Things That Were Normal In Schools 70 Years Ago

The 1950s are popularly known as the height of American economic prosperity, known as a time of high fashion, suburbanization, a large middle class with money to spend, post-war peace and tranquility before the societal fervent of the Vietnam War era. It was also a time of changing childhoods, when children mostly went to school rather than going to work and the word "teenager" was coined to describe that phase of adolescence that was no longer considered the beginning of adulthood.

Although the 1950s was very different to today's society, schooling as we know it today is by and large a product of that era. Large, consolidated public, mixed-gender schools became the norm then, partly due to the suburbanization of the country. Insofar as the curriculum is concerned, most of it would still be broadly recognizable today. But there were some stark differences, too, ranging from strict adherence to dress codes to segregation that separated students based on race. And since the '50s were also a time of transition for the nation following World War II, some of the older institutions, such as one-room schools, were still common in parts of rural America. 

Here are some things that were commonplace in the 1950s that have largely vanished from American schools today.

School-sponsored religious activity in public schools has been illegal ever since the Supreme Court struck down any sort of school sponsorship of religious prayer or Bible reading in the 1962 case Engel v. Vitale. But before that, although it was gradually receding, school prayer was still commonplace in 1950s America.

Back then, around 40% of American schools had some form of school prayer or Bible reading, including recitation of the Christian Lord's Prayer. In some states, it was even required by law. New York's Board of Regents, for instance, required the morning recitation of a non-denominational prayer that went, "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." This was the prayer that triggered the 1962 lawsuit. Pennsylvania, whose law was overturned in the 1963 case Abington v. Schempp, required "At least 10 verses from the Holy Bible [to] be read, without comment, at the opening of each public school on each school day." Both states, however, allowed parents to opt their children out.

The Vitale case argued that organized prayer discriminated against students of different faiths and non-religious students by making them pray against their beliefs, but it was not voided on these grounds. Instead, SCOTUS ruled that organized prayer was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, whose guarantee of equal protection, SCOTUS ruled, forbade states from favoring one religion over another – previously something that applied only to federal institutions. Today, it's possible organized prayer might make a comeback, as Texas has attempted passing bills to allow it.

Today, it is hard to imagine letting elementary- or middle-school-aged children walk to school or take public transport by themselves. One woman was even arrested in 2014 for letting her 7-year-old walk to the park alone. But in the 1950s, letting young children walk to school unaccompanied was normal and expected.

In 1950, school buses were just becoming a national phenomenon, following the adoption of national standards in 1939. But in places where transportation was still spotty, such as rural America, children often still had to walk to school. Even in the well-connected suburbs, if parents had to work or there was no car available, children were on their own. So many of them walked. A survey from Slate found that around 70% of respondents who grew up in the 1950s were allowed to walk over one mile away from home by the time they were in 3rd grade (around 8 years old) – including to school. Today, the situation has flipped, as most parents wait until middle school, or in some cases, high school, before letting children go out on their own.

Although most children were going to school alone in 1950, the decade introduced the danger of car-related accidents thanks to increasing ownership and suburbanization. In response, authorities put out videos to teach children going to school alone how to be safe on the street. This included listening to crossing guards, looking both ways before crossing the street, and not accepting rides from strangers – typical safety rules that most children still learn today.

Discipline in modern American schools varies tremendously, ranging from detention to sending disruptive children out of the classroom to suspension. Some teachers have complained that modern discipline is too soft. Regardless of where one stands on that debate, corporal punishment is by and large no longer part of school disciplinary procedures, existing only in some localities south of the Mason-Dixon line. In the 1950s, however, it was the norm.

The kind of discipline in 1950s schools is best understood through personal experiences. One man, writing for the Buchanan County Independent, noted that corporal punishment existed in many forms. There was knuckle-smacking with a ruler or paddling/caning. There were also more Byzantine punishments, such as having to stand on one leg or being forced to stand on one's tiptoes while keeping the nose inside a ring against the blackboard.

What could one do to merit such a punishment? According to a former 1950s Catholic school student writing in Newsweek, it was easy to get on the nuns' bad side. Talking back, talking out of turn, and acting up at Mass were all grounds for being smacked in the face. For girls, the punishment for offenses such as having a skirt that was too short was being rapped on the knuckles with a ruler.

Interestingly, 55% of Americans, according to a 1954 Gallup poll, approved of schools using corporal punishment on their children. It was not until the 1970s that states started banning the practice, in part due to parents' belief that they should be their children's primary disciplinarians – not schools.

Most American students enjoy broad freedom of dress in public school, as long as they do not contravene rules of public decency. In the 1950s, things were different, as described by filmmaker David Hoffman, who grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He recalled that student dress was meant to project a dignified image of American youth to the world.

Hoffman recalled that the "in" styles for 1950s girls included tight, waist-accentuating belts, dresses, half-length pants, and tight tops. In school, however, skirts were expected to go below the knee. In Catholic schools, the nuns even measured the distance between the hemline and the ankle to catch violators. High-necked tops were a must, but they could not be too tight (form fitting was acceptable). Schools also banned half and three-quarters-length pants like pedal pushers, while hair had to be shoulder length or longer – no pixie cuts.

For boys, the dress code forbade things like leather jackets, which were associated with greaser gangs and other "undesirable" elements of society, and long hair. Instead, they were expected to dress in neatly pressed slacks and button-down shirts or polos.

The schools justified the dress codes, saying that they improved the learning environment and created a safer environment for girls, although Hoffman said it was really a matter of controlling the student body. Clothing was a "disciplinary tool," as violators were punished with public shaming. The emphasis on conformity ultimately resulted in the backlash among youth that led to the 1960s counterculture movement.

As Catholic schools are shuttered due to declining enrollment and financial woes, older alumni might wistfully recall the 1950s – the golden age of American Catholic schooling. At the time, Catholic schools taught 80% of all private school children and 10% of the total student population. They were also stereotypically known as ​​"places where all students had to wear uniforms and bad students got their knuckles rapped or their ears pulled by nuns," per The New York Times.

Catholic schools today are mostly run by laypeople – that is, non-clergy. The presence of clergy, apart from the occasional nun or priest serving as principal or school chaplain, is rare. In the 1950s, however, nuns and priests ran the show as teachers, administrators, and disciplinarians.

However, the 1950s were also the last days of the nun-dominated Catholic school. The United States experienced a large fall in the number of new priests and nuns starting in that same decade, according to a study by the Catholic outlet The Pillar. With the collapse of religious vocations, the smaller number of priests still had to keep the same number of parishes running, leaving less time for teaching. Thus, schools had to hire laypeople.

The change had financial ramifications for Catholic schools. Tom Otten, a layman who worked in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's school system, told WCPO that nuns and priests were less expensive to employ since they did not receive salaries, keeping costs down. Lay teachers, however, needed to be paid salaries in line with the cost of living, which translated to higher operating costs and higher tuition.

Today, having a "C" grade on one's transcript can be a death sentence when it comes to elite college admissions. Earning such a grade on a college exam or class often sends students into a panic. Think of how often President George W. Bush got made fun of for having a "C" average at Yale (77 by numbers). But in the 1950s, a "C," which historically meant "average," was, as one would expect, the most common grade.

According to a report from Los Rios Community College, the average GPA in the 1950s and early 1960s was 2.5 – a "C" or "C-" depending on the scale. In the late '60s and '70s, however, the average GPA increased to 2.8 at public and 3.1 at private colleges). Today, the average is nearly 3.0, and 3.3 at private colleges – much higher than the 1950s average.

The report notes that professors began artificially inflating students' grades to help them avoid the Vietnam draft – an idea supported in the data given that grade inflation coincided with the height of anti-war protests. Before 1971, good academic performance meant a deferment, while unsatisfactory (below average) performance meant the front lines.

The study blames the second spike of grade inflation in the 1980s on skyrocketing college tuition and the transformation of collegiate education into a product. As tuition increased and college admissions became the high-stakes game of today, students expected a good ROI on their work and investment – namely the degree and a good GPA to get a job. The only schools that maintain 1950s grading trends are community colleges, whose averages still cluster between 2.5-2.7.

Today, asking an employee or potential hire about political views is fodder for a discrimination lawsuit. In the 1950s, however, amid the Red Scare and fear of communist infiltration in schools, it was not only permitted but encouraged if employees showed signs of sympathy for socialism or communism.

As noted in Stuart Foster's "Red Alert!," published in the journal "Education and Culture," public schools were considered breeding grounds for communism amid a growing American culture war. There were integrationists (often accused of being communists) vs. segregationists, advocates of rote learning against advocates of "new" methods, supporters of patriotic education vs. dissenters, etc.

The conflicts and flurry of back-and-forth accusations resulted in teachers being investigated and fired from their jobs. The 1953 Philadelphia purge was one such example, with 32 teachers suspended over alleged ties to the American Communist Party. Such charges became criminal matters with the 1954 Communist Control Act, so the stakes were pretty high for accused teachers.

The National Education Association responded by closing ranks around teachers. The organization explicitly declared itself anti-communist and established the Defense Commission. This body presented itself as defending teachers from "red scare propaganda" and "witch hunters" who sought to undermine America's educational future. It also distributed literature for public consumption and engaged in public relations campaigns with Congress and prominent members of American society who supported the commission's mission. Overall, the commission was able to insulate teachers from the worst of the Red Scare, but as Philadelphia showed, it could only do so much when facing the full might of the U.S. government.

Today, the focus in American schools is overwhelmingly on college preparedness. Classes like shop and home economics, once mandatory for large swathes of the population, have either been cut or demoted to electives. This has produced concerns that the U.S. is neglecting students who are not interested in college, denying them crucial skills that could allow them to go straight into the workforce or trade school.

In the 1950s, however, there was career tracking, which separated students based on whether they were considered college-bound. The system was simple: students who excelled in the traditional subjects (Latin/Greek, literature, math, and hard sciences) were put into college preparatory schools. Those who did not exhibit such aptitude were put into schools, vocational schools, whose academic curricula were more basic, but also stressed mandatory shop (boys) and home economics classes (girls). In shop, boys were exposed to a variety of trades, including woodworking and metalworking. Although the classes did not prepare them to immediate become tradesmen, the skills were usually enough for them to get apprenticeships straight out of high school. Girls were taught domestic skills to become homemakers, in keeping with the 1950s ideal of marrying early.

While the system worked insofar as it ensured all students had opportunities to explore options besides college, it was criticized as hampering social mobility. Students who were tracked into the non-collegiate track were often from poorer households. The work track became considered the "remedial" track, per Forbes, and it was gradually cut in favor of today's system which favors college preparedness.