When most adults hear the word school, the first thought they probably have is their high school years. I asked my mom what she thought of school. When she was a student, and got the response, “In my high school years I felt like I was being forced to go to prison and work off some weird debts I owed to society”.She graduated in 2006. She hated her classes but did well in school. When she was in 10th grade, she helped tutor 12th graders If she could’ve changed anything, it would be that classes need to be more engaging, not book, book, book, the reason I want to compare old school and new school classroom and teaching differences is to maybe open people’s eyes about how far we’ve come as people and how much has changed or maybe to clear things up for other people to give them insight on today’s schooling.
But if we go back to the 1970s, things were different, I interviewed a local from Stevens Point, WI, who has lived in Wisconsin almost all his life. I asked him about his high school life and reviewed a few things with him. Joe is 60 years old and graduated in 1974 During his high school years, there wasn’t as much technology, everybody was more social, and school was your life. When we compared today’s generation to his, he said, “I think it’s harder for kids in school now there’s a lot more work to do. I graduated in 1974. Our generation, I think, had easier lectures, basic homework, and tests and didn’t have to do much.”.But when I asked the same question to a student at SPASH, he said, “I think there are too many tests and not enough time to understand it in some of my classes”.
All times have common problems just like in Joe’s high school years drugs were a common problem. Just like today when I asked Joe about that topic he said “Drugs were a main problem, but at 18 I could drink alcohol, and more than half of the year I could drink because my birthday was in October” We still face the problem and there are still similarities between now and than with how drugs and alcohol are still used in school.
Back then classrooms looked somewhat the same and didn’t change much but if we go back a little further into the mid-19th century schools and the ways of teaching were much more different for example in an article by Nati Vega he discusses the physical changes in the environment in a quote ”The physical environment of classrooms has evolved from traditional settings to dynamic and engaging learning spaces that foster collaboration and creativity.” The physical change of the environment can help students learn easier and make them feel more included. The article focuses on how relationships between teachers and students have changed into a more positive way.
To go into more detail with this topic I went back to the early 19th century in an interview with Ruby Peterson who is 92 years old and had a discussion with her about how her school years were when she was a kid/teen. During the winter time they wouldn’t walk but instead, she says “We always walk but not in today’s weather during the winter farmers had horses and sleds and would pick kids up” during the winter. When asked about the school rooms Ruby responded “it was very cozy there were a lot of kids in one room and usually one female teacher”, schools used to be one room with eight grades in the same room there were no buses to get kids to school just kids and their legs walking a few miles each day to get from and to school. During school teachers would call them to the front and correct them if they did anything wrong after that they would have lunch/recess or as they called it “nooning” They weren’t provided with food they had what they brought from their home during the winter kids and teachers would bring a potato and put it on top of the furnace and have baked potatoes for lunch.
Things could have been different and better back then, but even in today’s schooling process, some people think there are major flaws in the system, while others think that it’s perfect, but we can’t fix everything, we all have to agree first.
