The filmstrip projector: This classroom dinosaur hypnotized students using sheer boredom.
As a teacher, my first school calendar had 1986-87 on the top. That was thirty years ago. The number one song in the U.S. when I started my teaching career was Venus, by Bananarama. Gillette would later use that song to sell razors, so maybe you know it.
Things change quickly in education, especially when you consider advances in technology. But being a school teacher in 1986 was like teaching in the Wild West. Although most things in education have evolved for the better, with teachers being better trained and having access to more resources than ever before, there are a few things about my first year as a teacher that I’m glad I got to see first hand. And yes, each of these did exist at my school in 1986, trust me.
1. The Smokers’ Lounge
If you are a new teacher, it may be hard to believe that teachers could smoke in school. And although I was never a smoker, the teachers that jonesed for cigarettes between classes had a place to go. For some odd reason, our school’s laminating machine was in the smokers’ lounge, which really was nothing more than a utility closet. It was disgusting beyond description. On the occasion that I needed to laminate something, I was treated to a strange lot of people smoking their lungs out and seemly solving all the school’s problems. For some reason, they seemed to be the happiest people in the building. By the way, the PE teacher smoked; I’ve never figured that one out. With all the money spent on anti-smoking campaigns over the years, seems like a few minutes in the teachers’ smoking lounge would cure any temptation a kid might have to light up a smoke...permanently.
2. Ditto Machines
My school got its first copy machine the second year of my teaching career. That meant that in year one we were still using ditto machines. Ditto machines! In order to make a worksheet or test with a ditto machine, you had to hand type, with a typewriter, a mistake-free copy on special carbon paper, wrap it around a metal cylinder filled with a poison chemical of some kind, and turn a crank that pumped out damp and easily smudged sheets of paper. It was a huge hassle. The only upside was that the paper smelled oddly delicious because of the ditto fluid. If you’ve ever watched, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, you can see the students smelling their tests after Mr. Hand passes them out to the class. As a teacher, I have appreciated copy machines for decades now.
3. Rooms with Curtains Instead of Walls
Sometime in the 1970’s, somebody decided that classrooms should not have walls, but a kind of heavy-duty accordion partition that could be opened up so two, three, or four classrooms could become one big happy classroom. After a few years of trying to make this idea work, teachers started to look for a way to keep those curtains shut permanently. The only exception was when one teacher had to use the restroom, then the neighbor teacher could open up the curtain a smidge so they could watch two classes at the same time. Look for this idea to come back in vogue someday.
4. Filmstrip Projectors
The technological advances in the last thirty years could fill many pages, obviously. During my first year as a teacher I had to learn how to use huge monstrous, metal machines like film and opaque projectors. We used cassette recorders and record players that came in a box. But the weirdest piece of now obsolete media ever used in school was the filmstrip projector. Showing a filmstrip in class had a strange effect on the students watching. Either they fell asleep, or they became totally entranced on what was showing up on the screen. Since the film strip was basically a series of slides spliced together, not actually moving film, the students watched a picture on the screen while the text at the bottom of the slide was read to them. It’s not that the picture on the screen was so interesting that it transfixed them, it was the hope that the next picture would be. They couldn’t look away. Filmstrips were cruel little things, but at least they only lasted about ten minutes.
5. Square Dancing
For some reason I have never figured out, I was forced to learn square dancing in P.E. class when I was a kid. I suppose if I were 86 years old, instead of 8 years old, square dancing would, in fact, be terrific exercise. But I hated it. I thought it was dumb. Fast forward a few years, and to my delight, P.E. teachers were still making kids learn to square dance when I started teaching. Not surprisingly, kids still did not dig it. I haven’t seen kids square dance at school in forever, and I suppose they should consider themselves lucky. As for me, I’m glad I witnessed this debacle both as a student and as a teacher. I definitely could feel their pain.
6. A Two-Hour Recess
Okay, two-hour recesses did not really exist in 1986. We did seem to have more recess time in general back in the day. We had a before school recess. There was a mid-morning recess. We had a lunch recess. And, of course, there was the best recess of all: the afternoon recess. The afternoon recess had a certain feel to it. It smelled of freedom. One day, when afternoon recess was over and my students were all lined up to go back to class and finish up the day, I grabbed a basketball from a kid in line and told the class that if I could make a basket from across the playground, we could stay out for the rest of the day. It was an impossible shot, probably 120 feet, and I missed badly. But a tradition was born. Every day, at the end of afternoon recess, I’d launch a basketball across the playground to try to “win” my class a very long and extended recess. I actually tried to make the basket, but realistically had no chance. Occasionally, I’d hit the backboard and the kids would let out a collective groan of disappointment. Then one day, it happened. My kids were all lined up and I was preparing to take my daily shot across the schoolyard. In one hand I held the basketball as I lined up my shot and heaved the ball, baseball style, into the blue sky. As soon as it left my hand, I said to the kids, “That may have a chance.” Heads turned in slow motion as they followed the flight of the ball through the air. The ball snapped the net as it went through and the kids erupted and scattered across the playground to continue what would be the longest recess in the history of the school. I was sick to my stomach. I promised them and there was no going back. About 30 minutes later, the principal came out to see why my class was still at recess. I nervously told him the whole story. When I was finished, he smiled and said, “Make sure you don’t make anymore...ever.” It was not the answer I expected.
This last item on my list lends credibility to my Wild West analogy. That’s what it felt like. It felt like I could, more or less, do whatever I wanted to do when I ran my class. Don’t get me wrong, I worked hard and really wanted to be a great teacher. In fact, my first year, like most any teacher, was the hardest year of my teaching career. But it was also the most fun.
Teaching is different today. And that’s fine. I’m not going to try to tell you, like some old-timer, how teaching in 1986 was so much better than it is today. I don’t believe that to me true anyway. But it sure was different, and I am glad I was there to see it.
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