What were we doing right, education-wise, in the 80s and 90s?

[Anonymous]

Parents were not overly involved. They did not help with homework or complete their kids’ projects. Schoolwork was age-appropriate so that parents didn’t need to assist.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we watched a ton of tv but also had very few structured activities and more playtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a literacy teacher I am almost scared to respond but here goes. The problem is that fun and creativity are now valued over mastery of basic skills like phonics and handwriting. Kids in my school were encouraged to write for the sake of writing and what they wrote was not corrected but proudly displayed. Advanced concepts were taught to kids who, in some cases, could not write their own names correctly or read what they had written. I could go on and on...

Were you teaching in the time period we're talking about? Because we are talking about a generation of kids who went to school at the height of the whole language movement. I don't know why these numbers have gone down, but it wasn't because everyone was learning phonics back then. I taught in a private school at that time, but my friends in public schools talked about having to hide their phonics books in their bags because God forbid the principal saw them! The pendulum has definitely swung back to the center on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this has to do with stagnating wages and rising costs. Parents are less available to read to their kids.

This.

Consider that there are parents who are illiterate in their native language.

Teacher here. We’ve experienced how widespread this is this past week. Many parents can’t read in Spanish and if they have a young child, he/she can’t read yet. So nothing can be given in written form. The district work is written in 2 languages but it doesn’t matter. Normally this isn’t an issue but it is now.

[Anonymous]

Kids could fail. There were consequences for disruptive behavior. Mom and Dad didn't rip a strip off the teacher when their kid was in trouble or earned a crummy grade.

Phonics was more effective for teaching reading.

Kids had time to do homework - and it was useful. Kids didn't have 4 different activities every week.

I think that overall, there were higher expectations.

[Anonymous]

We had a large middle class and robust government support for public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents were not overly involved. They did not help with homework or complete their kids’ projects. Schoolwork was age-appropriate so that parents didn’t need to assist.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we watched a ton of tv but also had very few structured activities and more playtime.

We were expected to entertain ourselves. Which meant we had to think.

I don't remember people missing school to go on holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, schools don't teach children grammar or how to spell anymore. Those things are FUNDAMENTAL and I don't know how they don't realize it. My husband teaches college students and says they are the worst writers he's ever encountered, and the laziest students (don't want to read their assignments). The young people that I work with are also very poor writers with poor research skills. It's an entire generation lost.

I agree with this. Memorization should still have a place in the school for things like multiplication tables and spelling. My kids go to FCPS and they can't spell at all. It's one of the things we're focusing on now in our homeschooling.

This. Both PPs are correct in their observations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess what, lactivist cows? More of these kids were raised on formula that any other generation and *gasp* they ended up literate!

Yep. And the formula we were fed wasn’t much better than Carnation milk!

So the kids before the 80s were fed on that carnation milk and sugar thing. I read something about it being correlated to the diabetes that exploded with Baby Boomers. Obviously formula isn't like that now though.

[Anonymous]

Tracking was ok

Phonics and handwriting were taught

Disruptive kids were put in separate classrooms

ADHD was not considered a special need

[Anonymous]

I entered elementary school in 1993 and went to a very old-fashioned private school. Strict discipline, cursive, no electronics period, etc. And no standardized tests! It was like 1975. We had plenty of dittos, too (some of you have to know what those are).

Maybe the biggest change since then was parental involvement. My parents were hands-off; they trusted the school to make the right day-to-day decisions. My mom would ask me if I had homework, but never went over it with me; it was up to be to get it done or to fail. And late homework? No credit from the teacher, and life moved on. My parents always backed up the teachers and didn't give any weight to my various "she's so mean" complaints.

Looking back, I think the teachers in my era believed that they weren't there to make me feel special; they believed they were there to help me learn. I think parents today have more expectations of coddling and nurturing which ultimately sets up a child for very unrealistic expectations of the harsh world that is ahead for them.

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest change is that there used to be consequences, and the parents used to be supportive of teachers rather than antagonistic.

It seems like nowadays, when kids have very disruptive behavior, they end up getting a slap on the wrist from the principal, or their parents shop for an IEP. Neither schools nor parents punish for poor behavior. Likewise, when kids didn't do assignments or study for tests, and then did poorly, they got bad grades. They didn't get retakes or B+/A- grades for poor work. Parents weren't going to swoop in and rescue kids from their bad decisions or poor work ethic.

My mom taught from around 1970 - 2010. In the earlier stages of her career, she could give out failing grades, and the parents were more mad at their kids for not doing their homework than they were at my mom. Toward the end, the failing kids got B- grades due to grade inflation, and the parents would yell at my mom that their kid, who didn't turn in any homework or study for any of the tests, still deserved an A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this has to do with stagnating wages and rising costs. Parents are less available to read to their kids.

This.

Consider that there are parents who are illiterate in their native language.

Teacher here. We’ve experienced how widespread this is this past week. Many parents can’t read in Spanish and if they have a young child, he/she can’t read yet. So nothing can be given in written form. The district work is written in 2 languages but it doesn’t matter. Normally this isn’t an issue but it is now.

A friend of mine works for an extremely diverse school in Los Angeles Unified School District. They have materials in multiple languages, and they run into the same issue with almost every language.

[Anonymous]

Fewer ESL students
Lower % of children were poor
Homework and the expectation it would be done / corrected / reviewed
Red pens - stuff needs corrected for kids to know what is wrong!
Drilling of items that need memorized
No retests - you had to study or face the consequences
Different approach to discipline and disabilities were not an acceptable reason for unacceptable behavior.
Tracking

[Anonymous]

Look at the NASTY WOHM/SAHM mom and NANNY/DAYCARE and PRESCHOOL/DAYCARE threads here. It's because EVERYONE is so involved in this idea of "what's best" for kids.

By the 80s there were both WOHMs and SAHMs in my neighborhood and kids in all kinds of childcare arrangements under the sun in my town but there was never that level of judgment because people generally weren't obsessed with this idea of what was "best" for kids--as long as their kids were happy in their arrangement, it was all good. It's related to how parents generally stayed out of the classroom, absent red flags.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in DCPS. One of the good things about distance learning is that as a parent, I am getting to see exactly what is supposed to be covered in the class through the packets. I was really surprised to see very detailed lessons in social studies, science, and literacy. I am making my child do all of the packet work, checking his work and his spelling, really making him think through his writing the way the packet suggests he should do.

The point being, at least in DCPS, the curriculum is there. I think the issue is that teachers have to deal with so many behavioral problems in the class that they can't really teach. So a kid like mine, very bright but willing to get away with doing the bare minimum, is not being pushed to do the critical thinking he really should be doing. He is doing is now that I am teaching him one on one, but obviously that won't go on forever.

My thought is to teach him how to think through all of these different writing assignments now, with the hope that when he returns to class, he'll remember the approaches I have given him.