I agree with moomin's replies. FWIW, I was in school in the "age of democratization and inclusion" - and my first thoughts of what was different in my children's education and my early elementary education are just a few re actual curriculum and more significantly societal. Re curriculum:

* we didn't work on projects or in groups, we sat at individual desks and did individual work

* there was very little lecture work and a lot of book learning, plus a few movies thrown in here and there

* we didn't have a gifted program but we did get a lot of differentiated work in leveled groups (this sounds opposite of what I wrote above but it isn't!)... I remember that I was very happy in school because I could move along at my fast pace and continue to receive higher level challenging work (and I was in a regular public school classroom). This continued to be true through upper elementary and in junior high we were tracked by ability level into different classes.

* I don't think we were taught how to read until 1st grade, and later on, in middle school in particular, it seems that students today are being taught much higher level science concepts than we were as children.

* Math was all about numbers and facts, and no one was concerned about relating it back to real-world applications until pre-algebra etc. I don't recall ever seeing a "word problem" until middle school.

The larger differences to me (and just as significant really) were societal:

* I grew up in a suburb next to a large city. The inner city schools were segregated, and education was incredibly unequal. Minority groups in our area were absolutely not receiving the same quality education as white children were within the bounds of the large city. There were no minorities in the suburbs. When our larger city was forced to integrate, there was massive "white flight" to suburban schools.

* When I looked around the classroom in elementary school, I saw a sea of faces that all looked like mine - white. My children's schools are all much more diverse, and yet they are also growing up in a city where there is a lot of racial segretation by neighborhood and where there is a noticable differentiation in school programs based on neighborhood.

* Sexual equality in sports - there was none. Title 9 passed when I was in middle school. There are so many parents today who aren't even aware of what Title 9 was. If you were a girl and you had athletic ability, you had cheerleading for the guys to look forward to.

* Pay for teachers - it was so very low. There were other issues in our schools too. Teachers were not happy with their working conditions when I was in elementary and rather than having the went on strike when I was in early middle school.

* The cost of school lunches then seemed much more affordable for most than it does today (where I live now).

* Kids didn't have many (if any) after-school activities - either at school or privately. Sports teams for elementary kids were usually summer activities. During the school year we had a lot of free time to play after school, although I did have a third grade teacher who sent home homework almost every day (and the adults in our neighborhood were all beyond shocked about that).

* Play was different - we all free-ranged. My kids are in a neighborhood where most kids free-range but from what I gather online it is very different than most of the US at this point in time.

* I walked to school all the time.

* My parents didn't become very involved in either my homework or my school life. Other than helping me make a papier-mache pumpkin when I had the role of "Great Pumpkin" In our 3rd grade school play. I feel like I'm much more involved in my children's school and homework, but don't know if that's due to school specifically, 21st century parenting styles, personality (mine or my parents) or most likely, because I have children who have learning challenges.

That's what I think of when I think of the differences between my early education and my children's.

Last edited by polarbear; 09/30/13 05:44 PM.