Remember when your elementary school teacher would roll the AV cart into your classroom, containing a TV and a VCR? (Or pre-1980, a film projector?)
That meant it was movie time in the classroom.
But that's just one of many experiences today's school children will never know. With smart boards and ceiling projectors, every day is video day in 2018 classrooms.
Redbook Magazine says the old TV/VCR combo is just one of many items now missing from elementary schools. Children in today's state-of-the-art classroom no longer see:
- Overhead projectors that would project an image of a slide on a screen.
- Globes, which are now replaced by Google maps.
- Microfiche machines in the library. These have also been replaced by Google. (Unless you are the character Brick from the TV show "The Middle," who kept one in his house.)
- Cursive writing, since the need for it has pretty much disappeared.
- Typing classes, which have been replaced by coding and other more advanced computer skills. Some kids are starting this as early as preschool.
- Metal lunch boxes are things of the past. Even hard plastic lunch boxes are a rare sight.
- Trapper Keepers for loose paper, as loose paper goes the way of the classroom globe.
- Chalkboards have been replaced by digital smart boards in most newer schools, though they still exist in many pre-1990 buildings.
Which means many of today's kids may not understand the phrase "nails on a chalkboard" either.
And some things that were painfully sexist from the 1970s and '80s:
- Home economics classes that taught girls cooking and sewing.
- Shop classes that taught boys how to build birdhouses and shelves, while the girls were learning how to sew.
Luckily some junior highs now teach everyone "family sciences," which includes lessons on cooking, sewing and woodworking.
It's sad to think children today will never experience the "ooh, ah" moment when the big AV cart and TV came rolling down the hallway and entered your class. That always meant it was going to be a great day.
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