few other ‘good kids’ and scrub the black heel marks off the floor with paste wax. ON OUR HANDS AND KNEES! Why was this acceptable to us? Because otherwise you had to go outside for lunch recess and it was Wisconsin, often below zero, and girls wore dresses!

9th grade we took typing for a year. 20 manual typewriters, 20 IBM selectrics. Have to say, I won the chocolate bunny for speed and accuracy, and I was on a manual at the time. I used those skills in college where I typed forms on a manual for Interlibrary loan requests.

My kids went to catholic school for grades k-5 and they said prayers and the pledge every day. They had a former marine as a p.e. teachers and they ran every class. If you didn’t run, you couldn’t play the game (basketball, volleyball, etc) for that day. They learned cursive. Dance was required for 8th graders for their graduation. Kids who lived in the neighborhood could walk home (but not for lunch as it wasn’t long enough). Typing became another ‘special’ in the rotation, and was called ‘keyboarding.’

So I don’t think that much changed for them. Oh, except the snow days. They had a lot of them because some kids came from 10-15 miles away.

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57

While I’m often amused by outdated items (What’s this “typewriter” thing you mention?), I’m really shocked at the number of you that had to take square dancing. I’ve never heard of such a thing.

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58

Progressive urban public schools in Massachusetts in the 1960’s-- square dance was required in grades 2-6. It was such a relief to get to junior high. Even though I hated PE, it was easier to hide in the outfield than it was to avoid dancing!

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I took square dancing in the 80s in elementary school! And even worse, we had a disco unit. I learned the electric slide in junior high in pe class. Really.

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That part I actually understand. Assuming it was not post-1985. And it finally explains why so many people know the steps when “Electric Boogie” invariably is played at wedding receptions. :grin:

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