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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   3617 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 10, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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This might be the first time I’ve heard writing lines described as “pressure to see improvement.” I always thought it was strictly disciplinary.

Going down your list, in the 2000s, I…

  • used such swivel/fixed desks, sometimes in rows, sometimes clustered into 4s.
  • was not particularly aware of posture.
  • did all class work handwritten. Most homework, too, though reports and essays were typeset as I got older.
  • had plenty of math homework, copying from the book. Class was usually lecture and worked examples.
  • read aloud for prose, poetry, and plays.
  • definitely, vividly, memorized and was (timed!) tested for multiplication tables.
  • had no idea who Brighty was; the earliest assigned book I can recall was about Sitting Bull.
  • was not visited by any famous authors. Though Charles Townes did stop by, once…
  • did not, as far as I recall, have work-like activities such as the cafeteria.

In addition, I…

  • had to learn the recorder starting in 3rd grade, and a real instrument in 4th or 5th, continuing through high school. Actually, in 2nd grade there were melodicas, but I’m not sure I wasn’t just hallucinating. I’ve never seen one since.
  • was taught extensive state history/geography from a textbook which contained the legendary barbecue regions map.
  • was required to participate in the elementary school production of Macbeth.
  • experienced various introductions to sports and “presidential” fitness testing.
  • learned Spanish starting in 5th or 6th grade.
  • was disciplined mostly by being kept in during recess, or occasionally assigned extra work.
  • had a battery of standardized tests once or twice a year.

Make of this what you will. I do think there has been a transition away from strict line-writing and penmanship; this is probably appropriate, judging by the amount of handwriting I’ve had to do since leaving grad school. Reading and ‘rithmetic don’t seem to have changed as much.

There may also be reduced discipline. Or, at least, it’s shifted away from repetitive punishments and more towards “make up work” or additional projects. The higher disciplinary system of detention/suspension/expulsion is still, I am told, in full force; it was most famously applied as Zero Tolerance, but I think that’s been dialed back.

Of course, I went to some weird schools, but I don’t think my experience is too unfamiliar to yours. Or to your kids. The parts we remember, years down the road, are skewed and blurry. I have a feeling that your kids will be left with similar impressions once they’re out in the world.

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