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

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[quote=Anonymous]Class of '88. FCPS.

My classmates saw some failed educational experiments; open classrooms AKA pods that were trendy in the late 70s, early 80s, then a scramble to add temporary walls and then later, classrooms.

We had textbooks and workbooks and (I'm old) dittos. We checked out books from the school library to help with our school projects. I learned to use encyclopedias and reference books in second grade.

Spelling tests! Vocabulary tests! Current events drills! Pull down maps in classrooms. Handwriting - printing and cursive. Neatness counted. Flash cards. Math facts. Spelling bees (3x champ here). The Presidential Fitness Award.

Field day was a mini Olympics with (gasp!) 1st/2nd/3rd place ribbons and a winners' stand. It would then be class vs. class.

Student Government and elections. You really did run for office and created a platform and really could get involved.

On the last day of school, our teacher would give us a huge stack of spelling lists, handwriting worksheets, math facts...to take home and work on over the summer. Or, for kids like me, use these to play school.

I had both a visually impaired and a hearing impaired classmate. "Gifted and talented" students were pulled out to meet in one classroom for more challenging work, then they came back to their regular class.

Attended school with some recent immigrants, but they all spoke English, albeit some had accents.

There was a level of formality and professional distance with our teachers. They were mostly mysterious, but each seemed to build class camaraderie. Your class was your unit, your world, dysfunction and cliques and all.

Mostly, our parents stood at a distance and didn't get (hyper) involved. My dad was our ES PTA president and so meetings were at night.

Parents were peripheral. They weren't walking us (or driving us...unthinkable) to school, or meeting us on our walk home. 
My mom wrote notes to my teacher if there was a concern. Parents didn't chaperone in-school events, either.

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