You know you're getting old when...

[JAperson]

For some idea, I started school in 2007, and I never saw a blackboard throughout my 14 years in education. I think they’ve been gone a fairly long time.

I was the same, never saw a blackboard although there were plenty of whiteboards which do the same thing and if I recall we did have one teacher who would slam there whiteboard rubber on the table to shut the class up, but that was just poor teaching. A good teacher should be able to control a class without such methods.

 

[RicketyCricket]

I'm 32 and can only ever remember whiteboards. Never had a blackboard even in primary school.

The overhead projector was always exciting though.

Feeling old - Forked out for the Bruce Springsteen tour at two separate venues.

 

[Matt.GC]

I recall we did have one teacher who would slam there whiteboard rubber on the table to shut the class up, but that was just poor teaching. A good teacher should be able to control a class without such methods.

That statement alone illustrates how much school has changed if the odd slam on a desk is considered poor teaching. No chance of controlling 40 odd repulsive teenagers in the 90's without slamming the desk etc and shouting for our attention. If I had to teach my lot I'd go in armed with a rifle.

I remember when things really kicked off you got threatened with the deputy head and who I think was the called the assistant head. Both guys were in their 60's, one was the scariest teacher in the school, the other was the nicest guy you'd ever meet. If the nice guy got called up he would somehow manage to calm us down by picking out the trouble makers and taking us outside and reasoning with us. The other however, we'd shut up as soon as he entered the room. He'd then march up and down between the tables, anything out of place or one word and he was in your face shouting. We were all terrified of him. When I look back now though, we ****** well deserved it. Some older kids pinned me up against the wall once because I saw them smoking in the toilets and threatened me not to grass on them. He was walking by, smelt the smoke and rescued me and my mate. The offending kids (6 of them) were lined up against the wall and he went nuts at them. But I saw a different side to him that day, he made sure they never went near me again, checked in on us for the rest of the day and said any problems all I had to do was go to him. I did see a protective side to him from that day on.

 

[Matt N]

I had a D&T teacher who used to bang a hammer on the table to get our attention, but other than that, my experience concurs with that of @JAperson. None of my teachers used particularly violent or heavy handed techniques of discipline.

Well, there was a history teacher I had who walloped a student round the head with a textbook once, but said student reported them and they got sacked almost immediately, which would suggest that that’s not par for the course for discipline within modern teaching…

My teachers never shouted particularly angrily at individuals, and even when they were angry at a collective group, they tended to resort more to long rants. Our Computer Science teacher at A Level once ranted at us for half the lesson after multiple individuals in our class reported them for inadequate coursework help (an accusation that I didn’t personally agree with, I should add; they were always very helpful to me about my coursework)… they were very angry, and inferred that it was us that was the problem.

 

[Rojo]

I didn't realise my high school was soo rough until I read this thread, but I suppose mine made it onto Urban dictionary link contains swears - NSFW

We had a few teachers that would occasionally end up fighting with students and yep chalkboards with erasers being launched at particular idiots. Whiteboards and smart boards started coming in towards the last year.

To be fair most of the teachers were amazing and most students were great, just the odd idiots and a few who would take it to another level.

 

[Matt.GC]

I had a D&T teacher who used to bang a hammer on the table to get our attention, but other than that, my experience concurs with that of @JAperson. None of my teachers used particularly violent or heavy handed techniques of discipline.

Since that word has now been used, I want to make clear I'm NOT talking about violence here. The odd grab of an arm or a text book being thrown whilst being handed out and hitting someone accidentally. But no intentional violence. My brother got clipped round the head once in primary school which was wrong but corporal punishment had been gone for almost 2 decades by the time I was in secondary. I just want to clarify what we're talking about, not violence.

Didn't need violence from teachers anyway as there were plenty of school bullies to dole out the beatings at break time anyway.

 

[Jonathan]

My one abiding memory of primary school was the acting head we had in Y6 (the previous head had a nervous breakdown following an OFSTED inspection that put the school into special measures). Cue this acting head changing everything. Some stuff needed to change, of course, but it felt as though some of it was just for the sake of doing it, and it brought no real benefits. Parents removed their children from the school because they were so unhappy. Teachers ended up leaving, and some filed for unfair dismissal - some of them even won their claims. What I found to be the worst thing of all, though, was the day when all 60-odd kids in Y6 were taken to the hall. What followed was all of us being shouted at for racially abusing a Chinese girl in the year below. Here's the thing. I knew absolutely NOTHING of this until we were in the hall. I wouldn't have thought anyone in my friendship group at the time would've dream of doing anything as abhorrent as that. I was completely mortified, and very upset at how it was handled. I was 11 at the time. I knew racism was a very bad thing. I also knew that this was completely the wrong way of handling it. I was so glad I was leaving that school anyway and moving to secondary school - I wouldn't have wanted to stay there any longer. In fact, part of me wanted to refuse to even attend the school because of the way our acting head was running things. What's worse is that she got the job permanently on a unanimous decision. Like, HOW?! She turned the school into one that was completely miserable!

 

[Matt.GC]

We had a few teachers that would occasionally end up fighting with students and yep chalkboards with erasers being launched at particular idiots. Whiteboards and smart boards started coming in towards the last year.

The duster was a powerful weapon. A chunk of wood that could be slammed or thrown, and when slammed on the rubber side would create a "He/she means business" cloud of chalk dust where many of us would shut up whilst the cloud of dust settled to reveal the piecing eyes of the teacher looking back at us.

This does make me intrigued however as to when and why blackboards were removed? My son tried explaining it to me but I still don't know what a "Smart Board" is. I left in 1999 and there were dry wipe whiteboards in DT, the sixth form centre and in the almost completely unused IT rooms (IT was not part of the curriculum back then and the schools fleet of new Windows 95 PC's were kept under lock and key). My partner is just 5 years younger than me and she remembers blackboards but they had almost all been removed by the time she went. Judging by that and a couple of posts in this thread it looks their widespread removal was around the millennium? But I wonder why they were removed all of a sudden since dry wipes perform basically the same purpose?

The only reason I can think of is to make the use of projectors easier as when they wheeled them out it either necessitated the need for a white screen that had to be pulled down from the ceiling or above the board, a portable white screen with legs on it or, most commonly, just projecting straight onto a blank wall somewhere.

 

[BarryZola]

I'm 40 years old. It was always blackboards for me until maybe the last year or so (I think) of high school when I think a couple of white boards were spotted coming into play (that would have been 1997/98 ish). Our school was a bog standard cheapo comprehensive in the West Mids though so I suppose just having books was more important than changing blackboards to whiteboards.

 

[Matt.GC]

I'm 40 years old. It was always blackboards for me until maybe the last year or so (I think) of high school when I think a couple of white boards were spotted coming into play (that would have been 1997/98 ish). Our school was a bog standard cheapo comprehensive in the West Mids though so I suppose just having books was more important than changing blackboards to whiteboards.

Where a lot your books from the 70's as well with the previous owners putting their names and dates they had them inside the front cover? They used to make us wrap the covers in wallpaper and stuff to preserve them as homework

 

[rob666]

Yup, there was a big educational sell around the millennium.
Promethean and another firm mopped up loads of central and local education grants, big, white electrical and computer linked, expensive looking...what not to love!

Lots of claims about chalk dust allergies as well I believe, just to get a health angle as well!

Just fantastic for those mind numbing Powerpoint presentations.

 

[BarryZola]

Where a lot your books from the 70's as well with the previous owners putting their names and dates they had them inside the front cover? They used to make us wrap the covers in wallpaper and stuff to preserve them as homework

Put it this way, I don't remember there being any 'new' books. Usually a mixture of really old or just old. Most often heavily graffiti'd.

 

[jon81uk]

For some idea, I started school in 2007, and I never saw a blackboard throughout my 14 years in education. I think they’ve been gone a fairly long time.

Seen any blackboards at university?
I did administrative work in a mathematics department and mathematicians love chalk, they can't get enough blackboards in lecture theatres.

This does make me intrigued however as to when and why blackboards were removed? My son tried explaining it to me but I still don't know what a "Smart Board" is. I left in 1999 and there were dry wipe whiteboards in DT, the sixth form centre and in the almost completely unused IT rooms (IT was not part of the curriculum back then and the schools fleet of new Windows 95 PC's were kept under lock and key). My partner is just 5 years younger than me and she remembers blackboards but they had almost all been removed by the time she went. Judging by that and a couple of posts in this thread it looks their widespread removal was around the millennium? But I wonder why they were removed all of a sudden since dry wipes perform basically the same purpose?

I finished my GCSEs in 1997 and some classrooms were 100% whiteboard even then, smartboards were probably 10+ years away though.
We had the rollerboards and some rooms had three boards on the roll, mostly white but some rooms had one panel still being a chalkboard. Think it depended on the teachers preference to some extent.
Oh and as for the why, dry wipe boards make a lot less dust. So less cleaning of classrooms needed.

 

[Matt.GC]

Maybe our school was just behind the times. My dad said "this hasn't changed since the 70's apart from the fact they can't slap you sods with a PE dap anymore".

Worth noting that my school was notoriously highly underfunded back then (the local council had another word for it but I can't remember what it was), with one of the 3 local schools, which happened to be the biggest, getting seemingly endless amounts of cash splashed on it with state of the art sports facilities, double glazing, shelf mounted telly's rather than the ones on wheels with wooden doors on front that the whole faculty had to share etc. I remember the justification at the time was that all the schools could share good facilities in one school. But in reality it was only the clever kids that ever got loaded into the school livered Ford Transit to use the posher facilities 3 miles down the road.

I suppose when strapped for cash, if it wasn't broken there was no need to fix it. If blackboards did the job, may as well keep them. If French text books still taught French, there's no need to replace them just because the pictures of the kids in them were wearing flares and shirts with big colours on.

I might Google the whole blackboard situation I'm that sad.

 

[BigShadowtinytree]

I’m 31 and I remember blackboards in my very early years of education. Up to around year 3/4 (1998/9) blackboards were still pretty common in the school went to. I also remember the roller boards with 2/3 different boards on, some of them being white boards. Eventually it all switched to white boards and then the IT suite got an ‘interactive whiteboard’ which was the bees knees at the time but very glitchy from what I remember. Now every single class room has them, the school my children go to have chrome books too. Although not enough for every child to have all the time, there’s a rota so no one misses out, but my kids still complain that the other class in their respective year group gets to use them more than they do, of course they do pet…

 

[pluk]

The last board rubber I had launched at my head was around summer '93, and was well desrverved. I wouldn't shut up in Mr Robson English class and he very much got my attention. Nowt wrong with that.

 

[rob666]

Oh dear...
NHS sent me a late birthday present, thought it was a small box of covid tests through the post as I'm getting on a bit.
Eewww...Please **** in this box and return it in the prepaid return carton.
Charming.
The hidden joys of old age.

Edit...enjoy your breakfast.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

When Dr Who's latest companion is younger than you. (Ok that's not unusual for many of you but it is for me).

Millie Gibson is the new Doctor Who companion, Ruby Sunday | Doctor Who

Millie Gibson has landed the role of Ruby Sunday, the Doctor’s new companion to the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa.

www.doctorwho.tv

 

[Matt.GC]

When Dr Who's latest companion is younger than you. (Ok that's not unusual for many of you but it is for me).

Millie Gibson is the new Doctor Who companion, Ruby Sunday | Doctor Who

Millie Gibson has landed the role of Ruby Sunday, the Doctor’s new companion to the Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa.

www.doctorwho.tv

Jodie Whittaker herself is only 5 months older than me (although I must say, she's far better preserved than me). I don't think there's many people around who aren't older than this new companion bird, she's only 18!

 

[rob666]

Biologically, I could easily be her grandfather...
I was one of those hiding behind the settee when the daleks first started causing trouble.
My mum advised me they couldn't do stairs, and I would be safer in bed, clever woman!