I grew up in a warm area in the south and we had exactly one (very light) snowfall, which resulted in an extremely violent snowball fight because it was really just chunks of dirt and rocks being thrown since there wasn't enough snow.

Also I remember that there was a brief period when the game Red Rover was popular and I was pretty sure some kids got broken arms from it.

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.

Anonymous wrote:I remember everything - it’s a blessing and a curse.

FCPS ‘76 - I was in second grade and that whole year was all about The Bicentennial - even our school pictures were with a 1776 flag as a background. I did my very first “research paper” on Uncle Sam using the library materials and thus began my fascination and interest in research! I missed the Hawaii unit because I was out for an entire week with chickenpox - got it from my little sister. Her private kindergarten closed for a week because nearly all 12 students were out sick.

What else do you want to know?

Wow you old as dirt

Sure. We used to sing-song "Chinese, Japanese, look at those, dirty knees." We weren't singing this at Asian people OR people with dirty knees. It was like saying the pledge of allegiance - the words meant absolutely nothing to us. We also used to pick the most hated kid, and one other kid would bravely go up to the hated kid and quickly touch them and then run around chasing people and "wiping" that touch on them while shouting "Chris-touch!" You were only safe if you crossed your fingers before you got touched.

I remember everything - it’s a blessing and a curse.

FCPS ‘76 - I was in second grade and that whole year was all about The Bicentennial - even our school pictures were with a 1776 flag as a background. I did my very first “research paper” on Uncle Sam using the library materials and thus began my fascination and interest in research! I missed the Hawaii unit because I was out for an entire week with chickenpox - got it from my little sister. Her private kindergarten closed for a week because nearly all 12 students were out sick.

What else do you want to know?

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.

I have memories like these, but more 5th and 6th grade which I think is middle school?
It was the early 80s. Vicious times.

In some ways I think things were better then, and some ways they are better now. Like they definitely don’t read whole chapter books in elementary now. Even slowly as a class in read-alouds. We read Charlotte’s Web as a class in 2nd or 3rd. Now they only read the short little “texts” to prepare them for the standardized tests and that’s about it. But I think there was just as much bullying back then as there is now. Much more of a focus on conformity. The boys in my class harassed me for trying to get a book about Jackie Robinson from the school library and when I told the teacher about it, she said maybe I’d rather read a book about something else instead and to save that one for the boys. I feel like that wouldn’t fly today!

In elementary school I remember jumping rope with my very best friend. She held one handle and I held the other and we went together. I remember being on a majorette team and I had the tiniest baton they had ever ordered. We were in a parade, had huge pom poms on our shoes and there was so. much. dropping of batons.

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.

I have memories like these, but more 5th and 6th grade which I think is middle school?
It was the early 80s. Vicious times.

I distinctly remember climbing up on top of the stalls in the bathroom and sitting up there talking. Can’t remember if I ever got caught.

Anonymous wrote:I remember inventing a genius new tactic for playground basketball that in retrospect was just setting moving screens on every play.

I remember learning how to set screens in basketball and feeling like it was magic. Like you just set a screen and then your team is free to score? Amazing. Discovering sports had strategy like that was really exciting and started my lifelong love of sports.

I remember daycare days.

I remember inventing a genius new tactic for playground basketball that in retrospect was just setting moving screens on every play.

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.

I remember face-offs on the playground between rival friend groups with many very inappropriate words exchanged and some physical altercations to.

I remember we used to play "whip it" on the field during recess where a bunch of kids link hands and then the leader runs around with the goal of "whipping" the kids on the other end of the chain until they fall off. I also remember this particular game being banned.

I remember lots of talk of kids "dating" and planned "dates" during recess where people would have their "first kiss." Kids would stand in the middle of a group and kiss each other while everyone went "ooooooooh" and laughed at them.

I also remember an incident where a girl I was friends with (her name was Jessica) was invited to "date" a very popular boy in class by meeting near the slide during recess. She showed up with a group of us in tow, and the boy was there with a big group of the popular kids, including the most popular girl in class (whose name was also Jessica). The boy stood next to my friend and put his arm around her. And then he swept his foot behind her and under her so that she fell down, and the popular Jessica led a chant to taunt my friend Jessica about what a loser she was for thinking that she could "date" the popular boy.

So many random memories like this. I also assume I learned to read and write and do math because I wound up quite bookish in high school and went to law school and have a family serious job now. But my memories of elementary school are almost entirely about romantic soap operas and mild to moderate violence.

Just reflecting on some of the posts in here about roasting, bullies etc and it's making me reflect back on my elementary school days and all the shenanigans I got up to.

I used to walk up to boys, punch them on the arm and run away as fast as I could. Those horrible "How can you tell if someone is Ethiopian" jokes were popular and kids were repeating those constantly. I started sneaking cigarettes in 5th grade!

Of course we were told not to do these things, but I feel like the powers that be understood that we weren't terrible kids... that we were learning how to be in the world and testing our boundaries.

What are your memories of elementary school? What were some "bad" things that your friends / class got up to?