Blast from the past. I remember Sewing and Home Eco. I remember that the boys had shop class. I think they did auto repair?

We had life skills instead of home-ec, Contemporary American Problems, geography in sixth grade, typing, that I always skipped (hanging head in shame) just came in for tests. Made an A! We had separate cards for each class, if the teacher wrote a note on your card that you didn't want a parent to see, you could go to the shop at school and buy a new report card. Crazy! We also had smoking patios with benches and huge stone ashtrays. The mid 70's.

We didn't have mass media when I was in high school.....I took journalism for four years.
And we had social studies and hygiene.
Language courses were Spanish, French and Latin.
I think geography was taught in our US History classes....our teacher had us do a LOT of maps.
We had home ec as an elective and PE was just PE but our school offered modern dance, too.
I graduated over 55 years ago.

We either choose college prep courses or non---depending on if you thought (or your parents) wanted you to go to college. I took the college prep--Algebra, Geometry, etc, History, Spanish (4 years--loved it), Chemistry, NO it was not our class that blew up the lab, orchestra etc. Really liked HS and did go on to college. Wish now I had taken more business courses. Because of the elections, History was great!!! Loved Algebra, hated geometry, and because my Mom thought I had medical problems, ( I didn't) ended up taken some wierd exercise classes. That was in the late 40's/

Not so sure I'd want to see my old report cards. I remember taking Home Ec in junior high school -- cooking and sewing. I am glad I had both of them, especially sewing. Wonder if I could still sew a dress from a pattern? The boys took woodworking and something else, I can't remember what. I must have learned geography somewhere along the way, perhaps it was part of history? We had single-sex gym classes and my other electives were Newspaper and Choir.

I remember Health classes in grade school and typing and art in junior high. In Health class we watched a movie called Hemo the Magnificent, which taught us about hemoglobin in blood. Strange, the stuff you remember.

My high school also had a smoking area, but I think it was banned by the time I graduated. That meant we smoked in the bathroom instead.

We could smoke inside our school cafeteria, with parent's permission. All girls Catholic high school that is now closed. It boggles my mind to think of teenagers smoking inside a school, even with parents permission. But some of my friends had their permission, sheesh.

I also remember typing class selectric typewriters, and home ec where my a-line skirt was anything but, lol.

When I entered high school in 1954 (grade 9, 10, 11, 12) a student had to choose their desired type of courses ie, 'Commercial' (bookkeeping, typing, office procedure) 'Acedemic', ( maths, sciences) or 'General' a mix of the other two. Each option choice included the required English/Literature, Problems of Democracy, Physical Ed. Then there were electives like Home Ec, Shop, Latin, Music. There was just one report card, each teacher grading it. And there was NO smoking allowed in the school!
Sleeperblues, I just can't imagine smoking being allowed, and in a Catholic Girls School yet! Boys at my school smoked outside, but it was considered unladylike for girls to be seen smoking.

I was in school through the late 70�s. One "subject" I still think is funny was a health/phys ed. class.
We learned to square dance! It wasn�t like we even had a local dance hall or anything�but I have to say I really enjoyed it.

The 2 classes I had that have made the most impact on my life was public speaking and FFA. Although FFA was a club, Agriculture class "was" FFA.
I learned so much�FFA is a life skills club. Everything from butchering a chicken, landscaping, canning food, driving a tractor, leading a parliamentary procedure meeting, debate, conservation�gosh we did so much.
An entirely different kind of learning. Very hands on. I don�t really remember too many tests�but the kids that could not succeed in standard classroom settings, excelled in FFA.

My HS offered classes - 50 years ago, were:
4 years of English - required
Latin(1 year was required)
Also offered was Spanish, French and German
Algebra (1 year required, 1 years optional and a 3rd year that was accepted for college credit)
2 years of Geometry (1 required)
Trigonometry
Biology
Physics
Journalism
Bookkeeping
Typing
and 4 years of Phys Ed was required.

This post was edited by monica_pa on Mon, Jan 28, 13 at 9:23

I sure wouldn't want to see my old report cards - c's and d's except for Science and Biology. My Mom and I thought I would graduate from H.S. and get married, which I did. I went to college, but didn't graduate - Kiddos and life came along.

Law, Business and Marketing, Typing, Shorthand, Home Ec, Geography, Math and Algebra.

French was offered but was an option. Latin was dropped a couple of years before I entered high school.

In my high school there was a smoking section outside (even in the winter)-what were they thinking??? Also the bathrooms in junior high and high school always reeked of cigarette smoke! Kids would grab a quick puff between classes. I've been in the school bathrooms of the middle and high schools here and there is not a hint of smoke! I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but its not rampant like years ago.

Geography is still taught plus latin is an elective. Kids need 2 years of a language in order to graduate. Math is pumped up from years ago. My 8th grade son is taking high school geometry this year, although most students take it in 10th. Typing is an elective, but not on typewriters-computer keyboards. Maybe mass media is TV production?? The PE requirement is only 1 year in which part of that is health lessons. What a shame! Civics is taught in 7th here. Cooking is a high school elective. I don't know if they have sewing anymore-sure would be a useful life skill!

My high school had the regular requirements but at different levels. I chose to take all the AP classes to try to get college credit, and they happened to be more interesting than the regular classes. Calculus, European History, American History, Physics, Biology, Art History (my favorite). I took 4 years of Spanish.

What was really interesting was my college requirements. In order to graduate, we had to demonstrate proficiency in another language (had to pass TOUGH oral and written exams), pass a swimming test and pass a physical fitness test. If you didn't pass any of these, you had to take swimming/gym classes to fulfill the graduation requirements and language classes until you were able to pass the tests.

Interesting. Think of all the lives that could be saved if swimming was required!

Yep, though apparently they got rid of the requirement this year. I graduated in 2004 and I remember the terror of having to get into a bathing suit at 18 years old in front of dozens of strangers! I did pass though. :)

I had home economics in 8th grade while the boys had 'shop'.

HS had a choice of 'office skills' and 'college prep' classes. I took typing in summer school before freshman year. I worked on the school newspaper and the year book all four years. Had two years of French -- no exhaustive tests like chi83 though! Three years of math; two of science; world history; speech. You could only escape four years of P.E. if you were on a team. (Not me.) We had art and music too. There were many 'clubs' with themes from Science to Drama to the various languages (Latin, French, German, Spanish, Russian).

There were almost 1,000 students in my graduation class, and the lower classes were even larger (Baby Boom was hitting HS). We were on double shifts. The year after I graduated a second HS opened in our township, followed by a third in another few years, and then a fourth that was closed in a few years; they'd overbuilt.

Every day began with 'Homeroom', but it was not the same as when DS attended HS. He had 'Advisory', which really was a 'home at school'. Mine was 15 minutes long and mostly for attendance and announcements. DS's was a little 'family'. They competed with other Advisories, held bake sales, cheered one another on in sports and academics. The Advisor was a step below the deans; took an interest in 'his kids'.

The high school diplomas we received really did qualify us to go into the world. I'm amazed at the jobs today that require a college degree -- for work any HS graduate of my era could do.

It was a very long time ago. I graduated in 1953. There was no dancing or football allowed. We did do square dancing in P.E. We also did exercises, and played volley ball and that was it. I took Home Ec., typing, hated shorthand. Took art, botany, and I can't remember what else. I made straight A's in art and botany. There was no smoking allowed anywhere, not even for the teachers. The only other language was Latin, I did not take it. I really loved typing as I always wanted to type. I still love typing today. Several former schoolmates go to church today where I go. No kindergarten back then, just 12 grades of school in one building.

Sue in Central Indiana

"I had home economics in 8th grade while the boys had 'shop'. "

Those classes are required in my district now....
except that ALL students take home ec and shop.

Nice for everyone to take 'shop'! In a no-males household, my mother and I had to improvise, but that would have been of lifelong use. I think some schools now teach money management -- another thing my mother taught me.

How could I have forgotten to list English -- four years, required!

I graduated from High School in 1942, long before most of you were born.

I chose to take Academic Studies, even though I knew I would never be able to go to college. In fact, I was the only one of my parent's 9 children (the youngest) to finish High School. They all worked at a variety of jobs, and I worked while I was in school, at JCPenny starting when I was 16.

My class graduated into a war situation, so many of the young men entered the armed forces.

Memories have faded, but some things have stayed intact, even the names of some of the teachers. My English teacher, senior year, was actually the band director and the only thing I remember from that class is that he spent the whole time reading to us. The one book I remember was My Name is Aram Literature teacher was everybody's favorite. Her last name was Mallott and was known to us as Ma Mallott because of her caring ways. Algebra . . . I don't remember the teachers name, or very much of the Algebra now, but we did have to take Geometry also.

Spanish, and I loved every minute of the two years. Our teacher called us by our last names preceded with Senor or Senorita, using a Spanish equivalent for the last name. Second year there were days in class when we could only speak Spanish.

Extracurricular activities: I joined the Library Club and tried to master the Dewey Decimal System. Absolutely no smoking, even within a certain number of feet of the school building. We also had after school extracurricular activities; I joined the Riding Club, and had my first riding lesson. Also got to ride the Activity bus.

It was a large school, 300 plus graduates in my class. I still have my year book, somewhere. After graduation we had annual reunions until there were too many passed on, or could no longer travel,but well past the 50th. The War had brought us all to a new degree of togetherness.

Probably more than you need to know, right? But there are a couple more things I will add. Only one of the students, a boy, had his own car. There were no pregnancies, or drug problems among those students.

Sue

we had a computer class with the old punch cards you inserted into this huge machine. I also had bookkeeping and then accounting. My geography class was a total joke.

from grammar school...I can remember my English book from 3rd grade.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

What's so sad to me is that the most valuable class I took was typing. Or, at least, the most useful. Who uses Algebra? Geometry? By the time you got to high school, you had all the math skills you needed--addition, subtraction, multiplying, dividing--that's all you really needed. Plus, you learned to read in elementary, and basic history in Jr. Hi. But, I can type fast and it has served me well!