Do you remember being in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary school in a working class-lower middle class area in the early-mid 90s:

I grew up in an area that got a lot of snow in the winter, and we’d have to bring or wear boots in the winter, and bring snow pants to wear over our clothes for recess. We played on the snow mounds created by plowing the black top and the parking lots and they seemed huge at the time!

Kids were poorly behaved even then, but they were sent out of the classroom to the principal’s office and could get before or after school detention, or even weekend detention, starting in 2nd grade.

We read actual whole chapter books as a class and then had guided questions about them.

The “gifted program” took a bunch of kids from multiple schools and threw them together in a room once a week (for almost a full day, if it wasn’t your assigned school the bus would take you there after dropping you at your assigned school in the morning) for various “exciting” extension activities like extra math worksheets and film strips about art.

Most of the teachers were older and counting down the years until retirement. There was very little teacher turnover, for better or for worse.

We had close to ZERO teacher turnover in our school, too. Same as your district--mostly older teachers, none in their 20s, and many teachers who had grown up in our town.

I assumed I was misremembering or I thought everyone was old because I was a little kid. Then I found my old yearbooks and nope. I didn’t have a teacher around my parents’ age (I’d guess late 30s to early 40s) until I was in 5th grade. I didn’t have a new teacher in her mid 20s until high school!

[Anonymous]

Riding my bike to school. Friday afternoons at the neighborhood ice cream shop where every kid in the area showed up after school. Beating the boys at arm wrestling. I was super small for my age but also a competitive gymnast. They never saw me coming.

[Anonymous]

I moved from TX to the Midwest in 3rd grade and as a newcomer was horribly bullied, including beat up, many times. F--- those kids.

[Anonymous]

I had any issue with a mean girl in 5th grade, but all in all, my elementary experience was really good. I could have used another yeae, 6th grade in middle school didn't make sense to me. Most districts around me end in 4th , which is weird imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elementary school in a working class-lower middle class area in the early-mid 90s:

I grew up in an area that got a lot of snow in the winter, and we’d have to bring or wear boots in the winter, and bring snow pants to wear over our clothes for recess. We played on the snow mounds created by plowing the black top and the parking lots and they seemed huge at the time!

Kids were poorly behaved even then, but they were sent out of the classroom to the principal’s office and could get before or after school detention, or even weekend detention, starting in 2nd grade.

We read actual whole chapter books as a class and then had guided questions about them.

The “gifted program” took a bunch of kids from multiple schools and threw them together in a room once a week (for almost a full day, if it wasn’t your assigned school the bus would take you there after dropping you at your assigned school in the morning) for various “exciting” extension activities like extra math worksheets and film strips about art.

Most of the teachers were older and counting down the years until retirement. There was very little teacher turnover, for better or for worse.

We had close to ZERO teacher turnover in our school, too. Same as your district--mostly older teachers, none in their 20s, and many teachers who had grown up in our town.

I assumed I was misremembering or I thought everyone was old because I was a little kid. Then I found my old yearbooks and nope. I didn’t have a teacher around my parents’ age (I’d guess late 30s to early 40s) until I was in 5th grade. I didn’t have a new teacher in her mid 20s until high school!

I believe it. All of my elementary and middle school teachers were in their 40s and up.

[Anonymous]

My experience was exactly the opposite. My teachers until fifth grade were all basically fresh out of college. In fifth grade they departmentalized and we had one older teacher and one in her first year. All together, I think I had three teachers in their first year of teaching.

[Anonymous]

We were bad little kids honestly. Adults were SO much less involved in our activities, conversations, social lives, whereabouts. We largely existed as a society of children just figuring it out as we went. Imagine any of our parents emailing a teacher about some conflict we had with a peer: would’ve never happened. I do have lots of memories of this time , mostly good ones even though it was very very different than the elementary world of my kids.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I remember all the kids sitting on the floor in the school library to watch the Challenger launch. And then the teachers pushing the TV cart out and the guidance counselor come running in. The next day, all the outer space theme decor was gone and we learned about the Middle Ages for a few weeks instead.

I grew up in a town that was very proud of its cheese factory. The cheese is very popular and well-known to this day. In marching band the twirlers did not know that they were supposed to catch the batons. They just threw them up and retrieved them from where they fell. The twirlers and the band would march through town in the 4th of July parade, and whole herds of dairy cows would march too, so you had to try and keep in time while side-stepping the cow pies.

[Anonymous]

I burned my name into the back of the elementary school with a magnifying glass and sunlight, and I often wonder whether it's still there.

[Anonymous]

I remember pushing a girls from my class on the swings so that she would give me a picture of Johnny Depp from Teen Beat.

Voting for Dukakis in our class mock election and being the only one.

[Anonymous]

I remember once a year, the mostly checked-out gym teacher would hang the super thick, waxed, climbing rope from the rafters with only one thin mat for safety underneath.

And then would provide absolutely no guidance on how to climb the rope (i.e., bringing your feet together to push while you pulled with your upper body), but instead laughed as he gave student after student a failing grade for the day. Jerk.

[Anonymous]

I remember trying to climb the ropes in gym class. I was terrible at it..like could not get passed the first knot. Mrs Washburn was not pleased

[Anonymous]

Pom pom sales and candy sales to raise money.
Candy in school store.
Fried cats eye marbles to trade.
Rabbits foot key chains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember trying to climb the ropes in gym class. I was terrible at it..like could not get passed the first knot. Mrs Washburn was not pleased

I remember climbing the rope in elementary gym class. I was pretty small and apparently strong enough to make it all the way to the top and ring the cowbell. I was usually the only girl in the class with a couple of boys.

[Anonymous]

Lots of “I’m rubber, your glue” chanting