Things teachers young teachers envy of the past

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Slater

Things were simpler before cell phones and the Internet. In my corner of the universe (rural Tennessee in the 1960's and 70's) when we left school for the day that was the last we saw of the teacher until the next morning.

It was also the last any students wanted to see of the teacher! Once the school day was over, most kids wanted to enjoy their freedom (even though there were homework obligations), and not have some kind of apron strings tying them to school or a certain class or teacher.

[Cida]

Originally Posted by victimofGM

Graduated in 87 and several of my classmates became teachers. One thing mentioned is they sometimes miss not having contact with their students outside the campus. Students didn’t know their teacher’s phone number. There was no email and you certainly didn’t know their home mailing address.

While they enjoy modern copying machines, they said they sometimes miss the manual mimeograph copy machine. One thing they really miss is better classroom discipline among students as well as support from principals and parents to remove problem students more quickly. In those days if you, a student, got in trouble at school then you got it worse when you got home.

I can easily believe that teachers miss the better behavior - but not the contact. I had no idea of any teacher's phone or whereabouts, ever, when I was in school, and it seems inconceivable to expect it, just as we don't call our doctors at home.