School Days back then

MarkD said:
Just out of curiosity did anyone ever try to rationalize that to you and if so did they convince you? Did you and your friends have any theories about why that was the rule?
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No one ever gave us a reason, that I can recall.
 

I'm a child of the 50's . Going to school was a nightmare. My youngest sister, being little and couldn't keep up with us hurrying for the bus, so
my eldest sister would carry her on her back, whilst I carried the school cases. What a nightmare but was worse if it was raining. Parents never owned a car, so it was very hard for everyone.
 
The OP's picture reminded me of my wife while we were in high school. She always took home a stack of books every night, and I never took home a one. Maybe that was why she was in the Honor Society, and I, well, wasn't.
 

Feelslikefar said:
Remember trudging though the snow on the way to high school, never enough clothes for the temp,
WAIT a minute! Wrong life.

A video of my high school class in Hawaii.
Air temp 72, water temp 72; it's ok to feel sorry for me...

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Ok, colour me jealous. 😂
 
We never ever wore pants to school unless it was snowing out. We were permitted snow pants with a skirt over the outside of them. It was a society where girls looked like girls and boys like boys. Our teachers also had strict dress codes.
 
They allowed girls to wear pants to school during the winter of 1970. It was more convenient. I must admit that. It's cold here so it's just practical.
 
When my granddaughter reached middle school age (grades 6-8), I attended a program at her school. Some of the boys had moustaches! Some even had the start of beards. I was flabbergasted. And the girls were mostly ......well developed.....

When I was in junior high (7-8 in those days), I doubt the boys could have grown a hair on their chins (not that it would have been allowed) and the entire 8th grade class of girls probably couldn't have filled a C-cup collectively. I know I sure couldn't have contributed much....

Is it the hormones being pumped into the cows and the chickens?
 
chic said:
They allowed girls to wear pants to school during the winter of 1970. It was more convenient. I must admit that. It's cold here so it's just practical.
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this was our winters when I was a little girl at school.. we weren't allowed ever to wear trousers... I'd walk to school on my own or with my smaller brother..2 miles. I can't tell you how many times I slipped and stumbled on the way.. and the schools didn't close.


A-man-peers-into-a-car-to-011.jpg


snowball-fight.jpg



Today not only do girls get to wear trousers, schools close at the first sight of a snowflake
 
We had two uniforms and 3 blouses for the girls. We also had two choices of carrier: either a backpack or soft case type. Didn't have lockers until secondary schools.

I enjoyed the uniforms as it was easier to get dressed every school mornings. I never liked that parents had voted against them. Thankfully, my parents had voted to keep them but were outvoted. Dam!!!

Once in secondary, with the availability of lockers, it meant that you'd carry your books for morning lessons in your arms mostly. I had a combo backpack/handbag so I had everything in there for the 4 mornings.

Then, you put everything away for lunch. Afterwards, you'd picked up the four afternoon lessons supply. On way home, that's when your backpack was heaviest as you face 2 hours of homework minimum.

Friday nights were the worst as you had homework for the whole weekend. It meant spending Friday night, Saturday all day and Sunday afternoon at library to have quiet time (to noisy at home on weekends) to study and complete them homeworks...

I may have had the benefit of free education but it was extremely complex learning. Besides regular 8 courses a day for 4 days, Fridays were for extra curricular activities. The results for about 1/3 of the students having passed the intellectual tests in level 3, the highest.

School never was conducive for friendship or fun times, it was learning, learning and more daily for 10 solid months every year. Just as the rest of those 1/3 students, we graduated after 11 years instead of standard 12.

You can imagine that I was glad to get the heck out of there in 77. Socialising was very difficult afterwards...
 
Supernatural. Where in Canada did you grow up ?

My aunts and cousins were in Toronto..still are... and I remember my aunts bemoaning the fact that their children couldn't wear school uniform as we did in the UK.. saying that there was much one one-upmanship between the kids at school in the choice of fashion clothes and the children expected their parents to provide for school, and how expensive it all was
 
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hollydolly said:
Supernatural. Where in Canada did you grow up ?

My aunts and cousins were in Toronto..still are... and I remember my aunts bemoaning the fat that their children couldn't wear school uniform as we did in the UK.. saying that there was much one one-upmanship between the kids at school in the choice of fashion clothes and the children expected their parents to provide for school, and how expensive it all was
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Only private and Catholic school pupils wear uniforms here, Hols. I was never able to wear the latest fashions as a teen .. but, for some reason, it never bothered me. It must be worse for kids now though.
 
Pinky said:
Only private and Catholic school pupils wear uniforms here, Hols. I was never able to wear the latest fashions as a teen .. but, for some reason, it never bothered me. It must be worse for kids now though.
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Same here Pinky. Strict dress rules in St. Patrick's School. Our hems had to touch the floor when we knelt down for prayers. Had to wear a tie both Summer and Winter. We never had fans in the classrooms or heaters either. No wonder the Nuns were so cranky with all that garb they had to wear.
 
Pinky said:
Only private and Catholic school pupils wear uniforms here, Hols. I was never able to wear the latest fashions as a teen .. but, for some reason, it never bothered me. It must be worse for kids now though.
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In our schools we had to wear uniform with ties all year round. A few years later they allowed girls to wear summer dresses but in the school colours ..which mean blue and white..

When my daughter started school in 1980.. she wore Uniform as the pupils of her school which is close by .. 40 years later still do.. grey pinafore, blue shirt, blue striped tie, royal blue cardigan or jumper..,,but summer uniform was fully integrated by then, so she wore blue gingham school dress.. however she was not allowed to war trousers until she in senior school and age 16...
 
In California, recall always carrying books in my arms around high school as daypacks had not yet risen. Half my K12 years I either walked or rode a bicycle to school. Otherwise, it was yellow school buses where one would civilly wait in line at bus stops as those up front had best choice of seats. Almost no one was ever driven to school by parents.

If a kid missed a morning bus, they were stuck at home because families usually owned just one vehicle men had already driven to work. Of course, parents would then be unhappily contacted by a school for being absent that kids might be punished for. So kids were self pressured to learn how to become ready on time to catch a bus, a useful adult meeting skill also. Kids that got to school late walking into their classroom, got the disapproving eye from all.

It was during cultural changes of the 1970 that many schools relaxed dress, grooming policies, and in class room behavior policies due to bone-headed parent's lawyers threatening lawsuits. Another example of how our USA legal system lacking common sense for the sake of $$$, has been the root cause of many of later generation society ills.
 
David777 said:
In California, recall always carrying books in my arms around high school as daypacks had not yet risen. Half my K12 years I either walked or rode a bicycle to school. Otherwise, it was yellow school buses where one would civilly wait in line at bus stops as those up front had best choice of seats. Almost no one was ever driven to school by parents.

If a kid missed a morning bus, they were stuck at home because families usually owned just one vehicle men had already driven to work. Of course, parents would then be unhappily contacted by a school for being absent that kids might be punished for. So kids were self pressured to learn how to become ready on time to catch a bus, a useful adult meeting skill also. Kids that got to school late walking into their classroom, got the disapproving eye from all.

It was during cultural changes of the 1970 that many schools relaxed dress, grooming policies, and in class room behavior policies due to bone-headed parent's lawyers threatening lawsuits. Another example of how our USA legal system lacking common sense for the sake of $$$, has been the root cause of many of later generation society ills.
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there was no school buses where I lived.. no such thing... if we wanted to get a bus to school, we got a regular bus, but our parents never would give us the fare even when it was raining, so we;d jump on a bus in bad weather if we could , and just as the conductor came for the fare we'd jump off again, and hopefully we'd have got very close to school.. . Most kids walked to school like us, very few parents drove their kids to school

..as for relaxing dress policies... again not here. Uniform is still very much , and even perhaps more so.. de rigueur in UK schools...

When my father and mother were at school..in the 30s and 40's.. they didn't wear uniform.. only fee paying schools ( Public schools).. required the pupils to wear uniform, but ordinary comprehensive schools were just happy if kids turned up clean regardless of what they wore.. .. most left school by 14..
 
Some of the public schools have gone to uniforms here in our state..

My greatgranddaughter is in second grade and her school requires khaki bottoms (pants, shorts, skirts, skorts or jumpers) with the school polo shirt in one of three approved colors.

One Friday a month, they have "special" days....pajama day, sports attire day, inside-out or backward day, or just wear-whatever-you-want day.
 

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