"Grade School Daze" in the 60's...........

Blackboards (with REAL chalk!)

Bookbags

Your Mom cutting out new book covers from brown wrapping paper

Mimeographed sheets (LOVED the smell when they were "hot off the press"!)

Watching educational shows on WNET (Newark, NJ)

Tin lunch boxes (tv shows, cartoon characters, etc.)

Phonics

Penmanship (I was never that great with this one!)

Art (LOT'S of fun!)

Music (I was no aspiring young Frank Sinatra, but I still enjoyed the tunes we learned!)

(remember pitch pipes?)

History (NON-politically correct, then!).....loved it!

Science (LOVED this, also!)

Reading (another fave, being a bookworm!)

Construction paper projects with white library paste/Elmer's Glue-All

Learning songs to records (some 78's!)

Hand bell on teacher's (or Sister's) desk

Santa visiting each class at Christmas, with boxes of Christmas candy for all.

Air raid drills ("Duck and Cover")

Fire drills

Field trips by bus (funny, we never visited ONE field!)

 

BEST thing about attending grade school (or ANY school) back in the "olden days"------our parents KNEW we were SAFE-----NO thoughts of innocent children and teachers being gunned down in their own schools------how blessedly SAFE (and innocent) we were--------that wonderful feeling of absolute safety-sadly-we all took for granted-----------

 

It’s not an accident that that’s the way it is now. Years of effort by the NRA, gun companies and right wing gun nuts have had their predictable effect. Shame.

 

Yeah, except it wasn't safe. Not for every student. Children are cruel, and teacher did not immediately intervene when there was some sort of fight. They would stand back and watch to see who won. The winner would be punished an the loser would go to the nurse to away their parents to come pick them up. I have to wonder if @GrayGuy57 had ever been bullied for his family's religion, or the glasses he wore, or the tremors he suffered when physically assaulted.

While there may not have been mass shootings, or predators on campus, the faculty, at some schools, took great pleasure in watching students torment each other. The answer to why they didn't step in and separate the combatants was always, "We could have gotten injured trying to pull them apart."

 

"Bullying" sadly-was-and-always will be a "fact of life" in our schools; kids on the internet these days are indeed not safe either-look at all of the online bullying and threatening that goes on----to the point where there are persecuted kids who look to sucide as their only escape---------beyond tragic-----

 

I always stayed behind after the science class and still remember the time when the teacher asked me what I was doing. I still remember the look on his face, when I casually replied, Designing and building a detonator for the bomb that I made yesterday evening.
The funny part was when we took it all over to the common for a test and the local policeman arrived on his bike. He spent an hour telling me about his experiences during WW2 as a bomb disposal engineer.

How things have changed over the years. They now have safety rules about everything, but none about not sticking knives in each other. LOL

 

Unfortunately, the numbers from then and now aren't all that different. The main difference is instant communication. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. it all gets recorded and viewed, so naturally people think the incidence of these things is on the rise. But when the only telephone is in the principal's office and students aren't allowed to use it. Bullying and abuse go unreported. That's the major difference between then and now.

 

NO ONE-------------REGARDLESS of being a CHILD or an ADULT should experience bullying-teasing-being harassed-taunted------------it's all so cruel and sad---------and can often lead to serious consequences if prolonged--------------

 

Breathe

 

.

 

I'm still dealing with the consequences of being bullied when I was in school.

 

Catholic grade school in the 60's..............

May crownings

"Vocation day" (this was when visiting nuns and priests would extol the joys of religious life)

Mimeographed sheets (ahhhh, I LOVED the smell of the fresh ink!)

Learning "Domanique" ("The Singing Nun") by listening to the record while reading the printed lyrics

Art and music lessons on Thursdays and Fridays

"My Weekly Messenger" being distrubed to the classes on Friday afternoons

Science projects (tin foil, batteries, Erector sets, baking-soda volcanoes made of modeling clay!)

Air raid drills ("duck and cover"!) Remember, the "Cold War" threat was still with us

The little bell on Sister's desk which she'd ring to get the class' attention

Window poles

Lunch money envelopes

"Adopting" pagan babies

Washing the blackboards for Sister

Watching educational programs on WNET (Newark) on the huge PHILCO television on a moveable counter, in the front of the classroom

"Fun With Dick And Jane" readers

Saving pocket change "to give to the missions"

Ahhhh, it's all so long ago, now..................

 

The effects of bullying never leave those who were victims; believe me, I know.......

 

I didn't go to grade school in the 60s, but back in the 80s we had...let's see

• Dittos, which I think were the same mimeograph copies the OP mentioned. Purple print, and--yes!--that smell...
• Compiling all the change we could find with the other neighborhood kids. We'd all scrounge together like a $1.50 and ride our bikes to the corner store for as much candy as we could afford
  
• Getting into trouble with my friend Harmony. She was the cool, older girl on the block
• OMG Field day! Near the last day of school we just had an all day outdoor gym class with everything from water balloon fights to playing with that big parachute
• Trading lunches. It was always good to find and befriend the kid who was actually into vanilla pudding. I could trade for chocolate and butterscotch all year
• The text books for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd grade were all workbooks you could write in. I remember getting my first real text book in 4th grade and feeling like I was on top of the world
• A/V carts! Anytime the teacher wheeled in the cart with the TV and VCR, you knew it was going to be a chill day
• Clapping blackboard erasers
• The smell of pencil shavings when, after the teacher had finished outlining an assignment, the whole class would line up at the mechanical pencil sharpener
• Counting off, "1,2,3...get off my old man's apple tree" when in line at the water fountain
• Going to the bathroom because you were simply bored
• Playing the recorder in music class and thinking I was goddamn Lizzo. This was years before Lizzo became the world's coolest flautist, but still... Jethro Tull, okay. I felt like Jethro freakin' Tull
• And, despite never being much of a gamer, I used to rush home from school to catch The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros cartoons

 

Bullying: It happened sometimes when I was in grammar school. When I saw it , I put a stop to it. Period.