G= Grandmother E= Emily (Me)I asked my 67 year old grandmother what school was like when she was in school, which was in 1941-1954. I got some interesting answers. The first question was: Where were some of the schools you went to? G-I went to school in a small town in northern New York in Ogdensburg when I was in Kindergarten to 4th grade. When I was in 5th and 6th grade I went to a school in Massena, NY, which is a little farther north then my Grammar School (Elementary School). E- I went to school in Newtown, CT from Kindergarten to 4th grade and half of 5th grade and now I go to a school still in Newtown, CT but it is just a little off of being on the other side of town from my old school. This school is for 5th and 6th graders but I’ve only been there for the other half of 5th grade and next year I will be there for 6th grade. The next question I asked her was: What was school like? G-School was ok but some teachers could be mean. I had one teacher who was teaching us how to subtract large numbers and part of that was proving your answer by adding one of the numerals to the sum and if the answer was the other numeral the question was correct. If anyone forgot to prove their answer, she would take a wooden ruler and crack your knuckles. I guess I did pretty well because I only got cracked one time. This was in 3rd grade. Most of my other teachers were pretty nice. E- School is O.K. for me too but I am very happy teachers aren’t aloud to crack our knuckles because if they did I wouldn’t have any knuckle now. Otherwise nothing real bad has happened at school. Another question I asked her was: How long were your school days? G-Our school days were from 9 am to 4 pm. E-My school days were a little bit shorter. Instead of our school starting at 9 am it starts at 9:15 am and instead of our school getting out at 4 pm we get out at 3:30 pm. One more question I asked my grandmother was: When did school end? G-My school ended on an average on the last week of June. E-My school gets out on an average the second week of June. That is 2 weeks before she got out. Also, I asked my grandmother: How many kids were in your class on an average? G-My classes had about 30 kids. E-Well my classes on an average had about 25 kids. I asked my grandmother too: Did you have recess? G-Yes, we did have recess and we played lots of games. For example we played dodge ball, kick ball, tag, duck, duck, goose, tug of war, and we played on the swings and play set we had. We went out even during the winter. We did not go out all the time in the winter though, because the weather was too cold. For example one of the cold temperature was 20 below 0. It snowed a lot up there. E-We did have recess in elementary school and we played all of the same games, but now in my new school we don’t have recess. The last question I asked my Grandmother was: Did you have gym? G- I had gym in junior high and recess stopped then but I did not have gym in grammar school. E- I had gym in elementary school and I have it in the school I am in now and I will have gym in school all the way to 12th grade and maybe I will have it in college. So, that was what it was like to go to school in 1941-1954 and today. After reading this would you like to go to school then?
Update: 2003/06/20 02:29:59
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