My kids have been forced to write early and often -- sometimes to the point where I have questioned whether the activity is devleopmentally appropriate. Both DDs had assignments that required copious amounts of writing -- multiple full length pages by 3rd grade.
Yes. I wasn't doing that much writing in
other subjects until secondary, I know.
We also weren't given as many formal assessments in science/social studies in primary. It was holistic/observational grading.
I distinctly recall my very first brush with standardized testing being in 5th grade. ITBS.
I, too, recall the multiple recess periods being standard in K-6; one in the morning and one after lunch-- which was a FULL HOUR-long period.
Ability grouping was
soup du jour-- and for kids in the highest levels of ability, often pullouts were established with a subject teacher who handled the top 5% of students
within the grade level... which was awesome in language arts. I remember reading
The Black Stallion in 3rd grade after I'd polished off all of the K-6 readers... and I recall this because the movie was in theaters later that year, which was both very exciting and ultimately disappointing to me in that the book in my HEAD was so much better than the movie. The first of many such disappointments, I fear. Anyway.
We did a LOT of art in class-- often with "guest" instruction from local artists. Before 7th grade, I'd had specific instruction in pastels (oil and chalk), in watercolors, in pen-and-ink, dip-pen calligraphy, fired-clay, collage (multiple types), and a lot of other stuff like using a resist in different media, etc. We also had a music class 3 days each week, and PE was five in the lower grades-- which may well explain why they weren't called "Specials" then. Because they were just a part of our day.
Oh-- math-- first started learning geometry in my 3rd/4th split class (I was a 3rd grader); but I didn't use a calculator routinely in mathematics or science until I got my own TI-35 in late middle school and Geometry. I hated the Math Fluency drills-- I can remember wanting to cry that I just couldn't finish them in that evilly short amount of time. I also remember my pride-- and the teacher's astonishment along with my parents'-- when I cleaned the floor with my classmates during that geometry unit. I was
good at math, but it moved so slowly through arithmetic that I had already labeled myself as "not mathy" by the time I got to the real thing in middle school. I also had no study skills by then, so you can imagine how well algebra went.
This was in the 1970's, in a progressive western state.
