Miss Carr was
a tough second grade teacher. She would pace around the room while we did our
math problems, spying over our shoulder and if we made a mistake, would gently
tug on our ear indicating that we had made an error. Poor Justin! His ears were
so misshapen from all the tugging that I suspect even today it is difficult for
him to look into a mirror without remembering Miss Carr.
After the
assignment was done, we moved to the next activity, the endless math drills,
memorizing the multiplication tables. The drills went on for ever. The 17 X table was a real challenge. Is there anything
today that requires us to multiply anything by 17, anywhere?
Next was
spelling. Everyone would go to the front of the room for the dreaded spelling
bee. There was only one chance to get it right. If you missed it, you sat down.
Last one standing got a prize, usually an eraser. The consequence of not being
last resulted in no recess and extra words to learn. Becky had so many erasers
she was able to sell them to earn extra milk money.
After
spelling…. Cursive writing. Yes, in the
second grade. There were to be no spelling errors. Her favorite topic was “What
I see out of my bedroom window’. Looking back, that was a strange topic. But
she was an old spinster teacher so maybe it made sense. Maybe she had no window
in her bedroom. Maybe she had no life
beyond school.
My point is
that if you are over the age of thirty five, your school experience probably
consisted of spelling, drill, writing, math and more drill. Should a phone call
go home, life could become very uncomfortable with extra time in your room
thinking about what you had done wrong?
The end of
the year always brought excitement and relief, but only after ‘Parent Day’ and
the poem we had to memorize and recite as the closing activity. I think I
remember “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”.
Fast forward
fifty years. The chairs are not fastened to the floor. The constant drills in
math and spelling are gone, although maybe they continue. Green shades on the
windows have been replaced by curtains and blinds.
Miss Carr is long retired. The teacher in the
front of the room is better trained in learning theory and curriculum. There
are new ways to measure student progress. The charts above the blackboard with
the cursive alphabet are gone. Blackboard? What’s a blackboard?
Each
classroom has at least one computer and depending upon the grade level, each
student might have his or her own. During those fifty year there were new
techniques tried; inventive spelling, modern math, phonetic spelling, reading
groups, no reading groups, mastery tests, remedial instruction, diagnostic testing.
Some innovations survived, others
crashed and burned.
Fifty years
later, children are still children. Yes, they have very different experiences
than you and I had because the world is different. But some things should
remain constant. Good teachers are important, and so are good parents,
interested parents.
