Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How have US public schools changed?

I am curious if there is any reliable information available that compares "a day in the life" of a present day first grader with previous generations.

I am wondering about things like what the student was supposed to know before first grade, including any bus ride how long was the average school day, how much recess did the student get, how big were classes, what was the student expected to learn, etc.

It struck me this evening while discussing education that some people believe they know what first grade in a public school is like today because once upon a time they were first graders.

My subjective impression is that it is very different! I have been thinking about this for some time. I was a peachy child, and although elementary school was very difficult for me socially, I don't remember being bored to tears academically. I don't think that was because the academics were particularly challenging, but rather because there was less drill and kill, more time to play, do crafts or art. And of course there were no standardized tests. I will be interested to see the other responses.

I was in first grade in 1970 (yikes I'm old!). We did ave standardized tests even back then. They weren't percentiles but percentages, so not normed like today's tests. I remember kindergarten being very much play based. First grade was when we learned to read. I think I was an early reader but don't recall. I do remember being bored in school. At some point, we started SRA and that was independent work. I liked that much better as I was able to go at my own speed.

frannieanddejsmom, I'm with you agewise.

When I was a kid, we had more "recess." I went to a K-8 school. We got a 15-20 recess in the morning AND a lunch period with a second recess. My elementary school kids get a single 40 minute recess and lunch period that includes a bunch of standing in line being quiet while they shepherd kids around the school. My 8th grader gets a 30 minute lunch and "access" period, i.e. you can go outside, seek out a teacher for help or take care of other admin stuff. Don't even get me started on how often they have "inside" days for every minor weather blip. We live in Colorado so there are many weather blips.

The other area that I know is very different is the amount of writing. Other than practicing our letters and maybe writing a short caption under our picutres, we did very little writing before 4th grade. I recently went through "the box" at my mom's house and saw some of my first "reports" that I wrote in fourth grade -- they averaged about a paragragh and were pretty simplistic. 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.

Also, as part of a "district writing initiative," they are being forced to write more in ALL of their other classes, including art, music and PE. They added the "writing in all classes" requirement last year and it really drives me crazy. I want my kids to be doing art, music and getting exercise during those class periods, not sitting down doing more writing. It has gotten to the point where my non-dysgraphic kids hate the mention of writing. To them, writing = drudgery and stupid, made-up assignments -- Mom, why do we have to write about composers whose music we've never heard, instead of playing our recorders or singing? Good question, I have no good answer. For my dysgraphic kid, this development is hell particularly since there aren't computers for writing in the specials rooms. (I know that I could fight this but she doesn't want to look different and just now has started consistently using her computer in the regular classroom).
Phew! I needed that rant.

When I was in elementary, we had a lot more recess, too. However, I looked online at the bell schedule for my old elementary, and it hasn't noticeably changed, so it looks like that's on her district, not a historical thing.

Some things that have definitely changed:

- Morning meeting. This was not a thing in my day. Apparently it's supposed to teach social skills. DD8 thinks it's a colossal waste of time.
- Pull-outs. It seems kids are being yanked out of the regular classroom for everything. It's good, because it provides for differentiation for kids like my DD. But if my efforts at home to patch the holes it leaves in my DD's educational day are any indication, what kind of impact are they having on kids whose parents aren't on the job?
- Kids "writing" before they can spell - just... stop. Please.


Are you sure? I came along a decade later, and I remember taking the ITBS throughout elementary school. Those were percentile ranked.

To be honest, I have no idea what purpose that testing served. Except for the special ed class, there was no such thing as differentiation. If the teachers were being evaluated based on it, nobody told us.

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.

Interesting! 1975 was so long ago, I can't remember what we did
We were learning to read and it seemed like a kinder gentler time as compared to DD's current first grade experiences. It just seems more like a bureaucratic system. My twin sister and I walked about 1/2 mile to school by ourselves! I would never let DD do that now, but again it was a different time.

If people haven't been in a elementary school in many years, I think they'd be surprised at how much teachers are expected to do, the varying needs of the the kids in the class, and how many "buzz" words are being used! (I had to finally ask what decoding was. What happened to "sounding it out"? )

Many of the biggest differences are in my opinion the result of standardized testing and NCLB.

In two English speaking non-USA countries:

Recess existed and was 20 minutes.

Lunch hour was 60 minutes.

Kindergarten was pure play.

There was morning assembly with the whole school in one big room. In one country, in a state school, there was religious song singing (though we changed all the words of course).

There was not much writing in early years.

Art, Music, PE existed.

There was a significant degree of tracking/streaming, where different ability groups were in different classrooms. The difference between the top and bottom levels by grade 10 would be the difference between grade 12 and grade 8. Your report card explicitly said what level you were in. (There was no such thing as in-class differentiation. I can't imagine how that could really work.)

In later grades there was a single statewide exam for each subject. It counted for 2/3 of the total (and the internal grade from the school was adjusted to statistically match the external scores, so schools could not inflate grades).

Bullying was tolerated. Reporting bullying was not.

There were prefects.

There was corporal punishment.

ETA: There was no homework until, hmmm, actually we never really had homework, except maybe larger projects.

I don't think that there is one typical school today. In fact, I think that the disparity between the proficient schools and the deficient schools are sadly greater than ever. I particularly hear horror stories of poor schools in the deep south.

Having said that, I do think that there are some general trends over the last few decades. I even see differences between when my oldest attended elementary versus my two younger ones today. In general, there is only one recess and it is shorter as well as lunch period being shorter. The writing requirements have exploded. My current 5th graders were writing short paragraph assignments in kindergarten. Because reading/language arts is now all about the writing product, the students' varying reading levels are far less relevant than it used to be. The science and social studies curriculum start earlier as well (K versus 2nd/3rd grade) There is de-emphasis on handwriting (both print and cursive). Students are expected to pick up keyboarding indepedently, which many do just by virtual of early/frequent access to computers.

I took standardized tests in first grade in 1972. In fifth grade, one of our teachers spent ten minutes or so explaining standardized test percentiles to us because she was afraid that people who scored at the 50th percentile would think they had failed. My recollection is that they used the tests to see how we were learning, not to assess the teachers.

Kindergarten was a half day and was mostly about socialization, but we learned our letters and numbers, starting writing capital letters, learned to tell time, and did a lot of art. We had circle time every day and did show and tell. We had nap time every day. I remember being tested with a fine motor skill test (draw between lines that were wavy/of decreasing separation/etc.).

Ability grouping started in first grade and continued through 12th grade. No one was treated badly for being in the "wrong" group because there was no wrong group from our perspective. A boy was held back into our class in 4th grade (do they still do that?), and by the time we had formed our line and walked into the building on the first day of school, we had learned of what happened, accepted it, and made him one of us.

There was no homework until 6th or 7th grade. I don't remember getting it in 6th grade, but I might have and just forgotten about it. Sixth grade was still elementary school then, and 7th and 8th were junior high.

We had morning recess through sixth grade and an hour for lunch.

ETA: we did lots of writing, but it wasn't like today. In first grade, we learned how to form letters and did a lot of practice (e.g., "My name is Valerie" several times, etc.). By second grade, we were learning how to make smaller letters and were writing stories. Cursive came in third grade, and by fourth, we were writing out answers to questions in science, English, and Social Studies. This increased in 5th. No one was expected to write essays or reports with references until 7th grade. Starting in 5th, we did a lot of work with grammar and punctuation, though. I'm appalled at how little these two things are emphasized today.

ETA again: we had art, music, and PE through all of elementary.