Schools Back Then

When I was a kid, back in the 1940s and '50s,  the main building of my grammar school had been built in the 1920s.

In one classroom we even had the old fashioned desks with curly, iron sides and holes for inkwells on top. That was in third grade, and we actually used the holes for bottles of ink and learned to dip our pen nubs in carefully to hold just the correct amount of ink in the holes in the nubs. Fountain pens were expensive and ballpoint pens hadn't been invented yet.

Every classroom had a piano, and teachers couldn't get a credential without learning how to play them. We didn't have special music teachers. Instead every teacher taught music once a week. In the third grade we learned to play the song flute, which was a plastic recorder.

Our own teachers taught us Art and P.E., too.

The first thing every morning we would salute the American flag and sing America the Beautiful. (The Star Spangled Banner required too great a range for our voices.)

Downstairs was a big auditorium that also served as our lunch room. On rainy days we'd all eat in there. Once a week some volunteer mothers would prepare a hot lunch for students who could pay a small amount for them.  Otherwise we'd all bring our own lunches in metal lunch boxes or paper bags. 

What do you remember about school when you were a kid?