SCHOOL DAYS–THEN AND NOW–BY CHERYL PIERSON

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I have always loved going to school. Even now, when I walk into WalMart or Target and the school supplies are displayed (in JULY!) I have to stop and look at them. My husband laughs at me, but I just keep on picking up post-it notes and pencils, thinking “I will need these at some point…”

Growing up in the 60’s, our school supply lists were not long at all in elementary school. A “Big Chief” tablet, one of those HUGE pencils, paste in a jar (with a brush built into the lid!), a box of crayons, and a pair of “school scissors” and a wooden ruler. That was it. By the time my kids started school in the 90’s—all that had changed. After shopping for school supplies for only two children, I wondered how families with several kids could afford for them to even go to school—and that wasn’t counting back-to-school clothing.

 

 

 

ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE IN BLANCHARD, OK, 1910

BLOG ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE IN BLANCHARD-1910

My mom spoke of her school days just shortly after Indian Territory became the state of Oklahoma. That happened in 1907. She was born in 1922, and started school when she was only 5. She attended a one-room school house in Albany, a very small southeastern Oklahoma town. With the Depression on the way, and the Dust Bowl days looming, she spoke of the poverty of everyone she knew. She was the eldest of eleven children. Food was scarce. School supplies were almost nonexistent. I imagine that was why she took such pleasure in buying Big Chief tablets and crayons for me.

 

 

SEQUOYAH ORPHANS TRAINING SCHOOL, 1920 (near Tahlequah, OK, Cherokee Capital)

BLOG-SEQUOYAH ORPHANS TRAINING SCHOOL (Tahlequah) 1920

Education is so important. Thinking back, I’ve included it in many of the stories I’ve written, and I always love to see it included in the stories I read, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young boys pose during recess. This picture was taken at Newcastle, Oklahoma, in 1914.

BLOG-Boys at school in Newcastle-1914

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is interesting. It’s the exam that students had to pass in order to graduate from 8th grade. This one came from Salina, Kansas, and is dated 1895. Students could take the exam in 7th grade and if they didn’t pass, could have another chance in 8th grade to re-take it. I don’t think I could pass this even now! Take a look!

EXAMINATION GRADUATION QUESTIONS OF SALINA COUNTY, KANSAS April 13, 1895 J.W. Armstrong, County Superintendent.

Examinations at Salina, New Cambria, Gypsum City, Assaria, Falun, Bavaria, and District No. 74 (in Glendale Twp.)

Reading and Penmanship. – The Examination will be oral, and the Penmanship of Applicants will be graded from the manuscripts

Grammar (Time, one hour)

  1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
  2. 2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
  3. 3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
  4. 4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
  5. 5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
  6. 6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
  7. 7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

  1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
  2. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
  3. 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts. per bu, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
  4. 4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
  5. 5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
  6. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
  7. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $.20 per inch?
  8. 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
  9. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
  10. 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

  1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
  2. 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
  3. 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
  4. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
  5. 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
  6. 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
  7. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
  8. 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?

Orthography (Time, one hour)

  1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
  2. 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
  3. 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
  4. 4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u’.
  5. 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e’. Name two exceptions under each rule.
  6. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
  7. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
  8. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
  9. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
  10. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

  1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
  2.  How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
  3. 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
  4. 4. Describe the mountains of N.A.
  5. 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
  6. 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
  7. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
  8. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
  9. 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
  10. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

Health (Time, 45 minutes)

  1. Where are the saliva, gastric juice, and bile secreted? What is the use of each in digestion?
  2. 2. How does nutrition reach the circulation?
  3. 3. What is the function of the liver? Of the kidneys?
  4. 4. How would you stop the flow of blood from an artery in the case of laceration?
  5. 5. Give some general directions that you think would be beneficial to preserve the human body in a state of health.

Incidentally, during these times, school only lasted 7 months, from October 1 to April 1. This allowed time for planting, farming, and harvest.

What about your “school days” memories? Were you a student who looked forward to school, or hated it? Do you have a favorite story of those by-gone times to share?

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A native Oklahoman, I've been influenced by the west all my life. I love to write short stories and novels in the historical western and western romance genres, as well as contemporary romantic suspense! Check my Amazon author page to see my work: http://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
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44 thoughts on “SCHOOL DAYS–THEN AND NOW–BY CHERYL PIERSON”

  1. Wow! They certainly expected more of Grade 7’s in 1895 than they do now! School wasn’t my favourite place but I remember being so proud of the fact that we began to learn Latin in Grade 7 ‘like the big kids!’ I studied it for the next five years and yet now, no one learns seems to learn it at school.

    • I remember how we got to watch old portable black and white TVs when certain events happened. Space launches and returns for the earliest ones in the Mercury program.
      I also remember the chalkboard at the back was made of doors that all opened when the main door knob was to reveal tge coat closet.

    • Hi Jeannette! Both my older sisters got to learn Latin in school, but by the time I got there (10 years later, and a different school system) they were no longer teaching it–only French and Spanish and darn lucky to have those. I took both of those and enjoyed the comparison of the languages. It’s a shame they stopped teaching it–it’s the root of so many of our words in so many fields!

  3. I think I looked forward to school just because I always got a new pair of shoes. I don’t know why I looked forward to the new shoes though because I much preferred to go barefoot!

    • HA! Rhonda, we are kindred spirits. Well, I hated getting new shoes back then because I had to wear corrective shoes since I had a “flat arch” and these shoes were supposed to help build the arches and their support for your back. They always looked like black and white saddle oxfords (and of course those had been out of style a few years already). In the summer I went barefoot or wore those rubber flip flops all around. I love to go barefoot!

  4. Wow. This was interesting Cheryl! I think I find school more interesting in the past. We seem to take it for granted today. I enjoyed school. But never the first day or the first week. I think it was the jitters. And for almost 28 years I was still nervous on the first day! LOL And for a few weeks! Maybe not nervous, but the first few weeks of school is so hectic if you are in the school system! I was a school registrar for about 13 years, front desk for around 3 years and then I ended up as a bookkeeper for last 13 years when I retired. If you add that up and the time I spent in school and two years in college, I’ve spent over 43 years in school! I hope I’ve learned something! LOL

    • Well, definitely, it seems that more emphasis and respect was given to “schooling” back in the day! I could not pass this test at all. Of course, in all fairness, most of this is not even taught today.

      I worked in several colleges/universities in my adult life. I really loved that atmosphere. My dad taught high school for a while before I was ever born, in fact, before he and my mom married. You spent a LOT of time in school, for sure–I bet you loved your work!

  5. um yeah I too could not pass that test and been a farm kid all my life! The 640 rod is about 40 acres I think! The house we live in was a one room school house and the slat black board is still on the wall in my bedroom – the rest of the walls were painted black, as they couldn’t afford more slate! The 7 layers of wallpaper came rolling down the very hot summer of 1983 when my daughter was born 40 years ago and I got to see the black paint in our living room!

  6. Wow! They don’t teach a lot of that now, and if they do, it’s on a condensed schedule.

    I enjoyed school. School supplies were fun to get. But I came from a thrifty family and had to make a Trapper Keeper last several years.

    • Oh, yes! Those Trapper Keepers were THE THING. I remember getting my first one and how fantastic it was. Loved those! I always enjoyed school so much. Lived in a small town and of course we did things with the other kids in the summer, but it wasn’t the same as being at school every day. Luckily, my best friend moved right across the street from me in 2nd grade. We were so lucky!

  7. I’m with you, I wouldn’t be able to pass this exam!! I didn’t like school, I would have been much happier if homeschooling had been a thing when I was growing up! I did love History, though, and enjoyed that class.

    • I’m sure I couldn’t have passed that exam either! I also didn’t like school. Maybe homeschooling would have worked better for me, too. Like you said, if it had been a thing.

      • I don’t think I’d have done well with homeschooling. My dad found it hard to ‘come down’ to a lower level of learning to teach what he already knew so well. He was off the scale brilliant but it was almost beyond him to “scale down” and teach at a more elementary level. Especially math. OMGOSH. It was awful when he tried to help us with math homework. LOL

    • Trudy, I couldn’t pass this exam for anything. I loved school so much. It was close enough for me to walk–only about 2 1/2 blocks from my house. In fact, back then, a lot of kids walked home for lunch (we had an hour)–that would be unheard of today!

  8. I loved school. After graduating I wanted to back to school when my younger siblings started the next fall. I was the oldest so as our mother had to work and one of the little ones were sick, I stayed home from school to watch them. My mother would send a note to school telling them I was needed at home and the school always accepted her explanation, but don’t try that now. It’s not an acceptable excuse.

    • I always felt that way about school, too. Couldn’t wait for it to start and loved all the projects we did for the holidays as they came along, and the learning, the friendships, and oh…those yeast rolls in the cafeteria! LOL Yes, you are so right–no “needed at home” excused absences any longer. I know she had to be so relieved to have had your help.

  9. When I was younger, I eagerly looked forward to school starting. As I grew older, the summers seemed to pass faster, and I might not be ready to go back, but I never hated it either. I liked to learn.

    • Janice, I love to learn, too. I always was excited about almost all of my classes because it was something new. I think if I could have done it, I would have been a “professional student” for the rest of my life. LOL

  10. Well I can tell you right now I couldn’t pass their eight grade test to pass. As far as school went I could take it of leave it. I didn’t love it for sure.

    • It makes such a big difference about where you go to school, I think, too. The methods used to teach, the teachers themselves, and of course, the administration that oversees it all. It can make a person want to learn or make them just dread even walking through the doors.

  11. what an interesting post. I have always loved school. In elementary mom was given a very small list also. It wasnt until I was in high school in Illinois that the list became large and expensive.

    • You know, I don’t remember having a list when I went to school (back in the early-mid 60’s for elementary school). We just always bought the standard fare–paper, pencil, etc. I think we might have had one for first grade because we had to have a “Big Chief” tablet and one of those HUGE pencils. LOL

      Boy, by the time my kids came along, that had all changed. Those lists were getting longer and longer. By the time my daughter was in highschool in the early 2000’s, she had a teacher that required the students to buy a mini-tape recorder so she could just record comments on their tests instead of grading. I think she used it one time and decided that was not going to work. A huge waste of money for all us parents.

  12. I would take one look at that test and walk out! I loved school. I still do actually but I’m totally out now. Every once in a while I think it would be fun to take some online classes but I don’t. School supplies are the BEST!! I love pens. One of my friends said her love of school/office supplies started with the Scholastic book fairs. She’s not wrong, they have a lot of cool pens in them.

    • HOW NEAT! When we had our Scholastic Book Fairs, it was strictly books. No pens or anything. But as a writer, I LOVE PENS. AND NOTEBOOKS. I write all my stories in longhand and then enter them on the computer when I’m done. So pens and notebooks (and of course all other wonderful school supplies!) are still very dear to me.

  13. WOW! This was so fascinating to read. I know I wouldn’t have passed which makes me so sad. It is absolutely amazing what they were taught back in those days. Thank you so much for sharing.

    • Oh, Barbara, I would not have passed either! But you know, so much of this is not taught anymore, so we would not have known. I’m so glad you enjoyed this post. Thanks for stopping by today!

  14. Goodness! I knew that the quality of schooling has gone down, but the exam given here would be hard for a high school graduate to pass!
    I enjoyed learning but was bullied in school, so I did not like attending. I have been a voracious reader since 3rd grade when we moved to the USA and books were available, and I love learning about the why in science, but numbers have always frustrated me.

    • Oh, Ami, I’m so sorry about your schooldays bullying experience. My son had some of that happen to him in grade school, and even on into middle school. :(((( He still loves school and loves learning, and wants to go on and get another degree but not sure he’ll be able to do that while working fulltime. Reading is such a gift, isn’t it? It’s so important, and to think, there are people in the world who will brag, “I’ve never read one book from cover to cover.” SIGH. They don’t know what they’re missing.

  15. Since I am nearly 79 I remember bits and pieces with a little spelling, recess – playing softball at 2 different schools. The first game is very clear as I got hit in the nose when I was pitching, but a pretty fast ball, Boy, did that hurt! I had a fear of pitching from that time on. In spelling I recall I had misspelled the word ‘school’ and each time I spelled it again to the teacher I could say it correctly but, I somehow left out the ‘c’ when writing it. The last thing I recall about school was, after graduation as a senior I wished I was still in school. I guess I finally got to the point where I loved school. I know library was my favorite past time.

    • Judy, I love these memories of yours! We used to have spelling bees and there was one girl who beat me every time. She had an older sister and knew the tricks, like the “d” in Wednesday. LOL I remember she taught me how to write a “2” with a loop in the bottom of it. I thought I was so fancy. I had to move the summer just before my senior year. I hated that. I begged my parents to let me stay with someone and finish school there, but they would not hear of it. So, we left Oklahoma and moved to West Virginia where I went for my senior year and was totally miserable. LOL But I did meet my hubby there in college, so all was not lost. The library was my favorite place too!

  16. Thank you so much for this post, it is so very interesting, Thank you for sharing with us. And yes, I agree, I would have never passed it. One of my favorite things I love in Elementary school, was the day when we would get to read the Weekly Readers, I loved, loved the Weekly Readers. I also loved it on the days that our teacher would put a picture of the chalk board and asked us to write a story pertaining to the picture, that was so much fun, I would just let my imagination soar. One of my teachers would put a story book recored on a record player and she would let one of the students turn the page when the record would ding letting us know it was time to turn the page. Such great memories. Have a great week.

    • Oh, yes, Alicia! I LOVED those Weekly Readers! How we looked forward to those! I also had a teacher who would display pictures and have us write a story about them–that was in 7th grade. I LOVED her and I loved that class–(English, of course!) I had some of those storybook records. I think I still have them somewhere. I had a lot of the Walt Disney ones, and some of the cowboy ones. Hadn’t thought of those in YEARS.

  17. I enjoyed it most of the time, but there were also times I would like to forget. It was a mixed bag but it all came with the business of trying to grow up.

    • That’s so true, Connie. And if we knew then what we know now just think of the confidence and self-love we’d have inside us! I would love to have felt better in those ways and not have worried so much about what others thought at that point, but that’s the bane of a teenager’s existence.

  18. I enjoyed school. I was always someone who loved to read. I never was able to master Algebra and Geometry. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

    • Debra, I was always a big reader, too, and of course, even in elementary school I was writing my own little stories. My mom kept a lot of those and I have had such fun reading back over them as an adult. LOL I was pretty good in math up until middle school…then it all went south! LOL

  19. I was a good student but doubt I could pass this test. Part of the problem is much of it really isn’t taught anymore. So much has happened in the world since then what we concentrate on teaching has shifted.
    I loved school. My favorite was science with math second. I did not like history at all. That is mainly due to a really terrible teacher that embarrassed and ridiculed students in front of the class. Nearly everyone failed – I had a 40, but since we did well on the state tests nothing was done to curb his behavior. Luckily I had good history teachers my senior year in HS and college. One of my college history teachers said memorizing dates, names, and places taught you nothing. I couldn’t agree more. He said it was more important to know how history was researched to really learn it. It was an interesting an productive semester. By learning how history was written, we can better evaluate what we are told about what had happened and what is happening. Researching also exposes you to things you aren’t looking for and sends you on some wonderful side trips. My high school American History teacher also opened another door for me. Towards the end of the year, he assigned us to read an historical novel. I read Lydia Bailey by Kenneth Roberts. It was an eyeopener. I had never heard of the Barbary Pirates or the slave uprising in the Caribbean. It made history come alive. It is the reason I enjoy well researched historical fiction. It puts you there and shows how those times, events, and historical figures impacted people and the future.

    • It’s really sad how one teacher can have so much influence in a bad way, isn’t it? History was a subject I wasn’t crazy about in school because we always had a coach that taught it and they didn’t care one whit about history–it was just something they had to do in order to be able to coach. When I went to college, that was when my love of history just took off, and it was my minor. I was trying to remember the first historical novel I read–I’m sure it had to be The Grapes of Wrath–seems like I ended up reading that book about 4 times during my years in school for one class or another. I always loved school, except my senior year when we’d had to move the summer just before I started school for that year. We moved from Oklahoma to West Virginia, and I had to leave behind all my lifelong friends that I’d gone to school with all those years. I was one miserable teenager! LOL The school I transferred to in WV was not very welcoming of “outsiders” so there was that. It was a year of endurance.

  20. So fascinating.
    I enjoyed learning and school was one of the options I had. It probably stems back to missing most of first grade due to illness and did first and sceond at the same time. It was a small school and I had the same teacher for the first three grades.

    • I loved school, too. Our school was small, but not tiny. Our town had two elementary schools and two classes of each grade in each school. I only lived about 2 1/2 blocks from school and walked or rode my bike every day unless it was bad weather. Had so many good friends, and just loved those early school years.

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