Response to Mmyx3’s Post « One Fish’s Thoughts About the Ginormous Pond of Education
In short, the picture I have in my head of the 60s and the classroom in the 60s is much different from the world we live in today and classroom we teach in everyday.

I began school in the 1960’s, and it was very different from today.  The classroom was very traditional, seat all in rows. The teacher, a stern looking lady who had been teaching about 40 years by that time (wasn’t uncommon around here back then to teach 40-50 years) gave assignments and we worked quietly….talking would have earned you a few licks from her paddle!  She’d move from student to student helping as needed…there were no teachers aides in my school.  We had recess two times a day and were bused to a different location for lunch.  I left one hour each week to walk down the street…all by myself…. to the piano teacher’s little upstairs studio for my lesson….almost everyone in my class took piano lessons….hardly any kids do now days.

The most technological device I recall was the duplicating machine….we found the process of using a spirit master to make copies facinating.   Our classroom didn’t have a TV, but there was a radio.  Even the school’s bell was rung by hand by the secretary.

All in all, it was a simple time in my eyes….I was too young to know about the growing unrest on college campuses, the struggles for racial equality, and the possibilities of war soon to come….to me it was a very innocent time and I often wax sentimental for those days.