What rule did you have in your school that students no longer have? Standing when answering a question.

[debm55]

Last edited Thu Dec 12, 2024, 05:11 PM - Edit history (1)

[jayschool2013]

1. No t-shirts

Period.

[debm55]

3. Thank you jayschool2013, I remember also girls not being alowed to wear pants.

[electric_blue68]

80. Ha! We girls around 5th grade '65 especially in NYC Winters got Feisty! "Why NOT?!!" Within a year we were allowed, all

seasons.

I enjoyed wearing a good dress, or a cool skirt, but pants were sooo comfortable. And get some nice ones, or cool jeans.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Girls were not allowed to wear pants.

Yes I am that old……

[debm55]

4. See post above you. so am I. Even in the winter--no pants.

[Eugene]

20. My school gave up on that rule after the 1968-69 school year.

That was my kindergarten year. The principal announced the rule once,
saying girls in pants might trip. I never heard that again.

[debm55]

22. I was in HS when the rule change. We were so happy.

[Diamond_Dog]

29. My junior year in high school They allowed girls to wear pants but NO JEANS. We had to wear dressy slacks.

Boys, however, were wearing jeans to school since elementary school. Talk about an infuriating double standard! This was a public school, too.

Also I remember that you did not wear sneakers to school. You brought sneakers to school on gym day and changed into them for gym class.

[debm55]

48. Thank you Diamond_Dog I remember those days.

[Brother Buzz]

24. 67-68 girls wore denim under their flowing theatrical skirts in high school

[debm55]

25. Remember. We called them Granny dresses. and you could wear jeans underneath. Thank you Brother Buzz for bringing back

the memory.

[efhmc]

35. We could wear them under our skirts when it was really cold. Also shorts under our dresses if we wanted to hang upside

down on the jungle gym. Seeing those panties was a big nono.

[flor-de-jasmim]

5. Girls had to kneel on the floor and show their skirt would touch the floor.

[debm55]

7. Yes I remember that. Thank you.

[kimbutgar]

53. I experienced that at my all girls catholic school.

We’d roll up our skirts before coming to school and when we entered the building unrolled them. But some girls forget and had to do the kneel with the vice principal nun who was scary. She kept records and if you had 3 strikes she’d call your parents.

[electric_blue68]

81. Woah!

[BittyJenkins]

6. Skirts had to be below the knee and no patent leather shoes.

And of course no pants, but I did wear culottes!

[debm55]

8. Thank you Bitty Jenkins. i remember that.

[Lochloosa]

9. You got a "G" in Ms. Watsons note pad for chewing gum.

She thought she caught me one time and I showed her it was paper. I got a "P"

Algebra II. Loved that woman.

[debm55]

10. Thank you lochloosa.,

[debm55]

11. Sitting at your desk with your hands folded.

[MoonlightHillFarm]

12. High school

Girls had to wear skirts, no pants. The skirts had to touch the floor when kneeling.

Boys had to wear white t-shirts under their shirt. Shirts had to be tucked in.

Boys’ hair could not touch their collar.

At school dances, there had to be one foot distance between partners when dancing slow.

This was a public school n California

[debm55]

14. Thank you very much MoonlightHillFarm. Very interesting.

[redstatebluegirl]

13. A strict dresscode.

Teachers went around with a ruler to make sure your skirt was not to short.

[debm55]

15. redstatebluegirl. I remember that.and asking for permission to use the restroom. When I was in the lower grades you had

to wait until your group went out.

[surrealAmerican]

16. Smoking was only allowed in the "smoking lounge".

My kids had a hard time believing that my high school allowed smoking.

[debm55]

17. I remember that, My HS had a courtyard where kids could smoke.

[electric_blue68]

82. As somene who hated the smell of smoke using the girls Lunchroom restroom in HS? Gak!

[GreenWave]

18. Only one A per lifetime of a particular English teacher. Grr! And subsequently GRRR!

997 out 0f 1,000 didn't qualify as an A. You see, Mr. Huffman got 998 back in the 1940's.

[debm55]

19. Even if you really earned it? that is a shame. Thank you GreenWave.

[3catwoman3]

21. One more DUer old enough to be of the "girls had to wear skirts...

...or dresses" vintage.

Living in Rochester NY, in the snow belt, this was a major pain in the ass, literally and figuratively, while waiting for the bus in the winter months. Wind and snowflakes blowing up your clothes does NOT feel good.

Tights helped a little but not enough. In grade school, you'd wear snow pants under your dress, but of course, that was no longer acceptable by middle school.

And not sure if there was a rule against students driving to school, but no one did. Everyone who wasn't a walker took the buses, and there was a second bus run after school to take home those who participated in sports or clubs.

[debm55]

23. Thank you 3catwoman3 and those vinyl seats on the bus were damn cold.

[XanaDUer2]

26. We stood

And also stood when an adult entered the room

[debm55]

47. Thank you XanaDUer2 i so remember that.

[TommieMommy]

27. Sit quietly at desk, raise hand and stand up to answer questions. Proper uniform with skirt below knees

Walking single file in hallway quietly. Catholic high School was very strict. We had to stand up when nuns or priests entered the room.

[debm55]

45. I remember that TommieMommie. I went to Catholic grade school. And everyone sad in unison Good Morning Father_____ or

Sister ________

[FuzzyRabbit]

28. Boys: No blue jeans or tennis shoes. Had to wear slacks and dress shoes.

Public school, early 1960s.

[debm55]

46. Thank you FuzzyRabbit. I went to public JH and HS. We were still not allowed to wear jeans or tennis shoes.

[Golden Raisin]

30. No sneakers allowed except in Gym Class.

No jeans ("dungarees" back then). In Senior Year there was ONE DAY, called "Senior Privilege Day" , when Seniors could wear jeans to school. Boys had to wear collared shirts, slacks (chinos) and leather shoes.

[ProfessorGAC]

36. Our Rule Went One Further

No sneakers, like your school, but because all the classrooms had hardwood floors, our classroom shoes had to be soft soled.
Lots of guys wearing Hush Puppies! (All-boys private high school)

[debm55]

43. Professor GAC , I haven:t heard of Hush Puppies in years. I liked them.

[debm55]

44. thank you Golden Raisin. No jeans either until my last year in HS. Did you go to a Private School or Public school?

While I taught, they switched to uniforms and it sounds very similar to what you had to weat.

[Golden Raisin]

50. Public.

[electric_blue68]

83. Your jaw would have dropped at my HS. Specialized in Art & Music...we could wear within reason....

almost anything. This was '67 - '70. So granny dresses, jeans, pants, wide bell bottoms, miniskirts, T-shirts, shirts and ties (rare), non T-shirt tops, blouses, braids, long hair (for the guys, too), lots of different sizd afros!
It was great!

[debm55]

88. Thank you electric_blue68. That sounds very interesting.

[Freddie]

31. Not a rule but

When I was a freshman in HS (1971) girls were all
forced to take Home Ec while boys got an elective period. That stopped before I graduated. To this day I refuse to go anywhere near a sewing machine.

[Golden Raisin]

37. In my school girls had Home Ec and boys had Shop.

Zero cross-pollination and/or choice.

[debm55]

41. True, my last year I was in HS The guys could take cooking and the girls could take auto repair--flat tires. oil , etc.

[Xavier Breath]

75. I imagine my HS was the same before I got there

but by the time I was a freshman in 1981, in addition to Home Ec, we had also had a class called "Independent Living" that was open to boys and girls, and taken by both. It taught everyday survival skills like banking, sewing a button back on, and quick recipes. It was where I learned how to make a white sauce, which I still employ on occasion to this day.

[debm55]

78. Thank you very much Xavier Breath. The last year of HS we had a similiar class of skills needed for everyday life. It

was wonderful

[Freddie]

49. I'm female, Freddie was a very beloved cat

Everyone knew the whole thing was wrong but this was a small town in Pennsylvania in the 70s.

[debm55]

51. Sorry, about that Freddie

[electric_blue68]

87. I think we girls had Home Ec but not sure. I don't have memory of hating it, and I was getting into Feminist....

thinking; so it probably would have annoyed me had we (only) girls had had it. I don't remember any annoyance.

Otoh... I totally remember having to trudge off to Mid-Manhattan to a different HS for a semester of Typing Class! Bah! 😑 😄

Which makes me think either I didn't have Home Ec, or possibly was it innocuous enough to be forgettable.
Ha, now I just remembered bc I'm organizing I have my HS yearly grade sheets. I will look at them. 👍

[Picaro]

32. That we could smoke on campus

[debm55]

40. Yes, my HS had an area where the students could smoke.

[surfered]

33. We couldn't chew gum in class, not that I was really into it

[debm55]

39. I never wanted to either. But if you wanted to chew gum to relax that would be annoying.

[CanonRay]

34. My high school was like a medium security prison

So there were probably lots of them.

[debm55]

38. Oh my. That's wasn't good at all.

Last edited Tue Dec 10, 2024, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)

[nature-lover]

52. Pregnant girls could not attend school and had a special at-home curriculum.

As soon as the pregnancy was discovered, she was gone. Not sure of all the details due to the "whispered only" nature of the situation.

[debm55]

62. Thank you. In my district they would marry, one girl I knew was a sophomore or you went to these homes for pregnant

girls.

[nature-lover]

66. The girl I knew had to leave school but the father got to stay and go on as usual.

[debm55]

69. The one I personally knew left to the home. The father was a football player.

[Basso8vb]

54. I wasn't a smoker but CA high schools had a smoking section in the quad on campus

marked by a line painted on the ground.

School smoking areas were done away with on January 1, 1986 - my freshman year.

But the line remained. Too much work and $ to remove it.

[debm55]

63. I didn't smoke either but the school had a student smoking section.

[malthaussen]

55. One of my seventh grade teachers tried to impose that "stand while answering" rule.

It didn't go well.

-- Mal

[debm55]

64. Thank you Mal, When our name was called , we stood ---Catholic school.

[KT2000]

56. A girl's skirt had to touch

the seat of a chair when kneeling on it - if not you had to go home and change.
No gum chewing
No talking in class unless called upon

[debm55]

65. Thank you KT2000, Yes , no talking in class and no passing notes.

[kimbutgar]

57. Having to copy a page out of a dictionary of you didn't finish your work

Or having to write lines of whatever you did wrong. I will not throw pencils at anymore 50x’s and if didn’t finish you had to take it home and have your parents sign off that you finished the 50x’s and return with their signature.

I think this made me more able to realize I had to finish a schoolwork task and as an adult a work task and not do it sloppily.

[debm55]

67. Thank you kimbutgar.I remember kids having to that on the side blackboards too, I will not____________ a certain amount

of times.

[mvd]

58. Old computers so just were in limited classes

I remember learning in typing class with them. Then college had a little more computing.

[debm55]

68. Had to take typing on a Royal typewriter. No computers back then. Thank you Matt.

[CTyankee]

98. Me, too. I graduated from high school in 1957. My typing class taught me the keyboard early.

[debm55]

99. Same here. Thank you CTyankee.

[Wicked Blue]

59. We had to wear socks under sandals in high school.

They claimed it was because the cleaning product used on the floors would damage our feet.

It was a lie.

I found out that the green sweeping compound was manufactured by the company my father worked for. He told me it was harmless.

So on an afternoon that was busy with after school activities, I jogged through the hallways barefoot. My feet were fine.

[debm55]

70. HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHA. Good for you Wicked Blue.

[SARose]

60. Gym suits and showers

Royal blue one piece gym suits in junior high and high school. Ugh!

Showers after gym class. I was shocked to hear not one of our 5 grandkids even had a shower at school. Ewww!

No pants or jeans here, too! My freshman year at college we were allowed to wear dress pants to class but jeans were restricted to the dorm.

Single sex dorms with curfews! Ugh!

[debm55]

61. Thank you very much SARose, We had the blue one piece gym uniforms. After gym, the girls took a shower in the girls

locker room as a group. There were three stalls set up in case you were having your period, Otherwise the gym teacher stood there and watched to make sure no one didn't go in.

[Harker]

71. If you mess with Mrs. Mudd...

she might dig a thumbnail into your chin.

[debm55]

72. Oh no, did she get in trouble for doing that? She should have.

[Harker]

73. No, when I was a kid, corporal punishment was a daily thing.

I had good, kind teachers, but I saw her do that to kids unfortunate enough to have her for their teacher.

She only spoke to me once in the four years we spent at the same elementary school, and she was smiling sweetly at me, which was very creepy.

The Principal's nickname was "K.O."

[debm55]

89. Oh my. Glad those days are over. Thank you Harker.

[sakabatou]

74. Not that I'm aware of.

Then again, I went through high school in the early 2000s.

[debm55]

90. You are lucky. Thank you sakabatou.

[WestMichRad]

76. A slide rule

[debm55]

91. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Thank you WestMichRad.

[Walleye]

77. Girls were strictly forbidden from wearing pants. We even played field hockey in little skirts as I recall.

[debm55]

92. Thank you Walleye. I remember that.

[LogDog75]

79. Boy's hair standards

Long hair was becoming more popular in the mid- to late 60s. We had a number of male students with long hair and the school was harassing them about it. A group of them petitioned the school board to relax the standard and instead the school board made it stricter. The town I lived in had a lot of retired Navy officers which is why the standards were strict. Their new standard was the hair on the back of a boy's head could not touch his collar. Sideburns could not extend below middle of the ear. No mustaches, beards, or goatees. After the standard was passed, most teachers ignored it and didn't report anyone violating the standard.

[debm55]

93. That's good and thank you LogDog75, My HS never relaxed the standards. Short hair, no facial hair.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

84. Hold the chalk so it does not screech on the chalkboard.

..............

2. Recite the Pledge of Allegiance in unison with the class every morning while holding your right hand over your heart.

3. Never, ever sass the teacher.

KY......

[debm55]

94. Thank you KY. I remember all three of those.

[JoseBalow]

85. 18 yr olds could excuse their own absences at my high school

and sign ourselves out of school, if we wanted, because were legal adults. Boy, did we seniors take advantage of that, but be careful not to abuse it at your own peril!

I don't think that flies anymore, does it?

[debm55]

95. Thank you JoseBalow. Now both boys and girls can sign themselves out for a job or appointment.I think it was 18 was

because only seniors could drive to school. I got my Cinderella license at 15 but had to have an 18 or older drive with me. At 16 got a regular license but wasn't allowed to drive. Because of the rule.

[wnylib]

86. Girls had to wear dresses or skirts. Slacks for girls were not allowed

until the year after I graduated. Skirts and dresses could not be any shorter that one inch above the knees.

Nobody was allowed to wear jeans.

Boys had to have their hair cut short around the ears and it could not be longer than their collars in back.

No visible tattoos. No earrings for boys.

For elective classes, both boys and girls could take art and music. But only girls could take sewing and cooking. Only boys could take drafting and woodworking.

Girls could play after school basketball for fun in the gym, but there were no competitive girls' basketball teams in my school district. Same for swimming, softball, tennis, track, and volleyball. Boys had basketball, softball, football, swimming, track, and wrestling competition teams.

In grade school, kids sat quietly at their desks and could not move out of them except at recess and lunch time, or when a teacher escorted the class to another room for music appreciation or to the library.

Speaking without being called on could be punished by standing in a corner, staying for detention, a couple slaps on the hand with a ruler, or writing lines on the blackboard 100 times.

[debm55]

96. Thank you wnylib. Sorry but your grade school sounds terrible. In HS I did take drafting and the school was very obey in

some ways. We had competitive sports for both the boys and girls. I was on the diving team. In a way, the last year or two that I went there it was was very college like with numerous classes and electives. I heard it went back to the old way. That is a shame, However at the time my school had 700 students in each grade. Not a city school but a school in the subs.

[wnylib]

100. My city junior high school (grades 7 through 9) had 800 students.

The high school (grades 10 through 12) had 2000.

I don't know how many kids were in the grade school. It was K through 6. Class size was usually around 30 to 35. Baby Boomers.

I think that the grade school discipline was strict for 2 reasons. One, several of the teachers were near retirement age. They did not have education degrees. They had gone to what were called "normal schools," in the very late 1800s and early 1900s where prospective teachers received certificates for passing proficiency exams after brief subject training sessions.

The second reason for the school's discipline practices was the conservative time period. I started kindergarten in the autumn of 1954.

My kindergarten and first grade teachers were excellent. Very understanding and good with young children. The rest of the teachers, not so much. We learned our subject material, but endured some harsh practices that would not be allowed in public schools today.

In junior and senior high, teachers were still allowed to use paddles on students. Not every teacher did. Some were good at making subjects interesting and managing classroom behavior without resorting to them.

[debm55]

104. Thank you wnylib.Some schools are bringing back corporal punishment and some schools never did do away with it.Sad that

a teacher would have to use abusive punishment on a child.

[Figarosmom]

97. Girls couldnt wear slacks

And no dodge ball on playground. Although I suspect that may still be the rule.

[debm55]

105. Thank you Figarosmom. Yes, no slacks until the end of HS. We did do dodgeball in grade school and HS gym.

[Emile]

101. The girls would tear the fruit loops from the shirts of the boys. I remember

it got so bad the principal said he would punish the ones who were ripping the backs of boy shirts.

[debm55]

106. I remember that . When I was in First grade a nun hung a boy in the clock room by using one of those loops from a coat

hook. There were 60 kids in that class, I was so frightened.

[dem4decades]

102. For punishment, you had to go outside and clap the erasers.

[debm55]

107. My class had 'chores' on a rotating basis. One was going out and clapping the erasers. I liked that. then they got this

machine that cleaned the erasers.

[lark]

103. Girls had to wear dresses that came to their fingertips or longer.

We weren't allowed to wear pants. One year it got down to 11 degrees and there were icecicles everywhere. Mom decided I'd wear my long pants to walk to school, it was just too cold for a dress, even with tights. A lot of other girls moms also sent them to school in pants, there was a big uproar with some kids getting sent home, parents storming the school shouting at the principal - and by the end of the day there was an announcement that girls could wear long pants on days when it was cold.

During the mini skirt years, the strict rule about skirt length was creatively "skirted" by us. We'd roll up our skirts at the waistline as soon as we got past our house, then roll them down to walk into home room, which is where the dress code was policed. As we walked out of hr, we'd roll our skirts back up. It was a game called "we'll do what we want", that is often played by teenagers.

[debm55]

108. We wore pants under our dresses. but removed them once we got in school . hahahaha I remember rolling up the skirts too