The 50's, 60's and 70's were the golden age of education in this country

[kimbutgar]

But that stopped with Reagan and the conservatives. They cut education funding, started to privatize education and now our kids are drilled and killed by for profit testing companies promoted and with the profits going to the bush crime family

I remember when we had home economics, trade education, drivers Ed and electives that made school interesting or all. Many people I knew were able to get jobs after high school that paid them a living wage, you could get college prep and afford to go to college, you could learn automotive repair, or get a journeyman welding, plumbing and electrician training leading to a good paying union jobs. Now the only way to get these jobs is get ripped off by a for profit schools when in the past in your junior and senior year you could take these classes and still get a high school diploma.

I feel sorry for today's kids that they missed out on the golden age of education. We are no longer preparing our kids for the 21st century ( unless you come from a wealthy family)

And now with the GOP poised to take over the house and senate and suppress people's votes in states so you'll never be able to get rid of them I Now fear for our children and for our country. We are no longer a nation of dreamers but schemers.


Ironically those benefited in these golden years are voting for people who want to completely destroy our educational system. Shame on the greatest generation and the older baby boomers for being so selfish and bamboozled by faux world.

[riverbendviewgal]

1. That is when I was going to school in the USA

I went to a Catholic elementary school and a public high school. .

My education was very good, even with parents who did not give a hoot what my marks were. I was lucky I had teachers who cared..

My favorite subject was US history. My teacher taught us well except we never learned that the USA has citizen based taxation , unlike the rest of the world which has resident based taxation.

Nevertheless I emigrated to Canada, where I am happy..

I am very surprised at the lack of curiosity and disinterest that many young people now show when I read.

This time era was very tumultuous as well. The cold war, civil rights, vietnam conflict, assassinations of great American men.

[Rod Beauvex]

5. An additional point.

A lot of the reasons kids today, especially from the teenagers on, have little interest in education is because they don't see how it is going to help them have a career in a world of H1-Bs, illegals, outsourcing and off-shoring, discrimination, and layoffs.

Kids aren't stupid. Show them where a real future is, and you'll see more genuine enthusiasm. It won't work for everybody. You will always have driven students and disinterested students, just as you will always have good and bad teachers.

[riverbendviewgal]

12. My schools were disciplined

I lived in the NorthEast and my nationality was considered a displaced person... The media did not go into these things, like it does now

There was discrimination. I saw it. My father worked in a union so we had a good way of life

I had this gift or desire and that was to read. The public library was my second home. I traveled the world , in the past and the present and future. My handicap was being deaf. My mother thought I was weird because I would read . She was the materialist "born to shop" person who did not understand the missile crises. There were stupid Americans then.

We are all our own path masters. I would say the media has great influence. I loved Walt Disney back then.. The TV show presented history and sharpened my desire to want to learn more.

[BootinUp]

2. It was a response to the cold war in some ways.

Education is so important. Yes, the current generation has dropped the ball completely. I hope it gets turned around. We need to fight in 2014 and 2016. So important.

[rocktivity]

3. Well, America needed a large and well-educated populace back then

Last edited Tue Oct 8, 2019, 04:02 PM - Edit history (1)

Now -- between corporate personhood, privatization of what used to be public, and outsourcing of jobs to cheaper labor markets -- not so much.

I remember when a New York City public school education was something you could brag about.


rocktivity

[Skittles]

4. I remember when coworkers started hawking catalog stuff for their kids' school

thinking, WTF is this?

[RebelOne]

6. I was educated in the '50s.

Fortunately, I attended a technical high school where I learned many office skills. But, like a dumbbell, I quit school and married at 16. That was a big mistake. But because of what I had learned in the technical high school, I was able to secure many office and secretarial jobs and had worked for two publishing companies. When I finally retired in 2010, I was a copy editor for a company here in Georgia, and I was responsible for copy-editing 30 state outdoors magazines.

[bhikkhu]

7. Up to 8th grade was fine for me, but high school was a miserable pit.

My kids had the same experience more recently. They certainly learned more than I did in high school, as the education standards have improved, but few kids are well prepared for anything by high school. Schools vary and certainly teachers vary, but glorifying the 70's (my high school years) as a golden age of education - that's pretty much a joke.

[kimbutgar]

8. I went to high school in the 70's here in California

It was still good then. Maybe it depends on what state you lived in. But Ronald Racist wrecked our UC system in the 60's and Prop 13 in the late 70's is when things started going downhill.

[raccoon]

40. Yes, a lot of it depends on what area you lived in. I lived in a poor county in a poor state.

The schools I went to were crappy.

[progressoid]

9. And teaching was a respected profession, albeit not well paid.

[femmocrat]

10. Yes it was. And we had such inspirational teachers.

Not that there aren't great teachers today, but they are so overworked and regimented that creativity takes a back seat to testing, testing, and more testing.

[GeorgeGist]

11. Thank Reagan Democrats ...

for allowing Republicans to rebound from Nixon.

[rickyhall]

13. Even in the 60s, when I grew up, lots of in History and Social Studies

were glossed over or propagandized. Like wars, commies and African Americans but I learned a lot in Science and English. Its just that College American History taught different histories.

[mountain grammy]

14. As a member of the class of 65, I agree.

[Enthusiast]

15. This baby boomer isn't voting for any god damned Republicans.

Where do you get off?

[Phlem]

16. Thank you for saying

what's been on my mind for decades.



I tried to rec it more than once but the button disappear's after you click it once. Who made this site anyway? Gotta get that fixed.

[Scootaloo]

17. ...For white kids, sure

Fact is, a lot of the effort to sink our public schools is a direct response to desegregation. A lot of "private academies" were launched on the eve of desegregation, and the people sending their (white) kids to these schools began the predictable chorus of "Why should I pay for public schools when my own kid doesn't go to them?!"

it's since mingled into anti-unionism and hostility towards education in general, but that's the roots - trying to shut down our school system as "revenge" for desegregation.

[etherealtruth]

19. That was my first thought

I would also add that during that time period , at worst, girls were excluded from math and science, and at best girls were not encouraged in math and science. Sports were extremely limited for girls, as well.

Reminiscing about the good old days, isn't always productive when the good old days, excluded girls and children of color.

[Blanks]

28. Girls took home ec and boys took shop...

There was a guy that took home ec and we all thought that was weird.

In some ways at least our attitudes have changed.

[etherealtruth]

29. A lot of attitudes have changed

At least what I can, "kids" today are under a ridiculous amount of academic pressure ... all AP/honors classes and all A's (many kids feel the pressure to achieve this through out their entire HS experience). I graduated in 1980 and felt the need to earn good grades (and I did), but nothing like the experience of my children, except for my youngest (he has never felt pressure to excel academically )

[Blanks]

32. I never pressured my kids to get good grades...

That's a mistake in parenting and not really the school's fault.

I think there's a lot more pressure on parents to make their children perform better these days, but that's where a person just has to stand up to the school people.

We mustn't let our children think that their entire future depends on their performance at such an early age.

I didn't graduate from college until I was 38, and my son is 25 and he still has a ways to go before he's done with college.

All that pressure about something that doesn't make much difference in the long run doesn't make sense. We learn something every day - we should embrace the learning and not let it damage us.

[etherealtruth]

33. Oh, I wasn't blaming the schools

I don't even blame the parents .... there seems to be a cultural tide toward this (I am not pleased about it).

I went back and got another degree at 40 ... life is about learning ... the entire time

[Octafish]

18. Helped in their own climb to the top, they then pulled the ladder up after themselves.

People who want to end Public Education are a racist bunch of pricks, too.

[ballyhoo]

20. Very accurate post...

House, Senate and Presidency, I fear. My daughter and I were educated in those years. My high school in Ohio, a place called Finneytown, was 5th in the State. I had my first physics class in my freshmen year, which would have been in 1960, I think. Algebra starting in seventh grade and Advanced Placement Calculus in Senior year. Too many elective-type classes to list. It wasn't all boomers. The serious money was made pre-boomer.

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. Were they?

[Blanks]

30. I think the point is that...

More people had enough education with just a high school education.

I agree to some extent, but there were things like mechanization (welding became less practical) computers (our approach to learning math and science was modified) that changed so that the overall theory (school was better then) doesn't adequately address.

Sure, there are some things that could be done better now, without question, but yearning for the 'good old days' is frequently yearning for a time when we only remember the good things.

I'm sure that I don't only speak for myself when I say: I've learned a lot since then.

[newfie11]

22. The late 50s science was being pushed in schools

It was exciting about space exploration. Of course the 60s followed with Assassinations
, war, protests. In those days my main interest was learnng a profession. The 60s were a scary time but today is worse.

[totodeinhere]

23. Except in the South when segregation ruled in the 50's. n/t

[zeemike]

24. "We are no longer a nation of dreamers but schemers."

That is exactly it...
And I saw the change in the 80s...and it has become progressive till this day.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. The turn of the 20th century was good too....

My old high school originally had a copper domed observatory on the roof.

Of course, that was back when the rich gave two shits what the public thought of them.

[Android3.14]

26. You got that right

I've always said that a conservative (not Republican) approach to education creates a progressive population.

[SummerSnow]

27. I remember having Home Economics in the 70s ,cooking class and sewing class in middle school.

My brother had shop class, woodshop and metal shop. Those days are gone. I remember my 3rd grade teacher use to read us stories .We would sit on the floor and she sat in a rocking chair reading to us.

[Hestia]

31. Well, from what I have heard on the street corner, the 1920s to early 1930s was best. That is when

they taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew in public school. It seems the Depression knocked that out from curriculum's.

[ReRe]

34. Ahem...

... the only thing the GOP is poised to do is become extinct, by demographics and/or by shooting themselves in the foot with their ever-increasing hateful words and behavior. Hang in there, kimbutgar.
Things are getting ready to change. GOTV!

[cerveza_gratis]

35. Not the 70s.

When I got to college, I became aware of all the things I didn't learn in public school. Like writing, math, study skills, critical thinking.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

38. I attended MD public schools then.

My experience was vastly different from what you describe.

[snot]

36. My public school not only had shop, home ec, & driver's ed;

it had French, German, Spanish, Latin, advanced English and Math including Calculus, as well as Art, Music, and PE.

[WinkyDink]

37. And news media. Pick up a TIME from those years and weep at the lost content today.

[deafskeptic]

39. The 70's weren't the golden age for Deaf kids in education.

However, I agree that it was a golden age for the majority of children.

In the 70s, deaf kids were expected to sink or swim in the mainstream (ie, with hearing peers and little to no contact with other deaf kids) education wise with little support. I could write a whole novel about Deaf Ed but it doesn't pertain to this thread.

I remember that I found a Latin book that belonged to either my big brother or my big sister in the attic. I remember teaching myself some rudiments of Latin from that book. This Latin book was for 8th graders in public schools.

Yes, I said public school. This was before either my big brother or my big sister attended private school. I never went to private school. I don't think they would have accepted me either.

I have a Deaf friend who's attending college. She is not in a deaf school or a deaf program. Yet she is learning Latin in college. Yes, college. Her hearing peers are also learning it too. I think Education really has gone downhill if this is any example. I think she'll be in her 4th year in fall.

[whistler162]

41. Sorry but the 70's weren't that great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0d8FTPv955I

And I am sure there was just as much experimenting with different teaching methods in the 50' and 60's as in the 70's. I vaguely remember my German teacher talked about isolating the exceptional(smart) students in their own class and how they ended up with little or no social skills.

In New York at least you can if you so desire go to a local BOCES which will teach you many of the skills that schools have trimmed back. One district I work in still has a Home Ec type course(name is slightly different, well both districts do a cooking class), teaches wood shop/design using CAD software(both districts do), and auto repair.

Then both districts, small under 1000 students, have multiple computer labs.

[Romulox]

42. Corporations no longer "need" Americans--either as consumers or as workers. That simple. nt

[IDemo]

43. I graduated in '75

I was able to take astronomy at an on-site planetarium, an exceptional experience. They also offered a "Modern Russia" class which explored the Soviet Union and its role in current affairs (my uncle chuckled that "there's no such thing as modern Russia&quot . There was a literature course for advanced students. I took art from a great teacher who was a big influence on me.

I never had kids and can't speak for today's educational standards, but I believe that I was quite fortunate to have attended school at the place and time I did.

[Arugula Latte]

44. Affordable college for all -- remember that?

Republican mentality has absolutely ruined everything that was good about this country.

[Bonx]

45. Nope.

I was there.
Teachers could hit kids, smoke in school, dump the troublesome kids in special-ed, get away with outlandish behavior.
Gay kids were basically tortured, weak & fat kids were bullied with impunity.
No ez phone/gadget video/audio to document it.
There was no social media to share your trials & tribulations as a student/child - bouts of tedious boredom & isolation.
Maybe the times made us tougher, but it definitely wasn't always apples & sunshine.

[hamsterjill]

46. I agree 100%.

Class of 1978 here. Math was pushed for us. Math teaches more than addition and subtraction. Math makes one think. It exercises and grows the brain, and therefore, it is one of the ways that people actually become smarter.

I was at a fast food drive through the other day, and the young woman at the cash register messed up in entering the amount I paid. She needed to calculate my change without benefit of the screen on the cash register. She couldn't do it. She needed to return 18 cents to me, and she couldn't figure it out. Had to call a manager over to help her and it took him much longer than it should have.

Very sad indeed.

[kimbutgar]

47. Same thing has happened to me in stores they can't add or subtract in their heads

I worked at a movie theatre concession stand and we had to add in our heads customers orders and give change. I was lousy at math but I got better real quick figuring out ways to quickly add the numbers. I remember learning different strategies to do math in school that came back to me. Nowadays kids could not do this.

And I taught a 8 year old cousin a multiplication strategy recently and he asked me to show it to again and he got it.

[snooper2]

48. Yeah, just gone to hell in a handbasket since the glorious 50's ROFLMAO

I mean, it's not like we have schools with 1500 seat performing arts centers-

Oh, wait LOL- That's why we are looking at houses in Allen TX again

[MissB]

49. I definitely missed out then. I went to middle

school and high school in the 80s. My poor rural high school had art, music, shop, etc. but it didn't offer calculus.

I moved at the end of my freshman year, joining my father and another sibling in Alaska. Turns out their high schools were very well funded in the mid-late 80's. My high school up there offered calculus, had a planetarium and tons of PE class options (full sized swimming pool, basketball, gymnastics, archery, tennis, etc). Oil money buys some pretty sweet high school options.

When my oldest was ready for kindergarten, I was horrified to see how poorly public education was being funded. Barely any music program (nothing before 4th grade), a shared librarian, no counselor, a shared art teacher and no live foreign language instruction.

We fled to a small public school district. We still represent the economic diversity in the neighborhood (we are the poor folks, median income of the neighborhood is ridiculously high). And the quality of the education? Excellent. The high school is college prep and requires four years of math, English, science and social studies. Two years of foreign language. Four years of art. Yes, they want as much art as math. The elective offerings are smaller than anyone would like, but the kids are well prepared for college and well rounded. Depending on the class, between 85-95% of kids go on to a four year college. Money makes a difference in the quality of education. I'm well aware that isn't fair.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

50. Yep. I managed to pay my tuition and buy the books on my GI Bill.

I had to work to pay for everything else, but it was lot more possible to find work in the 60s.