My school didn’t do the “pod” thing, but when I was in Junior High (77-79), some touchy-feely psychologists came in and painted all the classrooms light blue and light green and pink, and the hallways and lockers bright red and electric orange and bright yellow. It was some color experiment. The bright hallways were supposed to rev you up and get you excited for the next class, while the pastel classrooms were supposed to be calming and favorable to learning.
When I was in elementary school, I learned “New Math” and the Metric System. We were told the US would be using the Metric System by the year 2000. I never learned feet and inches, quarts and pints; the normal measuring systems used in the US beyond second or third grade. Consequently, I still have trouble with that stuff occasionally. New Math also screwed me up. Math was always hard for me. I still have an anxiety attack when I have to balance the checkbook. Both New Math and the teaching of the Metric System were dumped soon after I left elementary school.
We learned spelling with a system called CPS. I don’t remember what that stands for, but it must have worked, because I’m a very good speller. It was a self-guided program, using cards in boxes, and we went and got the next card on our own. That’s all I can remember about it. Anyone else use it?
We always had two cars. We had a station wagon, and I can remember riding in the back, in the cargo area with the seat down, hanging out the open tailgate window. God forbid a parent let their child do that now!
We never wore seatbelts. Never.
No one had a VCR. If you wanted to watch a TV show, you had to have your butt in front of the TV when it came on. Actually, you had to have the TV turned on five minutes before the show came on, because the TV needed a few minutes to “warm up.”
If you missed it, you had to wait for summer re-runs.
And there wasn’t that much to choose from anyway, because there were only 4 channels. The three networks, one PBS station, and one independent local channel that just showed re-runs of old sitcoms and old movies.
We had milk delivery up till about 1978 or '79, I think. We had a galvanized metal box on the back porch, and we could leave a note if we wanted something more than our usual order.
I used to walk to a local gas station and blow my allowance on candy with a couple of friends every Saturday. It was about a mile and a half away, and we had to cross a fairly busy road. Sometimes we’d ride our bikes there, and then spend the day playing and riding bikes all over the place. We’d be gone for hours without checking in with our moms.
I’d never let my kids do that now.