My education doesn’t actually stretch back to a sod building or a one-room schoolhouse but it seems long ago. Here are a few random memories of my Elementary School Days:
- It was a privilege to smack the chalkboard erasers after school. The long ones made a lot more noise than the small black ones. I wonder now if we got tricked by the teacher into this…
- The pencil sharpeners rarely sharpened evenly around the pencil and can’t you smell the wood shavings and lead we had to dump into the garbage?
- My 2nd grade teacher told us not to get wet at recess or we’d have to put on a dress. We, of course, did get wet and I did have to put on a dress until my pants dried. Wonder how much someone would sue the teacher for if that happened today? It did cure any desire of mine to wear women’s clothes – ever.
- Making looping circles in handwriting class made me dizzy and didn’t improve my handwriting. The only time I got a grade above a C was when one teacher said left-handers just can’t write as well and gave me a B. Don’t think that’s true, but hey I got a B!
- There were holes in the bottom of our lift-top desks. Great for desk cleaning day.
- New crayons were awesome.
- Our playground was just a big field. My brother got hit in the face with a softball bat while playing soccer. He had quite the black eye – which led to our nickname – Craiglieye.
- Remember filmstrips – where the teacher or student typically had to read the text? Later came the 16mm film projectors with a long, winding, confusing track that the film had to run. The holes on the edge fed the film and after repeated use they became frayed and the picture/sound would jump.
- “Go you chicken fat go” was used in P.E. classes. Found out that was President Kennedy’s youth initiative that was given to schools. Us chubby people hated that song.