From Slate to Smartboards: How School Days Have Evolved Over Time

Teachers were respected authority figures who meted out punishment to unruly students to enforce discipline. Sometimes that punishment could be physical, such as rapping students on their knuckles with a ruler or a pointer. Corporal punishment was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977, leaving it to the states to make their rules. Punitive physical measures are still legal in 19 states. The criticism of the practice is that it is disproportionately applied to African-Americans, boys, and those with disabilities.

The number of teacher assistants, who give students additional help with subjects, has grown dramatically, and will continue to do so. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of teacher assistants is projected to grow 8% from 2016 to 2026 because of an expected increase in student enrollment, along with state and federal funding for education.

Young people roll their eyes when their elders tell them they had to walk miles to school. But that was a reality years ago when America was a more rural nation, families had one car if they had one at all, and bus service was limited.

Teachers taught algebra and geometry, biology and chemistry, science, reading, writing, history, geography, and languages like French, Spanish, and Latin. They still learn all of those, however, the curriculum has been augmented by additional math courses such as trigonometry and calculus. Literature has been broadened to include more works from people of color and women. Language selection now includes Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and American Sign Language.

The biggest difference between school days today and what they used to look like is technology. Virtually all students have access to the internet at home or they can access it at the local library. Students go online on personal computers, laptops, cellphones, tablets, and iPads, among other devices. Much learning is now done online, and technology has accelerated the pace of education. Of concern is the digital divide, also called the homework gap. Students lacking technology are put at a disadvantage.

A notable change in school nowadays compared with the past is the number of support staff. Besides an increase in administration personnel such as vice or assistant principals, schools now employ health services staff such as social workers, psychologists, and speech therapists, as well as security personnel.

There have always been activities for students in school — debate clubs, theater, yearbook, band, color guard, and language clubs. Those activities are alive and well, but today there is so much more for students. A big difference today is the addition of activities geared toward community service such as food drives, involvement in Special Olympics, and peer counseling. Heritage or cultural clubs pertaining to ethnicity or sexual orientation can also be found in schools today.

Ice hockey and soccer were rarely played in schools and have climbed in interest in the last generation. Ice hockey is primarily played in affluent suburbs. But the biggest difference now vs. then has been the explosion in girls sports. Following the passage of Title IX in 1972, which mandated participation equity between the genders for schools receiving federal assistance, the number of girls participating in sports has mushroomed. According to the website womenssportsfoundation.org, before Title IX, one in 27 girls played sports. Today, that ratio is two in five.

There was no debate about homework in the past. Oftentimes, students would get three or four hours of it a night. Today, the merits of homework are under scrutiny. Skeptics say there is little to be gained if the student doesn’t understand the material in school and struggles with it at home, requiring help from parents and others. Also, they doubt homework contributes to academic achievement. Students are also busy with activities outside of school — sports, music lessons, theater, martial arts — that strain their schedule. Proponents of homework contend it promotes good study habits and gives parents a better understanding of what their child is learning in school.

The pace of technological change has altered the traditional role of libraries. Once the repository of books and printed resource material, school libraries are now designed as complex media centers, information hubs equipped with data and wireless access points, ergonomically friendly chairs and desks, acoustically appealing spaces, different lighting areas, and of course computer stations. As of 2016, the total number of public school librarians/media specialists, full and part time, has risen 8.8% since 2007.

Some schools had separate entries to school for boys and girls. In some schools, they were kept apart during class as well. Separating the genders in school has been a controversial issue. The Department for Education has warned educators that it might be unlawful to separate boys and girls, even for religious reasons.

The standard school year today is 180 days. In the past, it was a lot shorter. In the 1869-70 school year, it was just 132 days. The biggest reason for the shorter school season was that in rural America, kids were needed to help work on the family farm and harvest the crops in the warmer months. The school year lengthened as laws were passed in the early 20th century that restricted child labor.

School lunch programs varied from district to district in the United States well into the 20th century. Philadelphia and Boston were the pioneers in school lunch programs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But it wasn’t until 1946, that the federal government got involved. That year, Congress enacted the National School Lunch Act, in the name of national security, to “safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food, by assisting the States, through grants-in aid and other means, in providing an adequate supply of food and other facilities for the establishment, maintenance, operation and expansion of nonprofit school lunch programs.”

Teachers were allowed to be more innovative in the 1960s, and many turned to the speed-reading techniques espoused by Evelyn Wood, a teacher in Utah who briefly rose to fame. The approach focused on reading groups of words instead of individual words. Besides an increase in the pace of reading, readers also had better retention. Among the champions of Wood’s techniques was President John F. Kennedy, who sent members of his staff to Wood’s reading institute in Washington, D.C.

There was very little security presence in schools in the past. Today, there are metal detectors, sophisticated locking mechanisms, cameras, and security guards in schools, in the wake of mass-shooting tragedies at Columbine, Parkland and Newtown. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in the 2015-16 school year, 94% of the nation’s public schools had controlled access to school facilities by locking or monitoring doors during school hours.

School segregation was a fact of life in much of the United States, especially the South. In 1940, 30% of Americans, just 2% in the South, believed schools should be integrated. That began to change with the monumental Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision in 1954 that threw out the separate but equal doctrine. By 1963, 62% of Americans, 31% in the South, believed African Americans and whites should attend the same schools. More legislation to desegregate schools followed, such as the Supreme Court decision Green v. County School Board of New Kent County in 1968 that ordered states to desegregate schools.

Classroom size, or the teacher-to-student ratio, was bigger. The New England Historical Society said classrooms 100 years ago had about 30 students. Today, the ratio is about 14.5 students for every teacher in public schools, and in private schools, it is one teacher for every 12.2 students.

In the past, schools taught girls to mend and sew, skills that educators believed would prepare young women for the work world. They also learned to cook for their future husbands in home economics classes. Boys took shop and learned to use drills and punch holes in metal. The space for shop classes today is largely used to repair computers. Many states such as California have virtually done away with shop classes altogether.

Not all juniors and seniors had cars. And those who did drive to school drove mostly in used cars that required work. Today, the problem at many schools is not enough parking. Such is the case at John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School on Long Island, where the town weighed turning an athletic field into a parking lot to accommodate the students’ cars.

Forget organizers, Bluetooth portable keyboards, gel pens, calculators, notebooks with reusable paper, and scented markers. Back in the day, you had just books, notepads, pens, and pencils.

In earlier times in our nation’s history, it was not unusual to have Christian lessons as part of daily instruction in schools in the United States, with students reading a passage from the Bible, usually at the start of school. That is no longer part of the day as the nation has become more diverse and includes children who practice other religions, such as Islam and Hindusim, or are not religious at all.

There were fewer teachers in the past and sometimes a teacher would teach multiple grades. Teachers gave teaching responsibilities to older students to help younger or slower students learn.