Author Topic: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today  (Read 1846 times)

frog24

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #15 on: September 05, 2018, 04:28:52 pm »
I confess to finding a certain serenity from writing my kids' last name on every.single.crayon, marker, eraser, glue bottle, pencil crayon, pencil, and notebook.  (I use the last name because when stuff comes back, I can reuse it the next year and no one can complain "that's her glue stick, not my glue stick".

I accidentally bought too many of one type of notebook, and none of the other type... so I went out today to get them.  Turns out, now that schools's started, everything's on clearance.  I might just print out the school supply list and stock up for next year. (thankfully, we have the storage space in the drawer)

Thitpualso

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2018, 09:56:29 am »
I started school in 1952 so I’m quite antediluvian. 

Back then, the school provided everything we needed for the first few years.  When learning to write we used odd paper with very wide rules.  The paper also had dotted lines between the solid lines.  This was to indicate the proper height of lower case letters.  We also used very fat pencils that I have never seen in stores.  By 4th grade we were allowed to use ball-point pens.

I attended a public school but girls were not allowed to wear trousers.  The end of summer shopping trip for a school wardrobe included a pair of stout shoes (usually Buster Brown) and dark cotton dresses.  Pleated or circle skirts with white blouses and cardigans or twin sets were also worn.  We had book bags instead of back packs.   

Every week we brought 25 cents to school for milk that was served at 11 AM but I never ate lunch at school. My friends and I went home for lunch.  It would be unheard of now but then, it was perfectly fine for 1st graders to ride their bikes the mile and a half from school to home for lunch and back.  Kindergarten was only half a day so lunch didn’t enter into the equation.  In 7th and 8th grade we were allowed to go to the diner across the street for lunch.  How grown-up it felt to sit at the counter and order a bowl of soup!

When I see the lists of things kids need for school these days, i’m appalled.  No wonder more parents are turning to home or alternative schooling.



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frog24

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2018, 05:03:31 pm »
The thing that makes me go  ??? ??? ??? is how each school (in the same school district) has a slightly different set of supplies.  My friend's kid needed the 18 pack of crayons, but mine need the 24.  :-\   

If all schools are teaching the same curriculum, shouldn't they all require the same supplies?

honeybee42

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2018, 04:46:43 pm »
It can get even crazier than that ...

When I was going to grade school (in the 70s), you would receive the next year's school supply list with the final report card (so, last report card in 3rd grade, you'd get the supply list for 4th grade).  Now, they might specify things like wide-rule vs college-rule, rounded-point scissors vs regular, and so on, but it was pretty much left up to you if you wanted one notebook in each shade of the rainbow, or some plain notebooks and pictures on others (puppies, kittens, favorite sports team logo), and the supplies were strictly one's own supplies.
The summer could be spent buying supplies a bit at a time, or you could wait till the end and just buy it all in one fell swoop.  Several stores also had sealed up bags labeled "District X, Grade Y" for the districts in close vicinity, and those bags had just plain colored notebooks, none of the "cute" ones.

When I had my oldest in public school (which ended after first grade--I homeschooled after that until moving to another state), not only did it matter what school, but also which teacher--because the two teachers of 1st grade at the *same* school would have wildly different lists.  And you couldn't get the lists until after the first day of school, at which point you had to run out and buy the ridiculously detailed supplies (you *must* have pocket folders in red and green and spiral notebooks in blue and orange.  Do not even think about sending your child to school with pocket folders in red and blue and spiral notebooks in green and yellow).  In the other classroom, they'd have required pocket folders in yellow, orange and black and a red spiral notebook.  Teacher A might require 18 colors of crayons, but Teacher B insisted that only colored pencils would do.  But they couldn't tell you in advance, because there might be changes to enrollment that would mean they'd need to swap kids around.  Apparently the idea of standardizing the list between teachers under the same school roof for the same grade was too complicated.

What I wish they'd do now--and I see no reason why this couldn't be done--since the high school has a faculty page with each teacher's picture, why couldn't they put a link there which shows which classes the teacher is teaching and each of *those* links going to a supply list for the class.  So if you are taking Ms Apple's English Literature class, Mr Banana's Accounting class, Mr Cherry's Geometry class, and Ms Diakon's Chemistry class, you'd have the lists for each of those and could make your shopping list accordingly if you liked to get things done ahead of time, or wait until classes and get the syllabus for each class to get the supply list and buy in a mad frenzy the evening after the first day of school.
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nuku

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2018, 07:00:46 pm »
I started grade school in the mid-1970s, and I went home for lunch until 4th or 5th grade (can't remember which). We would walk to school, walk home for lunch (or to someone else's house - my mom was one of the few who worked outside the home, but my dad worked nights), then we would walk back for the afternoon. Then walk home at the end of the day.

The first day, we had the "first day outfit," usually a dress for girls. (Nobody wore shorts to school - and somebody 5 years my junior was surprised to find out my public middle and high schools both had dress codes.) I think that we might have brought our pencil case and supplies on the second day. I never used a bag until middle school - just carried what I needed. If I had a big project to bring in, I would get a ride.
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vintagegal

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2018, 07:04:44 am »
I also used to go home for lunch, the first few grades. And I would bring a dime to school for recess milk for the week, and I think 50 cents for buying government bonds. I wonder when that stopped being a thing.

RubyCat

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2018, 08:53:12 am »
I think I started first grade in 1971.  I walked to the closest public school, usually with another group of children but no adults, 0.4 miles in almost any kind of weather.  Nobody thought anything about it, it's just how it was.  All I needed to bring was milk money and my lunch.  I had the cutest plaid lunch box! Everything else was supplied.

In third grade I changed over to a parochial school and it was pretty much the same.  We could bring our own pens and pencils, crayons and markers, but it was not required.

Fast forward to the late 1980's when my daughters attended the same parochial school and I was given a lengthy list: crayons, kleenex, purell(!) and so forth.  When we moved and they went to public school, the list grew: certain types of notebooks, certain types of pens, pencils, markers, and so forth.  One year even required an expensive calculator.  Some teachers were really great about giving out a list at the end of the summer so the parents could take advantage of sales.  Others, for whatever reason, did not give out the list until the first day of school.  I still remember walking the aisle of Staples, desperately looking for certain items.  The shelves were picked over and the lines at the register were long.  I don't miss that at all.

camlan

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #22 on: November 15, 2018, 03:11:02 pm »
I started school in 1952 so I’m quite antediluvian. 

Back then, the school provided everything we needed for the first few years.  When learning to write we used odd paper with very wide rules.  The paper also had dotted lines between the solid lines.  This was to indicate the proper height of lower case letters.  We also used very fat pencils that I have never seen in stores.  By 4th grade we were allowed to use ball-point pens.

I attended a public school but girls were not allowed to wear trousers.  The end of summer shopping trip for a school wardrobe included a pair of stout shoes (usually Buster Brown) and dark cotton dresses.  Pleated or circle skirts with white blouses and cardigans or twin sets were also worn.  We had book bags instead of back packs.   

Every week we brought 25 cents to school for milk that was served at 11 AM but I never ate lunch at school. My friends and I went home for lunch.  It would be unheard of now but then, it was perfectly fine for 1st graders to ride their bikes the mile and a half from school to home for lunch and back.  Kindergarten was only half a day so lunch didn’t enter into the equation.  In 7th and 8th grade we were allowed to go to the diner across the street for lunch.  How grown-up it felt to sit at the counter and order a bowl of soup!

When I see the lists of things kids need for school these days, i’m appalled.  No wonder more parents are turning to home or alternative schooling.

I started Kindergarten in 1964 and it was very similar. For Kindergarten, we were told the first day that we needed to bring in a towel, which we put on the floor for our "rest" time every day, and a "smock" for art class--usually an worn-out men's shirt that the teachers would put on us backwards and button it up the back. This was to protect our clothes from paint and glue. We also got the fat round pencils about 5 or 6 times a year--ours were a dark green--and had the really wide lined paper. I walked the half mile to school every day from Kindergarten on.

Somewhere around 2nd grade I got a book bag. And we started having to bring in glue or paste and crayons. I had the 64 crayon box with the sharpener. We needed to buy notebooks from about 5th grade on, but we could choose what we wanted--the main thing was to have paper to write on.

I went to a mix of public, Catholic and Department of Defense schools depending on where we were living. Never saw lists such as they have today.

Almost never ate the hot lunch. Lunch was a sandwich and an apple or orange, packed by Mom. Sometimes she'd slip in a home made brownie, which I'd immediately trade for a Hostess cupcake or TastyKake--we never, ever had those at home. I brown-paper-bagged it until 2nd grade, when I got a red plaid metal lunch box for my birthday. (And boy, did I want that lunch box! Everyone else had a lunch box and I felt so out of place with my crumpled paper bag that I had to bring home every day so that it could be reused for a week at least.) Teachers collected milk money weekly, every Monday morning.


Rose Red

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #23 on: November 16, 2018, 01:55:13 pm »
I think I started first grade in 1971.  I walked to the closest public school, usually with another group of children but no adults, 0.4 miles in almost any kind of weather.  Nobody thought anything about it, it's just how it was.  All I needed to bring was milk money and my lunch.  I had the cutest plaid lunch box! Everything else was supplied.

In third grade I changed over to a parochial school and it was pretty much the same.  We could bring our own pens and pencils, crayons and markers, but it was not required.

Fast forward to the late 1980's when my daughters attended the same parochial school and I was given a lengthy list: crayons, kleenex, purell(!) and so forth.  When we moved and they went to public school, the list grew: certain types of notebooks, certain types of pens, pencils, markers, and so forth.  One year even required an expensive calculator.  Some teachers were really great about giving out a list at the end of the summer so the parents could take advantage of sales.  Others, for whatever reason, did not give out the list until the first day of school.  I still remember walking the aisle of Staples, desperately looking for certain items.  The shelves were picked over and the lines at the register were long.  I don't miss that at all.

Did you mean the 90's? I don't think they had Purell in the 80's.

Anyway it didn't seem my school was too concerned about health and safety back in the 80's. Good times.

RubyCat

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #24 on: November 16, 2018, 02:00:04 pm »
You're right.  It would have been the 1990 and now that I think about it, the Purell would have been for the youngest daughter's class which would have been late 1990's. 

TootsNYC

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #25 on: October 16, 2020, 04:18:30 pm »
Add me to the list of "always wished for the 64 pack of Crayola"!!Never got them. When I look at what the grandkids have now...


I bought them for myself as a grownup. But I never used them, actually.

BeagleMommy

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #26 on: October 19, 2020, 08:31:49 am »
I started Kindergarten in 1970.  For kindergarten all we were required to bring was a mat/blanket for nap time and a smock for painting.

From kindergarten through 8th grade the school provided all pencils (we had the fat green ones through third grade; then switched to No. 2), paper, crayons, paints, glue, etc.  Third through sixth grade it was recommended we bring a pencil box and what was referred to as a book bag.  Kind of a satchel with a shoulder strap.

My mom always made my lunch but we had milk around 11 am that cost .15.  I usually got a new lunch box each year.  Don't remember most of them but I did have a Miss America lunch box and a pink and white plaid one that I thought was so grown up.  My brother had Evel Knievel.  Lunch was always some kind of sandwich, fruit, a cookie (sugar-free in my case) and a thermos of Kool-Aid (sugar-free in my case).

In high school we had to provide our own No. 2 pencils, blue or black pens (red was for teachers only), and college ruled notebooks.  However, we had a "School Store" where you could buy anything you might have forgotten at home and there was a pen machine in front of the main office where you could buy a pen for 10 cents.

When my youngest niece started kindergarten in the 90s the teacher begged parents not to send boxes of more than 8 crayons because the kids would drop them and then cry while they were trying to put them all back in the box.
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Gardensgrey

Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #27 on: October 19, 2020, 09:39:59 am »
Ritual of a bygone era:  I started kindergarten in 1960. My parents had 5 kids. For weeks before school started, they would double down on stockpiling brown paper grocery bags. The first evening after textbooks were distributed on the first day, we’d clear the dinner table & the book cover production line would start. My parents wielded the scissors, cutting rectangles out of all those grocery bags. The rest of us would fold those rectangles around the books, making sure to make deep pockets for them to slide in. Most of the time, these brown paper bag book covers lasted all year. Back then, there wasn’t such a thing as a store-bought book cover, and later on, only a few had these.
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Wanaca

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #28 on: October 19, 2020, 09:58:02 am »
I remember the book covers.  I stared school in 1970.  First I had the brown paper bags.  Then I wanted the new fancy covers.  I hated the store-bought covers!  They were waxy and I couldn't draw on them.  Part of the fun of the brown paper was that I could draw and decorate my books any way I wanted.  I went back to the paper for the rest of my school years.  And yes, they lasted me all year too.  It was cool at the end of the year to see all of my doodles and drawings---and the various hearts with initials that were crossed out.
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jpcher

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Re: Back to School: The 70s vs. Today
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2020, 02:14:18 pm »
Oh, my, Gardensgrey! That brings back such memories! ;D

Doodling on the covers was a must! ;D
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