Tag: School

Student Discipline

Originally published in genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 16 Aug 2015.

Just as teachers had rules in the 19th century, so did students.  What was inappropriate in the 1800’s is mostly considered inappropriate today.  What differs is the punishment method used to correct the misdeed.  Schools have banned lashing/swatting/spanking.  I used to get my hands slapped with a ruler and I ducked once when the principal tried to slap me in 5th grade due to being mouthy, though what I said that was inappropriate I have no recollection of.  We didn’t have a cafeteria so we had to eat lunch in our classroom and milk monitors would be selected to bring in the pre-ordered milk cartons for the class.  I was monitor of the day and talking while the principal was counting out milk cartons.  As she went to slap me I ducked and she hit the girl standing next to me who let out a wail like the world was ending.  The best part of the story is that the girl was a real brat whose mom was very active in the school so the girl typically got away with murder.  The principal was so upset that she immediately hugged the child and took her to the office to get her ice.  I escaped back to class with our milk and for some reason, never got called back to the office to be disciplined.  I actually became a class hero when the story got around.

Back in 1872, the following was considered inappropriate student behavior, just as it is now:

Fighting/Quarreling/Wrestling

Lying/Telling Tales

Swearing/Name Calling

Gambling/Betting

Drinking Liquor

Wetting each other when washing (yep, water fights in the                           bathroom are still a big deal!)

Mischief Making (spitting, vandalizing, littering, being noisy)

Tree climbing over 3 feet (don’t think we have a height limit –                     tree climbing totally prohibited)

Leaving campus

What differs is that in our country, boys and girls are now permitted to play together which was an offense in 1872.  I’m not sure why making swings and swinging on them was prohibited but I suspect it was more of a liability issue for the school than bad behavior on the part of the student.  Maybe it was tied in with not climbing trees.  Reminds me that some districts today have banned Dodge Ball and Red Rover due to student injuries.

Wearing long nails was also a no-no but could be considered a distraction or weapon today so that still may be applicable.  Back in the day coming to school with dirty face and hands would be considered a punishment for the student but if it was often, today it probably would warrant a call to Child Protective Services.

In 1872, students could be disciplined for misbehaving on the road.  Until recently, my school district couldn’t discipline a child for an infraction committed off campus – such as at the bus stop.  That’s recently changed, however, with the advent of bullying via social media.  A student may have texted/posted something inappropriate outside of school but since it’s viewable at school, school personnel can now address it.

What’s most interesting is that kids have made poor choices for a very long time.  I didn’t get into much trouble in school because I knew I would disappoint my mom and I that would have been a horrible punishment for me.  My mom told a story of stealing a box of crayons when she was in first grade.  She knew it was wrong but wanted to make a picture for her mother so she snuck them out of the classroom one Friday afternoon.  As soon as she got outside the guilt overcame her and she vomited.  The teacher came to assist her and my mom confessed.  After cleaning her up the school sent her home with three packs of crayons, extras for her two younger siblings.  Her teacher told her if she ever needed anything to just ask next time.  That nameless teacher made a tremendous difference by teaching a valuable life lesson in a kind way.  Teachers do the same every day every year often without seeing the positive results.  Developing good people is more important, to me, than any other curricula that a school tries to instill.  As teachers in my school district return to work tomorrow for a few days of planning and training before students arrive the following week, I hope the realize the impact they have on their students.  It’s an awesome responsibility not only to the individual student, but to the future!

Teachers’ Rule

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 13 Aug 2015.

I come from a long line of folks who love to learn – whether it was formally in school or on their own.  My paternal grandmother and great grandmother both taught for a short time before their marriage.  Since I had limited knowledge of my dad’s side growing up I discovered this as an adult and was surprised that I shared this commonality.  My husband changed careers in his late 30’s  and we were astounded to discover after he became a teacher, that his maternal great grandfather had also taught for years.  Guess it’s in our genes!

As we begin a new school year I look back upon Teacher Rules that were in place when my great grandmother, Emma Kuhn, first taught.  I received a copy of the Rules for Teachers 1872 when I visited Berkley, West Virginia Coal Camp’s one room schoolhouse earlier this summer.

Back in the day women could teach until wed but could be dismissed if caught in some type of unseemly contact.  In 1915, the rules prohibited a teacher from marrying during the term of the contract.   I don’t know when that rule changed but I suspect it must have been in the 20th century as a child, I had teachers who were married and working.  Having a baby, though, changed the rules and teachers didn’t return to work immediately after maternity leave.  I’m fairly certain the unseemly contact changed in the 1980’s as when I first started teaching in the 1970’s, “living in sin” was grounds for dismissal in Florida.  I had a divorced coworker who lived in fear that our principal would find out she was living with her boyfriend.  When I returned to teaching after my children were born the rules had changed and no one cared any more.

Male teachers were allowed one evening a week to court and if they were regular church goers, could court for two evenings a week.  By 1915, rules stated that both male and female teachers had to be home between 8 PM and 6 AM unless they were attending a school function.

Although the following wasn’t necessarily grounds for dismissal, since teachers were supposed to be role models in the community, these actions could cause “good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty”:

Smoking or using liquor in any form

Frequenting pool or public halls

Getting shaved in a barber shop

Beginning in 1915, these were added:

Loiter in an ice cream parlor

Travel beyond city limits unless permission of the School Board       Chair was received

Dress in bright colors

Dye hair

And just for women teachers:

Ride in a carriage or auto with any man unless he’s your father or

brother

Must wear at least 2 petticoats

Dresses must not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankle (in  the 1970’s this moved to the knee and hose was required!)

Today, teachers start their day by making sure the technology in their room is turned on.  In 1872, teachers were responsible for the “tech” of their day – filling the lamps, clearing the chimney, bringing a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal into the classroom.  Funny how we aren’t even allowed to touch the thermostat today as it’s controlled remotely by the district office.  No amount of complaining that it’s too hot or cold in your classroom alters the temperature so I think that it might not have been a bad thing to have to make sure that the stove had coal. The 1915 Board of Education in West Virginia added the following duties – sweep the floor at least once daily and scrub it with hot, soapy water at least once a week, clean the blackboard daily and start the fire by 7 AM so the room is warm when students arrive at 8.

Students are responsible for their supplies today but teachers often know who is having financial difficulty and may need assistance.  In 1872, teachers were responsible for making the pens but were given latitude in “whittling nibs” individually for the benefit of their students.  Today, we hand out pencil grips in elementary or allow students to type responses instead so the spirit of the rule remains.

Teaching has never been a lucrative profession.  In 1872, the contract stated that after 5 years of faithful performance a teacher was entitled to a quarter increase weekly.  Teachers were advised to save a “goodly” sum of earnings for their retirement so that they would not someday become a burden to society.

People frequently tell teachers that it must be great having their summers off and so much free time with vacations during the school year.  What they don’t realize is that teachers aren’t paid when they aren’t working.  They are contracted for a specific time period, such as 10 months, but may have that income equalized over the year so that they can have income coming in when they aren’t under contract.  Teachers also work extremely long hours that aren’t covered by overtime or compensatory time.  There are no grading fairies that magically review all of the students’ class and homework!  In 1872, teachers were allowed to spend time reading the Bible or another “good” book after their ten hour school day was over.  During the summer months, my contract is for 10 hour days (7 AM-5:45 PM).  Granted I only work 4 of 5 days in the summer but after my long commute, I tend to read my personal email and call it a day.  I bet (oops, betting probably wasn’t allowed either!) that teachers were just as exhausted then as they are today.  Some things never change!

(West Virginia rules provided by Opal Tolin of the Youth Museum, Berkley, West Virginia)

One Room Schoolhouse

Originally published in genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 9 Aug 2015.

A new school year is just around the corner!  Over the summer, I visited a one room coal camp schoolhouse in Beckley, West Virginia.

Technically, there are very few of what is thought of as a traditional one room schoolhouses still in operation in the United States.  In 2005, there were only 400 left and I suspect that the number has significantly dropped since that time.1

Three weeks after my West Virginia visit I attended a national educational conference in San Francisco, California. Reflecting on these trips, it got me thinking of the old saying, what goes around comes around.

I’ve been an educator for 38 years and I’ve experienced so many fads. (I’ll be retiring in the next couple of years with the goal of working full time as a genealogist.)  Some methods lately aren’t fads, though, but are practices being resurrected from long before than my days spent in a classroom.

Recent trends in education seem to be towards many of the concepts that were commonplace in the traditional one room schoolhouse that our great grandparents attended.  Today, many “progressive” schools group children based on ability and not age.  Although one room schoolhouses placed children in rows by grade, with 1st graders in the very front and 8th graders in the back, the children interacted on lessons taught based on their knowledge. Multi-age classroom are again becoming commonplace and I’m planning on mixing my7th and 8th graders with 11th and 12th graders this year.  Lucky for me, the 2 school levels (middle and high) are right next door so it’s doable.

Typically, one room schoolhouses held a maximum of 40 students but usually had about 20-25.  In my state, we have an amendment to the state constitution that limits the number of students in a class with some flexibility, usually it’s 18 in grades Kindergarten – 3rd, 22 in grades 4th-8th and 25 in 9th-12th. Gone are the days of the baby boomers with huge classes:

My 1st Grade Class (I’m 2nd row, 5th from right)

To accommodate such large amounts of students, baby boomers had to have their desks lined up in even rows:

Hubby’s 3rd Grade Classroom

The cooperative classroom of today has flexible settings and sometimes resembles more of a family room than what is thought of as a schoolroom:

Once thought to be a classroom of the future!

The one room schoolhouse had its tablets and my school district has a BYOE (Bring Your Own Electronics) policy that allows students to bring their own electronic devices.  Of course, we don’t need chalk with our tablets!

The teacher in the one room schoolhouse often prepared individual lessons for his or her students and the teacher today does the same.  Gone are the textbook series, like Open Highways, that I used when I first started teaching.  We’re lucky to have internet resources available as supplements which I’m sure the one room schoolhouse teachers would have thought was marvelous.

Due to technology, innovative educational programs are springing up all over the United States as alternatives to the typical school environment.  Alt.school in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Brooklyn, New York was developed by a former Google employee and is a micro-school with a personalized education not very different from what our great grandparents received.

My next few blogs are going to be about educational history, both in general and specifically with my ancestors. I’m going to share some exams given to 8th graders back in the day to compare what’s being given now.  We’ll also look at how the role of teachers and types of student discipline that have changed.  In the meantime, I’m going Back to School

1. “The Return Of The One-Room Schoolhouse.” NPR. NPR, Web. 08 Aug. 2015.