Kath, what were you taught in Maths I and II? (Growl! If M-a-t-h-s comes out 'Math', it's not because I didn't try to fix it.)

Woodnymph, you didn't mention any Science. Were you taught any in elementary and secondary school?

We began formal history lessons with the ancient civilizations like your school did, in about the same school year. Next we did 'World History' that, as I recall, was heavy on European history, particularly British. We got around to American history in high school. We only spent a semester (half a year) on state history and then we had a semester of U.S. government as our final history requirement. I loathed government, mainly because it was taught by a football coach who was doing double duty. Apparently he wasn't fond of government either, because the boys in the class could usually get him off topic by asking him to diagram (American-style of course) football plays. I learned more about football (which I still love) than I did about government (which I still loathe).

Well Freida, your question about Maths I and II caused a brief discussion between DH and I, and then sent me off to find the exam papers (yes, I am a hoarder and saved them).
Maths I asked about Matrices, geometry, quadratics, number theory, statistics.
Maths II has induction, calculus, complex numbers and something that looks like more geometry :)

Our school year began in the first week of February. We had two weeks holiday in May, two more in September and 7 weeks from the third week in December. Now the kids have four terms, three lots of two weeks holidays and only 6 weeks at Christmas (which of course is summer here).
In Primary school we had one teacher. We had a weekly lesson in the library with the librarian, and in Grade 7 we had a music class. Every week we listened to a singing programme from the radio which was piped into the classroom.
In High School we had a home room and teachers came to us. We ventured out for PE, Home Economics or Woodwork/Metalwork and music. By the time I was in Year 11 we had a language laboratory that we used once a week, and because not all the students in my class did exactly the same subjects, some left to go to another classroom. By the time my kids got to high school, the teachers stayed put and the kids moved, which meant they had to carry around heavy bags of books all the time. We had lockers outside the classroom to leave our books in.
I have looked at my class photo from Year 12 and there are 7 girls and 26 boys, so not the even spread we had in primary school.

Wow! Kath, that's a lot to learn in Maths. Your coursework was more advanced than what I took in high school. I had algebra, plane and solid geometry, and trig in h.s. but I didn't get into linear algebra, calculus, and statistics until college/univ.

Thanks for your description of the terms and holidays of the Australian school year and how & where the classes were/are taught.

The reason I am interested in these things is an on-going debate in the US that our students don't spend near enough time actually in school compared to students in other countries and there's not enough consistency in the way they are being taught -- each state has its own standards; there is no 'national curriculum' per se.

Some people advocate what the French do in primary and secondary education: they have a national curriculum so that no matter what part of France a school is in, each student and peers will be studying the same thing. This makes it easier for students transferring from place to place within the country, where the instruction could be either more advanced or lagging behind the attendee's former school (a notorious problem in the US).

Much is made of students in some countries (I should have checked which ones) who attend school 200 or more days each school year and spend long days there (I think Japan may be one). On the other hand is Finland, which was the subject of a recent American television program, where the students actually have short days at school including break times for going outdoors to play and roughhouse, frequent holidays, and teachers given a lot of discretion as to what they teach and when. One teacher was supervising his students while they made hunting knives. Finnish students regularly perform at the top in international testing so this obviously works for them.

Another criticism of American schools: The summer vacation is too long, typically 8 to 10 weeks. However, this is considerably shorter than when I was in school in the 1950s and 60s: we got 12 to 14 weeks. The 'experts' say that children lose too much of what they learn during long breaks from school. Hmmm, I remember summer vacation from school as being packed with learning activities. We had the summer reading program at the library; we had swimming and diving lessons; we had a couple of weeks of arts & crafts classes; 1- and 2-week sessions of away-from-home camps; family vacations to stay with relatives or to see the sights in the USA, etc. I remember one summer that I attended five different Vacation Bible Schools (my own Lutheran church's, and those of my friends' churches that I was invited to: Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God, and Church of Christ). We did something at the Catholic Church too, but I don't think it was called Bible School. My mother was firmly of the opinion: The wider the experience, the better.

What did you all do during summer vacation from school?

That I can answer, I worked!
From about 12 years old, I spent my summer holidays and the weekends starting with Easter working in cafes attached to the local Butlin's Funfair which was an indoor park mostly excepting for the Big Dipper scenic railway. I did about an eight hour day collecting tea cups and later helping prepare food, washing up dishes and serving on the counter as I got older.
The money helped to pay for my expensive school uniform, buy a second-hand bike and squirrel away winter pocket money. I took the last week of the holiday off to stay with my maternal grandparents.
I didn't feel hard done by, working while other children could play. I was glad I had something productive to do during the weekends and the long break which was around mid-July to the end of September, as I recall.

Annpan, I worked during summer break once I got to be a teenager, as did my brothers. So did a lot of other American kids; but before age 12, because of U.S. child labor laws (with a few exceptions such as boys delivering newspapers and mowing lawns and girls babysitting and doing light cleaning for a neighbor, etc.), our summers were spent doing other activities like the ones I listed above. I don't doubt there were a lot of kids who did nothing but goof off, too.

When my sons were in school (one graduated from h.s. in 2003, the other in 2006), there were so many kids who had part-time jobs during the school year (not just during summer) that some schools allowed those who worked to take all their classes before noon. They were not necessarily kids who needed to work, either; they just wanted to for the spending money and to get out of going to classes all day. It became a problem when too many of these students were coming up short on the credits for classes required for graduation. Parents and school boards wrangled over this until it was decided that students could no longer have a part-time job that started before 4.00 pm. Well, the students howled about that!! I'm not sure how it was resolved. I bet that parents and kids both, nowadays, would be more than happy for the teenage students to have any kind of part-time jobs. Well, that is, the ones who don't want government largesse...but I won't go any further into that fraught subject.

You don't recall what you did during your long breaks before you began working at Butlin's? If you do, be sure to let us know. I always like reading about other people's experiences. :-)

Before I was 11, I played at the nearby Public Gardens with my younger sister. We had to present ourselves at the entrance once an hour so that my mother could see us from the front window of our flat. Some kind person left two home made scooters with concrete wheels lying there once. We took them but I hung a notice from them to the effect of saying that they had been found, in case they belonged to other children but no one claimed them.
Were those summers always fine? I remember also spending warm days playing on the beach when my mother worked at Butlins. We had to present ourselves to her there regularly as she sat in a booth taking fares for the rides. Sometimes we were able to pair up with smaller children who weren't allowed to ride on their own or I was allowed to play throwing balls at a target at a booth to attract customers when there weren't any.
When I was 11, I went to a Girl Guide camp for a week, I still have a photo of that! When I returned my mother had a job of looking after a neighbour's two children for me while their mother worked in the afternoon. I took them for ambling walks to watch tennis at the open air public courts and then to the Gardens. I only took them to the beach once as they ran away in opposite directions and one went towards the fast flowing river that ran into the sea. It was so scary that I never went again. Luckily a couple went after one child for me while I ran after the other!
I suppose we were lucky living near the beach but I missed living in the large house with my maternal grandparents once the Second World War was over. They had a big garden with a swing and a marquee where we had afternoon tea in the summer. Quite a different life style.

Small g'daughter has left with only a few 'loud moments' when trying to help in the kitchen (too many cooks). But she was unsettled by the clocks 'going back' . . . aren't we all . .. and having a two hour chat with her Daddy in the small hours.

Frieda, I can't remember many ages/times when we did this or that from 'Little School' (started at 4 yrs). It was very small with only about 40 kids.
We seemed to cover the usual Arithmetic, although I have NO memory of counting, doing sums when v young so obviously I took it in with little trouble. Tables were learned by rote from about 7 yrs. 'New Maths' hadn't been discovered.
The same with writing. I must have absorbed it. Not familiar with the term 'cursive', must be what we call joined-up.
Reading I found almost impossible. I saw no connection with written words and the sound they made. I think the teacher was using the phonetic method, no-one gave us extra/individual help and we weren't encouraged at home (my two younger brothers had the same problem). I still can't spell and I think suffer/ed from 'word blindness' which probably has a much more fancy name these days.
Other subjects taught from about the age of 7-8 were Nature Study (never called Science then), History, Geography (lots about Australia), and Scripture/RE (Doctrine in RC schools), still a compulsory subject in all English schools . .. as was Assembly. It was always held each morning with prayers, a hymn and maybe a short talk. In bigger schools classes often take it in turn to put on some sort of 'performance' set around a suitable theme.
We did lots of singing, music with percussion instruments, art and handicrafts.
PE took the form of 'physical jerks' and some sports in the playground but we had no school field and too few pupils for team games.
There were no 'extras' in those days and no 'Health Ed' even through secondary school.
The day started at 9am - 12.30 - lunch - 2pm-4pm. Most schools these days finish at about 3 - 3.30.
Terms (these days) Autumn 1st week in Sept - just before Xmas with a week half-term late Oct.
Spring Term Early Jan - Easter, half term week usually late Feb.
Summer Term April (depending on Easter) to late July, half term used to be at Whitsun now late May.
Holidays are now shorter due to Govt demands and 'National Curriculum' (hollow laugh).

Our summer hols had little structure except for a two week break at the seaside with my Mother. Dad never came which meant we could relax . . though probably too much for Mother's idea of a restful time!
Summer camps don't/didn't happen in England except in maybe the poorest areas where charities arranged for slum kid to get some fresh air camping etc.
Didn't do 'holiday jobs' until I was at College . . .not practical before as I was at boarding school, which also meant I had no friends to spend time with outside school terms.
My brothers were made to work for my Father during the summer at his place of business; not considered suitable...

Frieda, I don't recall having any exposure to science until I got to high school. The same for geometry, algebra, etc. Even then, we got to choose between biology, chemistry, or physics. .I chose biology, so know virtually nothing about either chemistry or physics. In biology, it helped if one had artistic talents: e.g. we had to grow bean sprouts at home, then draw each phase of their unfurling, daily. I remember I got an A+.

What did we do summers? During grammar school, we had reading contests, with a prize for who read the most books. I won, because I read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries, plus a plethora of horse and dog books. Also, we had swimming lessons, summer camp for 8 weeks in the mountains, and art lessons at the High Museum in Atlanta.

During high school summers, I worked. I was a camp counselor, teaching archery. Still recall the first $100 check I earned for 8 weeks.

As for our school year, we started just after Labor Day, and finished in late May. (these were the days of no air conditioning in the deep south, and concentration waned). We always had a final school year party, usually going to a private club to swim. During the school year, we made "field trips" in grammar school: e.g. to a dairy, to a working farm, to the CocaCola Factory, and on a history walk down Peachtree Battle Avenue in Atlanta.

In high school, our senior year we had a final class trip to Nassau, Bahamas: one of our classmates was from a wealthy family in Nassau and her dad chartered a private plane for us all to fly down to a hotel he owned for 4 days. Sheer bliss, and our first taste of rum, etc.

Vee, the jobs were certainly not sanctioned and I wasn't supposed to work by my Grammar school rules. I said I was14 to start with and no one questioned me or others at the cafes where they were glad of our cheap labour. I recollect that we were sent home or elsewhere in the funfair if a food inspector came! That seemed to be the extent of authority in those days.
Once a couple of the mistresses from my school came into the cafe and saw me manning a counter. They left the place as though they hadn't seen me although I smiled at them! They must have known that since the Government had changed the school entry from privately funded to free, for all the children who had passed the eleven-plus scholarship, there would be some from poorer families who needed their children to work. The war had turned things upside down. My mother, no longer able to work in her profession as a pianist, managed as best she could on the small post-war wage she received from my father after having had Army pay for some years and then there was an unexpected post -war baby to provide for!
They did well to keep me and my sister at school until we were 16 and turned a deaf ear to people who said we should be working and bringing in a regular wage after we turned 15.
I expect the summers had wet days even in Sussex, it was England after all but I just recall warm days then!
.

Interesting read. I was an Air Force brat and changed schools six times. There were three different school systems, one went to Gr. 12, the second went to Gr.13 and the third one--Quebec--you graduated in Gr. 11 and had to be fluently bilingual. Fortunately, I had the personality and ability to survive and thrive in all that. Not all kids were so lucky.

My kids had a great school system. In kindergarten they were taught by Mr. A, a very well-loved openly gay young man and parental involvemnt in elementary school was encouraged. The parents signed up to help out. The enivronment was stressed as well as knowledge of first nations. For example in kindergarten they had a big fish tank in which they raised salmon smolts and learned the salmon life cycle. After a few months, each kid was given a jar of the salmon fry and they walked to a salmon enhancement stream and released the fish into the wild. Kids were sent to school with reusable snack containers and helped with the school recycling. In kindergarten the children were sent for half a day to outdoor school, located about an hour and a half from here and learned more about the environment and first nations people. In Grade two, they went there for a week. In Grade four, they were sent for three days to a traditional long house of the Squamish people which was run by their elders. I was a parent helper in that trip and the kids were divided up into clans, with our own designated sleeping area (on boards) with a firepit. There were five other firepits and an elder was assigned to us. We had a traditional naming ceremony and each group was taugh different things. We were weavers and were taught how to strip the cedar fromthe trees, soak the strips etc and make cedar blankets, baskets etc. Another group were fishers and they were taught how to make weirs, catch salmon and prepare them. We all made stone soup one night, using lava rocks heated in the fire to boil the water. we had our own clan, with our own particular fire in the longhouse. The elders told us traditional stories. Amazing time.

Sex education started in kindergarten. Bless Meg Hickley wherever you are today. She was the public health nurse who taught us all, including the parents who were invited the preceeding night to listen to what was being taught and how to help our kids as well. She had a great sense of humor, stressed how important it was to teach correct names for body parts and that now was the time to start talking to kids so it would continue to be a natural, healthy thing, and not something embarrassing. It works. We never had a problem talking to our kids. She came in and taught kids at other times during their education as well. The sex education classes were encouraged and not mandatory, but I dont know any families who did not particpate.

As for the the three R's, in kindergarten Mr. A took note of how the kids learned. There were two Gr.1 classes, one of which was more...

I love you all! You give me so much to think about. I did a quick read through all your information, but it's going to take me several more readings to assimilate things.

Some quick comments before I cogitate further:

Vee, you obviously learned ways to get around your 'word blindness' (is it dyslexia?). Was it something you worked through gradually on your own or was there a moment of sudden comprehension? I've had both experiences -- not with reading which always came easy to me -- but with other subjects (I had a light-bulb-coming-on moment with calculus). I always thought that if I plugged away and practiced long enough that I might learn to draw. Alas, I never did.

Mary, I would've been up the creek in your biology class because I couldn't draw!

Oh yes! I almost forgot about field trips. My favorite was to the planetarium. That was enchanting. My least favorite field trip was in sociology class in the 11th grade: we toured a funeral home. Actually only some of the class did because they were able to opt out since parental consent was required. My mother allowed me to go (insisted is more like it) because she thought it might be a valuable learning experience that not all life is pleasant.

Janalyn, my DH and I moved our boys from school to school several times. I always worried about them, but I guess, as you say you did, they had the personalities and abilities to survive and thrive. I've asked each of them if they ever resented being uprooted so often but they said they didn't because it was just the way things were.

It's great to hear people say good things about their school systems, Janalyn, but it sure seems a rarity! :-)

Speaking of dyslexia: I long ago concluded that I have "math dyslexia." Math was my worst subject in school and I almost seem to have a "block" about anything numerical, which made it difficult shelving books in my library jobs.

I forgot one important activity: Girl Scouts. This was mandatory for almost everyone and filled the afternoons after school. In our younger years, we were of course "Brownie Scouts". My mother was a "leader" one year. One year I was a counselor at the rival camp, whose name escapes me....

Woodnymph, you reminded me about extracurricular activities and how important they are considered in the U.S. school system in evaluating whether students are 'well rounded'. Many college/university applications ask (or they used to, at any rate) for a list of an applicant's outside-of-classroom pursuits: sports, club memberships, volunteering for civic and philanthropic programs, student council membership, being on the 'Yearbook' committee, publishing a school newspaper, and any activity that is not 'required' under the curriculum. At my high school when we were seniors, in the school yearbook we got to list under our pictures all the extracurricular activities we had done during our four years in h.s.

For instance, I had basketball (4 years), marching band (4 years), stage band (3 years), student council (3 years), class officer (3 years), newspaper staff (2 years), French club (2 years), Future Homemakers of America (4 years), etc. Other honors could be listed as well, such as class favorite, homecoming queen or princess, FHA beau (the girls got to choose their favorite male classmate and he got his picture taken for the yearbook in the home economics lab kitchen, usually wearing an apron and brandishing a skillet or rolling pin, and with a silly, embarrassed grin on his face), and FFA sweetheart (the boys in Ag -- agriculture -- chose their favorite female classmate, who got her picture taken wearing, for some reason, tight stretch lame pants; a blouse with an enormous jabot; a tight, tricked-out waistcoat; and western boots).

How seriously were/are extracurricular activities taken in your schools?

OMG Frieda how did you have time to do any school work?!
English pupils must have been very 'unrounded' in my day as there was no such thing as a student council, Yearbooks, class favourites and photos of favourite boys/girls, even in a mixed school would not have happened (see thread on 1950's attitudes to s.e.x. 'Homecoming' anything (what does 'homecoming mean?) or a school newpaper, never happened although there may have been a magazine aimed at old boys/girls (pupils from years gone by). Ours used to list b/m/d's and we all planned to write in with birth announcements but with no mention of marriage having taken place. We thought that very daring . . but of course never followed it through.
When applying for college etc sports teams were considered important and older pupils (no-one was known as a student then) got themselves into netball/lacrosse/hockey matches however many two left feet they had. Musical activities were encouraged with a school orchestra and choir. I don't think any schools over here have a marching band, or cheer leaders waving their pompoms. Come to that few parents would turn up for school sports matches, they were not considered any sort of Big Deal back in those days. Try and get excited by a game of any sort on a muddy pitch in freezing rain, hail even snow with your knees turning blue and a sadistic PE teacher bellowing at you . . . you really don't want to be there and your parents are just glad to be in the warm well away from their begrimed and bruised offspring . . .
I have just read out Frieda's post to my husband to brighten up his evening and he asks for a copy of the photo of you in the tight lame pants and cowboy boots.

Mary I sympathise with you regarding maths. I seemed to have been fine with Arithmetic when younger but by secondary school (11 upwards) I became frozen with terror by the ancient hag that taught the subject and gibbered like a fool when asked the most simple question.
Maths teaching in this country has for years been considered totally inadequate. Many mathematicians seem unable to understand why a child can't comprehend the subject.
I also enjoyed doing diagrams of sections of plants or the heart in Biology, but I was always good at drawing and it beat trying to work out chemical equations . . . which I never understood.

My mother told me once that I must have a mental block regarding math because no one could be that much poorer in one subject than all the rest. Alas, if that were the case, I never unblocked.

I'm sure I've told my school story here before--begun in a one-room school a la Laura Ingalls, learned to read at four, first grade at five which meant I skipped fifth grade because the schools were set up for Grades 1 through 4 every year and then Grades 5 and 7 one year and 6 and 8 the next, but that only worked if you started at age 6.

I started high school (Grades 9-12) at age 12 and in dresses above the knee little-girl style when everyone else was wearing calf length (traumatic) in 1948 in a poor and rural county in Kentucky. It was soon enough after the war that we still had several "emergency" teachers, meaning they either were not completely qualified or were past retirement age. Had it not been for my excellent teacher/mother, I probably wouldn't have ever learned much. We did have a few really good teachers, but I can count them on one hand, and the subject offerings were basic.

I mostly played my way through HS. When I got to college, I made a C on my first test, for which I thought I was prepared, and was absolutely crushed. It's pretty sad that I had to learn how to study at that point, but things did look up and I graduated from college as an adult student a mere quarter of a century after I began.

I went to business college after my first year of regular college and found clerical work to be where my talents lay, got a job, married young, and had my only child, a daughter who now has her PhD and has made me very proud--my best accomplishment.

I agree with Vee about the lack of interest shown by my schools about after school activities. Almost the only thing I did after school was homework, up to three hours a night by the time I was 15. I did perform in the school play and that meant having after school rehearsals.
I was hopeless at maths too. I had hoped to be a pharmacist and took Latin classes but I would have needed to get good marks for maths so that idea was shelved and I went into library work instead for a couple of years after I left school.
I had a real B...of a librarian in charge so I decided to go for a change of employment and a careers adviser suggested applying for the Civil Service. I passed the exam and stayed there until I migrated to Australia, looking for adventure!

Ha! Vee, I wasn't going to admit to wearing that get-up.

'Homecoming' is when all the old boys/girls, as you call them, come home to attend a weekend in late September or early October of festivities: a pep rally (usually on Thursday night with a bonfire), a Friday night football game during which at half-time the 'homecoming court' (a girl chosen as a 'princess' from each grade -- 9 through 12 -- with her football player escort) is presented and the queen is crowned with a rhinestone atrocity and given a large bouquet of roses, over which she gasps in feigned surprise (it's always the princess from grade 12 that gets elevated) and blubbers until her mascara runs (or maybe it doesn't nowadays, being waterproof). The next day the queen gets to ride in the homecoming parade down the main drag (street) on a decorated float (or sitting on the trunk/boot lid of a brand new convertible with her feet in the backseat) graciously waving at all the parade watchers. You know the drill. :-)

On Saturday morning there's an assembly in the high school auditorium or civic center (for both present and past students and their families and even the town's folk who never attended any of the town schools) and everyone gets to sing the school 'fight' song. Afterwards there's usually a big catered lunch or the individual classes of alumni can meet separately and have their own lunches so they can catch up on the latest gossip, have 'business' meetings, and generally 'chew the fat'. Depending on whether the home team wins the football game, on Saturday night there's either a victory dance or a consolation dance where all ages are welcome.

Anyway, that's homecoming as it was (and still is, I think) in my Iowa hometown. Most American schools and towns celebrate some sort of 'homecoming' but the details will likely vary.

Well, Vee, you are probably getting a glimmer of why many American students don't do so well on international scholastic testing: the 'extracurriculars' put the squeeze on the 'curriculars'.

My school experience was split into Primary (K-6) then Secondary (7-12), spread across 3 different states in the US (Michigan, West Virginia and New York).

We started with kindergarten (5 yr) where we learned the alphabet, counting, colors, and so on - something that is more like pre-school nowadays. We didnâÂÂt learn to read until Grade 1 (6 yr) - Dick and Jane anyone? But after that, I donâÂÂt really remember the sequence or progression of learning the basics - English/reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, history and science were lessons during the day, but âÂÂscienceâ was a general topic with just short units of the basics of various subjects. This school was in a rather depressed state, so there wasnâÂÂt much beyond the basics (we did get a music teacher in occasionally who would lead us through singalongs, and we had about one field trip a year to places like the zoo or state capitol). A few of us were offered a foreign language because the 1st grade teacher could speak French, and volunteered to teach us. The primary school focused on basics, but class structure was fairly freeform with no imposed standard, and the teachers encouraged creativity: we did a lot of story writing, art contests, projects, plays, and so on. It doesnâÂÂt sound like much, but when I moved after this school to New York state, which is known for good school standards, I was ahead of my Grade 7 class in almost everything.

I experienced the secondary school structure of âÂÂjunior highâ (7-9) and âÂÂsenior highâ (10-12), and this is where we had subject expert teachers, and we moved from class to class. Junior high was when we had our last generalized science and math classes, also âÂÂdistributionâ classes of half or quarter-year sessions to expose us to art, music, shop, home economics, and various foreign languages. In Senior High, these all became elective, full-year classes. Junior High was another couple years of general math (number theory, logic, sets, and so on), then Senior High began years dedicated to algebra, geometry, trig, etc (and began the dreaded New York Regents exams, a standard exam given statewide each year in designated subjects). General science in junior high became in senior high biology, chemistry & physics, each with lab sessions for hands-on experience of the phenomena. (OK, who else got the esters lab in chemistry? Someone stole the butyric acid every year and left an open vial in some corner of the school euuwwwww!) We did get a mandated âÂÂhealthâ class but it was basically a propaganda class not to drink or drug. Waste of time! And gym classes, which I despised. âÂÂEnglishâ classes turned into mostly literature classes, so I actually learned most of my grammar from foreign language classes: Latin, French and Spanish were all offered because they had Regents standards; my school didn't offer any beyond the Regents...

Another one here who learned to read on "Dick and Jane." (See Spot run).

Frieda, your description of high school extracurricular activities sounds exactly like my own, with cheer leaders, football games, Homecoming Queens. We also had a big May Day Festival, with a May Queen and her court.

I hated our gym classes. Tennis was the only subject I ever flunked. (Still don't understand the rules today).

In high school, we had 2 or 3 years of mandatory Latin, and a modern language on top of that. (German, French, or Spanish). We read a lot of English literature. I recall hating "Macbeth" for all its footnotes. We had assigned summer reading in high school, as well: I hated "Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare", but quite liked "Les Miserables." When we studied American literature, on the list were "The Great Gatsby", "Giants in the Earth", and, of course, GWTW, this being Atlanta, GA.

I did not join a lot of clubs in high school as some did. The only one I recall was a Writing Club, which fed my interest in creative writing early on.

More grist for the mill. Thanks to everyone!

Carolyn, you have mentioned your schooling before, but I'm always delighted with an encore. Your experience shows that no matter what opportunities a student is given, it really does depend on the student (who has at least one good parent or guardian) to make the most of them. Americans are mystified that the U.S. spends more per student on education than any other country, but U.S. students are not that much better for it...and possibly worse. Donnamira mentions that her school in the depressed state gave her the education that put her ahead of the much-vaunted New York State school she later attended. I'm proud of that depressed state whichever one it was.

Carolyn, when I first read your explanation for skipping the fifth grade, I thought: "Huh? What? How did that work?" So I wrote it out on paper and, sure enough, it makes complete sense! :-)

Annpan, that's a lot of hours of homework you did! I wasn't always dedicated to doing my homework when I was supposed to: I wound up doing a lot of it on the school bus in the morning before it was due first class period. I often didn't study my weekly spelling list until about ten minutes before I was due to take a test. I was lucky that I had an excellent memory (then) and got away with 100s, or only one wrong, most of the time. My sons detested homework, and we were always going rounds over whether they had spent enough time doing it. I was a hypocrite, as any parent has to be at times.

I've heard many, many women and girls say that they are terrible at mathematics. There must be something to it, but I was fortunate enough to never have many problems -- like Kath and Donnamira I enjoyed it. However, I never got to use the higher mathematics I took very much, so I've forgotten most everything I ever learned. Still, when I'm doing pencil puzzles, I'll always do the math and logic problems first because they're my favorites, and I'll leave tedious crosswords unfinished.

Oh, Vee, I meant to ask: What do you think of the comprehensive schools? I don't always understand why my English friends complain so much about them. But if I really want to get them riled up I ask about the old-style schools, of which they have very little good to say either!

Frieda many English folk, especially of 'our' generation have plenty to say about comprehensive schools and most of it is not good!

The subect needs to start with a brief history lesson going back to 1944. The end was in sight for WWII and a bright new future was being planned by the movers and shakers, do-gooders and politicians.
Up til then secondary education (post 11 years) was very mixed. Children from better off homes would go to private schools (often especailly for boys Public Schools) usually expensive, ancient foundations that produced the leaders of the Nation; the Church, Army, Navy, Oxford and Cambridge and the vast tribes of Civil Servants needed to administer the Empire.
Bright children, from less well-off homes had the chance of a good education if they received a scholarship (after sitting an exam in English maths and IQ). If they passed they were offered a place at a grammer school and their fees were paid by the local authority (County or City). It was also possible to enter the grammer school as a fee-paying child.
They usually provided an excellent formal education and it was the way 'up' for many disadvantaged kids.
However, if you failed to win a place, or never even took the exam a child would either stay on at school until 14 or transfer to a school where more practical subjects were taught.
In 1944 the system changed to offer EVERY child a free place at whatever secondary was deemed best suited to their needs. Many more kids were able to go to grammer school and get their feet on the ladder to success (as it was thought)
The less academic kids went to new schools known as 'Secondary Moderns' where they were taught lessons with emphasis on practical trades (especially for the boys).
By the mid-50's it was considered wrong that a child's future should have been determined by an exam at so young an age. That they should would be far better off ALL being educated under one roof, with a 'level playing field'.
This is wonderful in principle but hasn't worked so well in practice. This egalitarian idea has often led to the bright children not being 'pushed', the middle groups often marking time and those of the lowest ability often sinking without trace.
Sometimes the schools have become too big so teachers/pupils hardly know each other.
Of course I am generalising here. Our two older children attended the local 'comp' (we couldn't afford private ed) and both did well.
Son after Uni, works as an MD in computer forensics and daughter had a top job in a London PR firm . . . which she has now given up to travel . .. she and her DH are now somewhere in Central American heading South!
Check them out at 'Prawns for Breakfast' via google.
And don't get any one over here started on political meddling in education!

I was lucky and benefited under the 1944 law that Vee just mentioned but feelings were still mixed about the change even in 1948 when I started my education at the Girls Grammar School. Some of the teachers didn't like having the influx of bright girls from lower class families and showed it but most of them coped with the extra pupil load from the usual classes of 20 fee paying children to 30 or more.
The only thing that annoyed me was that the sports mistress took the former private school girls with some knowledge of tennis and coached them exclusively on the hard courts. She wanted a good team to play in the inter-school tournaments. The rest of us were given a quick lesson in playing and scoring and were sent to the grass courts where we soon found hitting the ball to each other was more fun than playing properly!
My younger sister and I both went to the Grammar school but the post-war sister, ten years gap there, went to the local Secondary one and learned a queer kind of writing that I still have problems reading. It seems to be all vertical strokes and was one of the many educational experiments.

If there's a part of school that more girls/women hate than math class, it has to be gym class! Do you all agree? Mercy, I've heard some painful stories about sadistic P.E. instructors and humiliating situations.

I really didn't mind gym class most of the time, but one part of it most of my classmates and I dreaded every year was the physical fitness test for American schoolchildren that President Kennedy endorsed and gave his name to. I think it began around 1962 when I was in the sixth or seventh grade. There were ten activities that we were put through to measure our strength, flexibility, stamina, and whatever else the government wanted to collect data on about the health of the youth populace. Apparently it was a follow-up to a similar program that President Eisenhower inaugurated in 1956 but became more famous under the more glamorous Kennedy.

I don't remember all of the activities because I didn't have trouble with most of them, but sit-ups were nothing but torture. In those days we did them with our legs straight with classmates holding our ankles so we couldn't shift around (later girls were allowed to do sit-ups with bent knees). I could do about ten before the agony set in: my tailbone hurt like hell. I pleaded with Coach A for something to put under my butt for padding between me and the hard wooden gym floor but she was unsympathetic. The girl who was holding my ankles took pity on me and gave me her folded-up cardigan and we slipped it under when Coach A wasn't looking. It helped and I managed to do the minimum number of sit-ups to qualify for President Kennedy's certificate of physical fitness. My tailbone was bruised badly enough that my mother took me to the doctor. He did an x-ray and diagnosed a bone spur that was aggravated by the sit-ups. The next year my mother made sure that Coach A understood my problem and thereafter I and anyone else who wanted one got to use a butt pad. However, there were some girls who could only pass about three of the ten activities and of course they didn't get a certificate. Our generation of girls was deemed a puny bunch, and I guess we were; but compared to a lot of girls (and boys too) nowadays we were almost Amazons.

Was there the same fixation on youth fitness in the UK, Australia, Canada, and elsewhere? Were you all "certified" as fine physical specimen or shamed if you weren't?

I remember doing something similar to that. They graded you gold silver and bronze---if you met the levels--- and you got a very nice badge you could sew on your coat. I think it started when I was nine. We could bend our knees on the situps tho and I remember practising them at home with my feet hooked under the couch - it was the only one of the ten I was having problems meeting the gold standard at the start.
Wel, I liked math and I liked PE so am going against the flow here :). I was the only girl in the class to get gold and my brother, a year behind me, also got gold. So I do recall being proud about it. We walked a couple of miles to school each day and had huge forests to play in, so maybe that had something to do with it. Also, I was quite the tomboy.
I dont remember there being a hall of shame or anything if you couldnt do it, but we all did want those badges...

Up until 11 I was in a mixed school. I recall that we just did P.T. (Physical Training) in the playground and ran races, played Rounders etc. Girls usually were separated from the boys.
In the Grammar school there was a splendid Gym which also doubled as the place for Morning Assembly where we had prayers and hymns sung with the accompaniment of a lovely organ. We were upset when it went during the school summer holiday. The gym classes were ruining it and made it too costly to maintain, we were told.
We had climbing bars there, a vaulting horse and other equipment. Our age group was divided into four separate classes of 30, ranked by the months we were born in. My class, the Alphas, had the youngest and we weren't as strong as the other classes but when we had an exhibition in front of a judge she said she was amused that the Alphas weren't very good at easy exercises but were surprisingly good at the later more difficult ones. I think we were annoyed by the way the other classes showed us up at the early stages and threw ourselves into the competition on seeing the complacent and patronising looks we were getting!

Thanks, Vee, for the elucidation of the comprehensive schools versus the old-style secondary ones. The former seem to be more similar to American secondary public schools. I can understand the perception of elitism in the 'old-style'...no, it's more than perception; it was elitist by most accounts. One English friend summed it up this way: "The more useless and arcane the subjects taught (such as dead languages), the more admired was the schooling."

I still run across that attitude in the UK and in the US, too. It's probably true everywhere there's a stratification by class. Yeah, any time the politicians start meddling they make the mess an even bigger mess, despite their 'good' intentions.

Vee, I plugged in 'Prawns for Breakfast' and got many pages of recipes. Are your DD and SIL doing a blog of their travels under that title? If so, I can't find it, but would like to if you can direct me. Giving up a good job to travel might seem a daft thing to do, but it's something I can completely understand! :-)

Friedag, I understand the urge in "giving up a good job to travel" very well too. I have done it twice! Chucking the Civil Service to go to Australia was reasonable as I only really intended to go for the two years I had to stay in return for the Ten Pound trip and expected that I could return to my old job.
The same went for the return to the UK, after thirty years, on an intended one year sabbatical from the University job. (I stayed for over twelve years)
I do like my lifelines!
You will deduce from this that while I get restless I also have a streak of caution!

annpan, my Grammar School ( known as a High School, though in some areas a 'High School' was really a Secondary Modern, perhaps so-named to make the parents feel better about the education) there appeared no 'class' wars between the staff and the pupils. Everyone was treated equally. As an RC school it had more than its fair share of pupils from really large families. A number of my class mates had 7-8 brothers and sisters and no one saw any shame in wearing a second hand uniform. Our blazers had very bright fancy stripes and in the mid 50's cost about 5 guineas. My Mother bought mine with plenty of room for growth. The sleeves came down to my knees and it lasted until I was about 16, getting increasingly shiny round the elbows.
Thank God in the UK we didn't have to do any formal tests in gym/games. I didn't enjoy climbing the ropes, hanging from wall bars or jumping over the horse. We were also spared athletics. The school founder felt it looked 'unladylike' for girls to run round a track perspiring! Winter games were lacrosse and netball and summer was tennis, just knocking a ball round a sagging net, and rounders.
Unusually for that time the school had a indoor swimming pool. I had never learnt to swim. There were no pools in my home town . . although my Father had learnt by being thrown in the Avon with a rope around his middle (sink or swim method). I didn't enjoy the pool's chlorinated water nor the temp. often hovering around the low 60's F and, after a 'friend' who had just mastered the art of doggy-paddle tried to practice 'life saving' on me almost drowning me in the process, I avoided swimming ever since.

Frieda, I should have added that some areas of England have retained their grammar school and there is huge competition by parents to get their children a place. Often families move to one of these areas, which has led to a significant rise in house prices.
I missed out on learning an arcane language but now feel I would have benefited from some Latin. And whatever the pros and cons of a Public/Grammar school education against that offered by a comprehensive there is no denying they turn out well-rounded, usually polite and confident young people who go on to do well in future life.

The Prawns for Breakfast site is below.
If you hit 'Select a Month' then 'July' you will be at the start of their travels.
DH has been working on the map for them but has got way behind. The blog was originally intended to be one that concentrated mainly on food. S-in-L sees himself as an TV chef in the making (he still has some way to go). I find the other 'articles' on travel, people, places much more interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prawns for Breakfast

Vee - I think it's great they are doing this! When my husband and I were in Costa Rica for three weeks a year and a half ago, we ate a lot of rice, beans and plantains. A lot. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. :)
*******
A major change has taken place in the past decade or so in our school systems. Girls are outpacing the boys academically. It used to be in university that girls were in the minority in the professional fields etc, but now the reverse is true. Educators in this province are trying to figure out why the present system seems to be failing the boys ie) not engaging them. Any ideas what is going on?

Have you noticed this too in your country?

Thanks, Vee, for the link. I'll read the blog from the beginning. It sounds like great fun and a grand adventure for your DD & SiL.

Janalyn, the same thing has been observed in the U.S.: females generally achieving more than males academically and replacing many of them in certain professions. I asked my older son (age 29) why he thinks it's happening. His rather flippant reply: "Political correctness." But he considered it more thoughtfully and theorized: "Maybe it's because teaching is done more in the style that the girls are better at following than the boys." We kicked around whether there's been a feminization of education in the U.S. He thinks there probably has been, but it's up for debate whether that's a good or a bad thing -- or somewhere in between.

Vee, I hope I haven't given you too bad a picture of the class war! It was just that a couple of the teachers were a bit snobby. The pupils though did seem to form groups, sometimes of girls from the same location who would stick together on their bus or train, some for economic reasons, being easier to go out with someone who could afford to do the same things.
My main BF's parents were looking after a seaside retreat owned by wealthy people and when I stayed it was a real eye opener about how the rich are different! They had things in their home that I had only seen in films and the relegated dresses kept in the huge wardrobes were all designer models,
BTW, my maternal grandparents didn't want me to go to the Grammar school as they believed that mixing with a better or more monied class would make me discontented! I would say that it widened my view of the world. I never regretted the effort it took.
Re the school uniform, Initially we borrowed the necessary outlay for the winter one, including a gym slip and blazer and material for summer dresses which a friend made up.
All of this totalled more than my father's monthly wage!
These were passed down two years later to my sister when she attended that school and I won a grant which covered the older girl's uniform of a skirt and blouses with a second hand blazer. My earnings in the summer supplemented other necessities. All our books and stationery etc were free from the Government.

janalyn, we were a bit concerned when DD told us about their travel plans, especially their chosen destination(s), but have learnt to keep out mouths firmly shut; not easy for me!
Their eating experience let them down badly in Mexico City. Street Food led to over a week in/over the loo with high temps. aches and pains almost hallucinations. Later, after 15 hours on a chicken-bus DD visited a Dr who told her it was probably caused by the salsa left on the counter in the sun into which the Lord only knows what has been 'dipped'. They have been more cautious since then and at least were able to 'keep down' rice.
Re the problem with girls out-doing boys at school. The same has happened over here. I believe that more women are graduating from Medical School but have yet to catch up in subjects like Engineering.
It is said the 'Arts' syllabus are heavily weighted towards girls. popular female writers Austen, Bronte in English for eg. Less taught about wars and the stuff enjoyed by boys in History.

Interesting that Mary/woodnymph mentions having to study Gone With the Wind in her Atlanta school. Over here it would have been considered far too racy and light-weight for school girls.
Edna O'Brien describes it as being the only book in her village and when it came to the attention of the Parish Priest he held a ritual burning of it!

Vee, to be honest, GWTW is "racy and light-weight" but it does tell the history of a region from a female point of view and it does chronicle a destruction of a culture which actually occurred in history.

I have another question for Frieda, and others, re "corporal punishment" in your school days. Did it exist? I can distinctly recall my second grade teacher in Atlanta, taking a very bad boy across her knee and spanking him in front of the entire class. It is such a vivid memory, but I never saw it repeated. The usual punishment, if one was bad, was to be sent to the office of the Principal, or be made to stand out in the hall.

OTOH, my English BF can recall having his hands hit with a ruler by his teacher in his school days.

Do you all recall in "Little Women" how little Amy was subjected to corporal punishment for having "limes" and how Marmee took up for her?

Vee, sorry to hear of C & J's bout with Montezuma's (Moctezuma's) Revenge, but it's one of those unfortunate things that many visitors to Mexico have to endure. It used to be blamed on 'the water' but is more likely foodborne as the doctor said.

I see by your mention of a 'chicken bus' what one mode of transport they are using. How far south are they intending to go? My DH and I have driven the Pan American highway several times starting at Laredo, Texas . The hairiest part for us has been in Nicaragua and Honduras and then traversing the gap between Panama and Colombia. We had no problems in Colombia, but I've known plenty of people who have -- I hope things have improved. Anyway, we made it to Peru before giving up our rented car. I wanted to go all the way to Valparaiso and then over to Buenos Aires, but we ran out of time. Some people go all the way from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. There's a lot of good food to be had, but it helps to have a cast iron gut!

Mary, when I was in school 'corporal punishment' was an option but it was seldom inflicted until junior high (middle school) and high school, and then only on boys it seems, usually by coaches. The boys seemed to take 'pride' in the licks they took. I don't know how much it really 'traumatized' them. We girls were chastened by withering looks from teachers and we were mortified when we were sent to the Principal's office.

I do recall my second-grade teacher reprimanding me for talking too much. When I forgot and talked again, she was fed up so she took me by my shoulders and gave me a firm shake. Whoa! Nowadays that would be reason to fire the teacher since the effects of shaken-child syndrome are now known. But my mother thought I had it coming to me and she never faulted the teacher. Neither did I. I went right back to talking too much, but all teacher had to do was call me by name and give me 'that look' and I piped down.

Mary, I recall 'Amy and the limes' in Little Women now that you have mentioned it.

The scene of corporal punishment that I always think of is in Why Shoot the Teacher? by Max Braithwaite. Max was a young teacher in Saskatchewan in the 1930s. One of his oldest students was a towering farm boy who Max caught cutting pictures of naked tribal women from an encyclopedia. Max told the boy he had a choice of punishment, staying after school or being strapped across the hand. The boy chose the 'licks' because he had to get home after school to do his chores. Max, played by skinny Bud Cort of "Harold and Maude" fame, started giving the boy the strapping across his upturned palm. The boy didn't flinch and that made Max angry; so he got vicious. Finally a tear appeared in the corner of the boy's eye and Max gave up and threw the strap away in disgust, ashamed of himself.

It's interesting what books we were expected to read in school. We never read anything 'girly' because the boys wouldn't have been interested and they had to cater to the boys. The supposition being the girls would read anything.

Hahaha Frieda, the "talking too much" reminded me of my Grade school experience. I was talking with Johnny too much in Gr.1 and the two of us were told to go to the front of the class, and hold our palms out so Mrs. Ned could whap them with a ruler. Oh the shame....She was actually a nice lady, just that in those days, that is what teachers did. In Gr.2 Mrs Bryer, who I adored, made me go stand in the corner for the same thing. The STRAP was a thing of fear and loathing, an instrument of torture. We all knew kids who had gotten it, they were the stuff of school legends. In the same year, my beloved superball bounced out of the school playground into someone's yard behind a fence and I wouldnt go get it for fear of getting the strap from the Principal, someone who definitely was not my pal, in my mind. My best friend told the teacher about my superball and the next thing you know, the principal shows up and takes me to his office, assuring me that he was actually a nice guy and there was no studded leather whips hanging on his walls. And that I was to come to him or the teacher whenever I had any problems like escaping superballs. We went to get my ball together.

We were such polite kids. In Grade 3 I brought a jar of garter snakes for show and tell; at recess they escaped and went down the ventilators. I must have been one of those kids who always had their hand up in the air to answer questions, waving wildly and with sense of urgency. After lunch that same day, I started feeling ill, put my hand up in the air, waved wildly and was ignored by the teacher who was probably trying to give some other kid a chance. Minutes went by, I was turning green, and finally , nature took its course and I puked all over the floor. I distinctly recall the kid on my left saying, " EWWWW, She had chicken noodle soup for lunch."
After the janitor arrived, the teacher told us all that if extreme emergencies like needing to go to the bathroom urgently, we could just go and didnt need to wait for permission.

Frieda. DD and J are hoping to get as far South as possible, before they run out of money. They visited Brazil, Argentina and spent a Christmas Day in Uruguay (just the one day) for their extended honeymoon. J would love to be in Brazil for the football World Cup but that could lead to divorce proceedings.
They are relying on buses, or boats, for the whole trip. DD has a driving licence but, living in London has always used public transport so is very 'rusty'. J, and he must be almost the only young man in the world, has never learnt to drive. Apparently 'words' were exchanged with his Father when he wanted to learn, along the lines of "Well don't think you can borrow my car, or expect me to sit with you while you practice." To which the over-hasty teenage response was "Fine, see if I care. I'll just walk/cycle everywhere."
They hope to get from Panama to Columbia by water, a trip taking in various islands and lasting a few days. Apparently all the land crossings are closed because of unrest/drugs/ general ugliness. It's enough to turn a parent's hair grey . .if it wasn't grey already.

Ha, Vee, regarding grey hair--last Saturday I attended a family baby shower where I was one of two great-grandmothers present. A great-grandson told my stepdaughter, his Nana, he wanted to tell his other grandmother something. She asked which one, and he said, "The white one." That would be me!

Hee! So, Janalyn, you were one of 'those kids' too.

I was a good student. Indeed, I was an excellent student in many ways because I was interested in EVERYTHING and avid to learn. I usually made straight A's on my report cards in academic subjects, but in the 'Behavior' sections I often got ticks in the 'less than satisfactory' columns and comments such as: Frieda needs to learn to curb her enthusiasm. Frieda cannot sit still and be quiet. Frieda will not stay on task.

Some of my teachers found me obnoxious and if they'd known about ADD and ADHD, they would've labeled me as such and suggested that I should be prescribed Ritalin. Thank heavens they didn't know.

One of my sons had similar behavioral problems to mine, and his teachers (well, one in particular) thought he should have Ritalin. I had a parent-teacher conference, with a counselor and school psychologist sitting in, where they proceeded to tell me that my son had been acting very oddly. He had been pretending he was in an invisible box and he would use his hands above his head like he was trying to push up an invisible lid. I tried to smother a laugh, but it leaked out. All four of these 'professional' women stared at me in astonishment.

I tried to explain that my son had seen a program a few nights before about Marcel Marceau and he was only demonstrating what Marceau did: mime. Yeah, out of context it might look odd, but not if one understood what he was doing. My son's main teacher nodded as if the explanation satisfied her, but the psychologist said, rather huffily, that it was still not appropriate and she suggested that I get him some help, meaning Ritalin. I said, "No, thank you." They probably all thought: The apple didn't fall far from the tree.

How often were your marks/grades reported to your parents? What sort of comments did your parents make to you? Was 'report card' time a big deal or no big deal?

Naww, Frieda , teachers loved me. I was looking at my old report cards - "Janalyn has such a sunny disposition...she is a delight to teach..blah blah blah." I have two brothers who had to endure the "oh you are Janalyn's brother!" and expected them to be exactly like me. Caused problems for a few years.

I loved school, had some great teachers esp in the English Lit dept. They gave me a lot of room, I didnt even have to attend classes sometimes - got sent with a small group of others and we read books and did book reviews on them in another room without any teacher hovering over us. Awesome.

I'm no genious, just very curious, enthusiastic, and love learning about everything. I'm very laidback, I really dont care about grammar and spelling errors here. Just write and share your opinions, you lurkiers!! :)
Oh Im not a very good cooking and fail at housecleaning.

*cough, hmm, the edit thingy doesnt seem to work, otherwise I would correct some typos above. Alas, you will have to read though them.

Janalyn, I don't give a flying flip about other posters' typos, misspellings, or grammar. If I can't figure out what someone means, I'll ask for clarification, just as I hope they will ask me to clarify some of the stuff I post that's just about as clear as mud. I am often muddled because my brain gets ahead of my keyboarding. I am not a pedant. I only get self-conscious when there's a thread about a pedantic subject.

A few years ago I got emails from RPers (no one in present company) who said they were too intimidated to post anything in my threads. I suppose it was constructive criticism of sorts aimed at me, but good grief! I can't imagine being intimidating with all my goofiness.

Just catching up here.

When one of my sons was in second grade, and I was well and truly sick of listening to kids read the same books in reading time, I volunteered to go in to help with maths. I was astonished at the number of mothers who thought I was brave. We did telling the time and change from a dollar! I have always enjoyed maths, where there is one definite answer to work out, but especially algebra and quadratic equations.
We had very little sport or PE in primary school. In Year 5 we had netball (girls) or football (boys) matches with the adjacent class, otherwise it was only when we had student teachers. The school had Saturday morning sport for boys, but not for girls - those playing netball played for church teams.
At high school, we had PE and I generally enjoyed it except for the compulsory shower, which we tried hard to avoid. I didn't like athletics, but did like team games. In year 11 and 12 I played (field) hockey which was on Wednesday afternoons and meant missing the last two lessons of the day.
Corporal punishment wasn't that common at primary school. DH (who attended the same schools as me) had a mean teacher who hit the students on the knuckles with the edge of the ruler. I was a goody two shoes at school, who tried to be top of the class all the time and got reports with 'Kathy is a delight to teach' and similar comments. At high school I did get some that said 'Kathy talks too much'. The only times I was physically chastised by a teacher were a gentle smack on the bottom in Year 2 when I was kneeling on my chair with my bottom hanging out into the aisle, and a smack on the back of my legs with a ruler in Year 6 for talking. However, I was one of many - the teacher was out of the class, came back in to a lot of noise, said 'who was talking' and about 20 of us owned up and got the smack.

Looking back I was lucky that neither of my schools (junior or senior) dished out corporal punishment . . .not that we realised it at the time.
The worst thing I can remember from when I was about 8-9 was a younger boy, always very naughty, biting the teacher. She tied him with a short length of string to his chair. We watched while he chewed his way through it, so then she tied the string to her wrist and he had to follow her about all morning We rushed home to tell our parents that the doctor's son had got into big trouble. They probably said "Serve him right!" Where are you now Martin Evans?
The nuns and 'lay' staff at High School never hit us; just as well because some nuns can be quite mean. But they certainly had the knack of coming up behind you and grabbing an ear which they would screw round; very painful.
My younger brother got 'the slipper' a few times at his boys-only school. But then the cane, slipper, ruler, tawse (in Scotland) were still the normal way to deal with bad behaviour among boys.
Today in the UK it is unwise for a teacher to so much as look at a child in a mean way. They rush home to their parents and complain. The Father, or the scary Mother arrives at the school and screams abuse and threatens the school with the police/law courts and goodness knows what. They all know their rights!
And with all these 'abuse cases' that are coming out of the woodwork, teachers are seriously warned never to be in a classroom with a single child. If the teacher is already in the room by themselves and a child walks in, the teacher is expected to go to the door so any conversation/interaction that might take place can be witnessed by passers by.
Of course I am not trying to make light of these unpleasant 'goings on' or the down-right criminal activities of paedophiles. Only the other day a friend who had attended primary school in Ulster during the '60's said how for months, a certain male teacher made her stay behind after school and when everyone had left he used to beat her. The thing that worried her at the time was that she didn't know what she might have done wrong . . . She never told her parents as her Father was always very strict and would also beat his kids, but possible not for the same reasons as the pervert teacher.

You were a goody two shoes, Kath? Oh my. ;-)
We had a Little Miss Perfect classmate that all the teachers loved. She was so apparently faultless that some of us said: If we throw her in the swimming pool she won't get wet.

I had forgotten about those compulsory showers in P.E. We girls had separate stalls for privacy -- unlike the boys who had to shower communally -- but we still didn't want to take showers and would sneak out without one whenever we could. I don't remember why except possibly we didn't want to go to our next class with wet or damp at the hairline hair (the shower caps we had never worked properly).

Vee, that biting boy was a menace. Sounds like he should have been in a cage!

I was a substitute teacher for a while when my boys were in school, but I decided that it was too hazardous to continue. In the U.S. the inmates seem to be running the asylum.

Does anyone want to comment on the receiving of grades that I asked about upthread? Kath's were probably a source of pride, but I suspect they weren't always happy occasions for everyone, even for RPers who were mostly model students. Right? :-)

Okay, here are some written responses I got from posters at the other site I frequent and a couple of verbal responses that I have paraphrased (I hope correctly). Used with permission, cut and pasted.
Chinese-American, born and raised in Hawai'i, age 40s:

"You know about Tiger Moms? My mom was a tiger about grades. She inspected every report card like she was looking for germs. It was intense time for my sister and me. We never did good enuf to suit her." American, age 50s

"My sisters and I always showed our report cards to our Mother first. She was sympathetic and understanding if we didn't do so well. Then we put our report cards next to our Father's plate at the dinner table on top of the mail and his newspaper. One sister was a grind so she smugly enjoyed the meal, but my other sister and I could not eat when we got "bad" grades coz we knew what was coming - Dad's lecture. He was ex-Navy and thought it was his duty to dress us down. If I got an A, it should of been an A+. If I got B, it should of been an A. C's and D's, we were grounded. God forbid if we got F's." Canadian, born and raised in Manitoba, age 50s

"I think we got four report cards a year. We were super-apprehensive at r.c. time, even the kids that knew they had got good marks or pretended they did not know. Those were the same girls that said when paid a compliment about an outfit: "Thank you but its old." English, educated in London, age 60s

"I hid my marks from my mum til she got curious and asked whether it was time for the report. My dad always forgot. I heard a lot of rant if the marks were not what they should be but that was about the extent of it." American, attended International School in Middle East [Iran], age 60s

"We rebelled against grades and report cards. We got Pass or Fail reports instead."

Fascinating stuff, I think, and thought you all might find it interesting as well. Any comments?

I don't think the English system is the same as that in the US. We had termly schools reports . . . although many schools only had ONE at the end of the Summer Term. We were not ranked by A - B - C's etc. Our parents just received a sheet of printed paper, with a list of subjects down the left hand side and next to that a section for the teacher's comment . .good, fair, tries hard, makes no effort etc.
At the bottom was a space for behaviour.
After 11 years old a similar 'report' would probably have the extra school exam/test results and, of course a much longer list of subjects studied.
I think we took 'internal' exams twice a year maybe Feb and June/July? The whole school hunkered down, everyone crept about muttering dates/equations/passages from Shakespeare and so on.
By the fifth year (15-16) came the dreaded 'O' levels (Public Exams) and two years later even more fear-inducing 'A' levels upon which your future depended. Good results meant the 'chosen' University/College place. If you were really brilliant (not me) you would have been offered an 'unconditional place' probably at Oxford or Cambridge and would have whizzed through the exams without even a bead of perspiration on your brow.
These days the system has changed . . . and keeps changing. Employers complain that interviewees, even those with so-called degrees, know nothing, can't write a sentence, don't know how to behave when questioned and have little concept of what the 'world of work' is about.
The Govt. is promising to tighten up the exam system. Now where have I heard that before?
My parents were most unconcerned about our education and luckily only glanced at our reports. I did have one friend who came from an East End of London background. Her Jewish Father had high hopes and expectations for his children and they lived in fear of a bad report. He took education to extremes and even decided what subject they would study, which university they would attend and so on. The oldest girl's way out was to become a nun! Her Italian Mother was a Catholic so there was little the father could do. Another sister rebelled and became a drug-taking hippy, was expelled from school and rusticated from university. The brother, a very clever boy, married (in a hurry) when young, never finished an Oxford degree, has several children and lots of grandchildren and seems very happy. ;-)

Frieda, I'm another who made top grades in academic subjects but not so top in "Conduct." I was quiet and shy until my Sophomore year of high school when I evidently hit my stride and found out how much fun it was to talk . . . and talk . . . and talk, mostly in study hall where it never occurred to me to do any studying. That was for nights at home when I didn't have anything else to do.

In fact, we had one teacher who told my brother that she didn't know how our sister (between us in age) got into the same family with him and me. Sis remained quiet and shy; in fact, still is. She said it's surprising what you can learn when you just listen.

Anyway, my mother's response to poor conduct grades was that it was up to me as long as the academics stayed good. My dad was a big cut-up himself, so he never cared and probably thought it was funny.

I recall getting the School Report at the end of the school year in July. I hoped it would be fine as I thought that my annual grant which helped buy school uniform necessities would continue if I was obviously trying to do well. I don't recall my parents doing much more than reading it.
The format was similar to Vee's and I thought that the teacher's comments were rather mechanical with thirty girls to write about!
We also had "Mock exams" twice a year in preparation for the "O" levels. This was a good idea as we were then less intimidated by the real thing.
I suppose with a much larger range of subjects taught now, some things get scamped but I do wish spelling and simple arithmetic weren't!