50+ Things You Won't Find in Schools Anymore

 

While the core content of education - reading, math, history, science, PE - hasn't changed as much as it probably should have done over the past 50 years, the way that we deliver instruction inevitably evolves. Forces such as 1:1 laptops in classrooms, changing cultural/societal norm, and an increased fear of liability  have transformed educational tools, classrooms, and expectations. 

Thought it would be fun to assemble a list of some of the transformations I've lived to witness!  

SCHOOL CAMPUSES

1. Dangerous playground equipment. Metal jungle gyms (constructed with exposed bolts) that towered into the sky. Merry-go-rounds that flung children aside like a wet dog shaking off rain. Once upon a time, kids used to not just collect playground scars, but show them off like war vets comparing wounds. Nothing like the rounded, padded playgrounds of today! 
2. Smoking lounges. Hard to believe that, once upon a time, schools not only condoned teen smoking, but accommodated it with designated areas that practically marketed smoking as “cool”
3. Desks with storage. Rendered obsolete by backpacks, much to the relief of teachers who were tired of removing moldy food and even nastier items.
4. Physical hall passes. Replaced by online apps that keep great data, but that require teachers to constantly interrupt their instruction to check students in and out of the classroom.
5. Lockers. No longer necessary in a world that has banished heavy textbooks and heavy winter coats - the kids just wear their hoodies year round.
6. Majorettes. Not sure if the disappearance of majorettes from school marching bands has more to do with baton twirling no longer being taught in PE, flags being easier to master than twirling, or a growing discomfort over showcasing prepubescent girls in skimpy attire.  
7. Retaining students who haven't met grade-level standards. Citing concerns over social-emotional issues, it's increasingly rare for students to be held back a grade. 
8. Summer school. Parents hate it and school districts increasingly can't afford it, so high schools are increasingly defaulting to "credit recovery" initiatives.
9. Corporal punishment. No one’s arguing that corporal punishment doesn’t belong in schools but, truthfully, thanks to litigious parents and lawsuit-fearing school districts, pretty much all consequences for misbehaviour are being gradually whittled away
10. Expulsion. Given the increased risk of parents filing lawsuits, schools have pretty much given up on expelling students except for the most egregious behaviours (ex: attempted murder) 
11. Snow days. Rendered obsolete by 1:1 technology that now allows students to access instruction from their homes – which is, frankly, just plain cruel.

CLASSROOM PRACTICES

1. Pledge of Allegiance. To be clear, many schools are still observing the pledge, but the days of students being compelled to stand and recite the pledge aloud have gone the way of other compulsory displays of performative values.
2. Formal attire for teachers. No one dresses up for work any more – not even teachers.
3. Grade books and attendance rosters.  All this has been moved to online apps, the better to facilitate real-time communication with parents, fellow teachers, and admins.
4. Grading with red pens. Eliminated out of concern that the color red might hit as too "judge-y," wounding student feelings.
5. Memorization. With information available at the touch of a screen, emphasis is shifting from developing automaticity (those mind-numbing skill drills!) to developing effective digital literacy skills.  
6. Homework. While the research is by no means clear, more and more schools are eliminating homework over concerns related to equity.
7. Grades for formative assessments (quizzes, classwork). The theory: that grades should only measure mastery, and therefore should only be based on tests/projects that measure mastery.
8. Giving zeroes. Another update being credited to concern over equity, many schools are making their lowest grade a 50.
9. Penalties for late work. Because if grades are supposed to measure mastery, they shouldn't be "tainted" by deductions that have nothing to do with mastery.
10. Pen & pencil work. 1:1 technology is rapidly making those once-ubiquitous worksheets obsolete. Nothing like the smell of ozone in the morning
11. Teacher autonomy. For a variety of cultural reasons, control of what happens in the classroom is gradually being wrested away from teachers, replaced by politically-approved curriculum, AI-powered learning games, and standardized tests.
12. Expecting sports coaches work in other content areas. Gone are the days when HS football and baseball coaches were also expected to teach history, shop, or drivers ed. Past time we
13. Birthday cupcakes. As awareness about childhood allergies spreads, more and more schools are banning student-provided sweets.

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS

1. Holding students accountable for attendance. Covid exacerbated a nation-wide outbreak of chronic absenteeism. Rather than try to restore order, however, schools have for the most part decided to give up enforcing mandatory attendance.
2. Studying for tests. An unintended consequence of mastery learning: students who no longer see any need to prepare for tests but instead rely on the availability of teacher remediation and retakes. So much more efficient to study for the test after you already know what’s going to be on it!
3. Taking notes. Note-taking is no longer being widely taught or expected, replaced by cellphone photos of the teacher’s slides and copies of the slides online.
4. Due dates.  In the cause of ensuring grades reflect only mastery, many schools now forbid teachers to dock grades for late work, inadvertently removing incentives for students to honor due dates.
5. Tracking due dates in planners.  Apps that push out reminders mean students no longer have to track this info themselves.
6. Passing notes. Students haven't actually stopped passing notes, of course: they've just transitioned to texting.  
7. Reading time on an analog clock. Rendered obsolete by cell phones … but now that kids aren’t allowed to have their cell phones out in class, yet most buildings are still equipped with analog clocks, this just means that most students no longer have any idea what time it is.

PARENT EXPECTATIONS

1. Field trip chaperones. The upshot of parents who both work: a dearth of parents willing/able to volunteer to chaperone daytime field trips
2. Classroom volunteers. Ditto classroom volunteers, though this has also been exacerbated by concerns over the dangers of allowing unvetted adults into classrooms. 
3. Active PTAs. Involvement in PTAs continues to diminish, driven by improved online communication with parents, more diverse student populations, and changing cultural expectations 
4. Expecting parents to participate in school discipline. Not meant as a blanket condemnation – there are of course still parents willing to work with schools to enforce consequences – but school admins have largely stopped expecting this to occur.   

CURRICULUM

1. Gender-specific classes. No longer is home ec the exclusive domain of girls, shop the exclusive domain of boys; all courses have become comfortably co-ed
2. Cursive writing; penmanship. Rendered obsolete by computers – though we’re going to have to nurture a small group of cursive interpreters to preserve pre-2000 text.
3. Grammar instruction. Being replaced by AI-powered writing aides, in combination with an increasing cultural tolerance for “flexible” grammar.  
4. Drivers Ed. Liability-fueled fears have put the kibosh on school-based driving instruction, though some schools still offer the classroom portion.
5. Typing class. These days, students are proficient at typing by the time they reach 6^th grade, thanks to the time they’ve spend on keyboards.
6. Photography classes. No more need for darkroom skills in this era of digital cameras.

LIBRARY, CAFETERIA & GYM

1. Card catalogs. Computers may have replaced grubby index cards in tiny drawers, but the Dewey Decimal System seems safe for now.
2. Stamping cards with due dates. The library now sends students text messages when their books are due.
3. Microfiche. Remember when newspapers were scanned and preserved on film that had to be viewed using a special machine? Now they’re stored as .pdfs, available on any computer.
4. Lunch boxes & thermoses. Lunch boxes have become, alas, uncool – but no one’s missing those old glass thermoses that used to shatter and fill your soup with shards of glass
5. Lunch money. No need to carry cash anymore; students all have debit accounts that can be accessed by pin numbers. (A tough break for bullies.)
6. Presidential Fitness Test. Discontinued in the interest of focusing PE classes on overall health and wellness rather than athleticism.
7. Rope climbs. Discontinued, I have always assumed, due to irrelevance (piracy having ceased to be a career option); that, and the potential liability associated with students plummeting through the air onto thin foam mats.
8. Square dancing. Replaced by less socially humiliating forms of physical fitness.
9. Dodgeball. Bullying in the form of sport! Discontinued for humanitarian reasons.
10. Gym uniforms. Took us longer than we should have to figure out they were unflattering, unsanitary, expensive, and unnecessary

TECHNOLOGIES & SUPPLIES

1. AV Carts. Feel almost sorry for generations of students who will never experience the excitement of the AV cart (TV, speakers) being rolled into the room, bring with it the promise of novelty and perhaps a quick snooze after the lights went out!
2. Computer carts and labs. Replaced by 1:1 laptops – an expensive investment for school districts, but perpetually buggy, outdated computer labs and carts were definitely NOT going to be adequate to give students the time they needed to develop computer literacy.
3. Blackboards, overhead projectors, film projectors. Replaced by white boards that double as projection screens for the teacher’s computer.  An improvement no one is regretting, except perhaps chalk manufacturers.
4. Physical textbooks (+ grocery bag book covers). Being replaced by a combination of online textbooks and collections of internet apps & resources.
5. Manual pencil sharpeners & pencil boxes. No need for pencils (nor boxes to put them in) now that students are producing their output in the form of computer text.  
6. Doing research using encyclopedias, hard copy books, index cards. Rendered obsolete by computer-based resources and apps.
7. Compasses, protractors, slide rules, calculators. Gone the way of the abacus!
8. Pull down maps & globes. No longer necessary due to the availability of these resources on the internet … and also the fact that few schools seem to bother to teach geography any more.

Advice for Rising High Schoolers

All these posts about high school graduations set me thinking: what advice might I have benefited from back when I was transitioning from middle school to high school? Like many students, I look back on high school as an awkward time: I was socially clueless, immature, confused, anxious, and absolutely convinced that every other student in the school had the whole thing figured out. Would a list like this have made my journey less fraught? At the very least, feel like seeing so many of my anxieties acknowledged and expressed might have been reassuring, if not actually instructive. 

What advice do you wish someone had imparted to you before your high school career? 

MENTAL HEALTH

1. Get over yourself. While it's tempting to imagine that everyone's judging you by your every word and deed, the fact of the matter is that people are way too distracted and self-absorbed to spend time observing and judging others. Don't let an exaggerated sense of self-consciousness prevent you from doing you. 
2. Everyone else in high school will be as insecure as you are - they just may hiding it better. It's not you - it's an unpleasant but inescapable phase of human development.
3. Pretty much everything you're going to think matters - appearance, number of friends, dating, reputation - doesn't actually matter. You will come to realize this for yourself the day you graduate. Until then, just take our word for it. 
4. Envy is both pointless and poisonous. Over the long term, life has a way of evening things out. In the words of Elsa, "let it go." 
5. Every day is a new day, and a chance at a new start. No need to wait for a new year, a new quarter, a new teacher, a new group of friends, a new season: change starts happening the moment you let it start happening. 
6. Time heals all wounds, including broken friendships, betrayal, and heartache.
7. There *will* be stress. Your job is to develop healthy ways to deal with it. Sleep, exercise, laughter, family, pets, hobbies .... all of these will help you deal. 
8. Set boundaries and trust your instincts. Don't let your core values be corrupted by pop culture or peer pressure.  To quote Professor Dumbledore: "It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."
9. You may not be able to control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.  Practice meeting adversity with dignity.
10. When the temptation to go low is strongest, that's when it's most important to go high. Remember that forgiveness isn't about absolving the other person of guilt (it doesn't) - it's about protecting your own mental health. 
11. Pursue things that make you happy, not things you think *should* make you happy ... or that others tell you should make you happy. 
12. Changing your attitude can change your reality. Research has shown that if you pretend to more confidence than you actually feel, you'll start feeling more genuinely confident over time. 
13. Who you are now isn't who you're going to be forever.  Not feeling like you've achieved your best self? Don't worry, there's still plenty of time for that. 
14. Grades may be fine for measuring your performance on a specific task, but they don't measure your intelligence, your worth, or your future.
15. Don't punish yourself for mistakes, but do learn from them. If you aren't making mistakes, you're not learning - you're just treading water. The challenge is owning up to your mistakes and trying to avoid them the next time.   
16. It's okay if high school isn't "the best time of your life." Life is a long game; who wants to peak in high school?  

FRIENDS & EMPATHY

1. Practice empathy; don't judge others until you've walked in their shoes. (And, while you're at it, avoid killing mockingbirds.) 
2. Actions speak louder than words. It's what you *do* that matters, not what you wish you'd done, or what you intended to do. Gratitude, kindness, respect, and courage matter. 
3. Gossip isn't entertainment, it's bullying. Just don't.
4. The friends that matter are the ones who like you for who you are, not who you're pretending to be. 
5. Some friends are there for a season, some for a reason, some for a lifetime. Learn how to tell the difference
6. Relationships require effort. Take the time and effort to nurture the ones that matter. 
7. Surround yourself with people who challenge you. The best way to advance is to surround yourself with people who constantly push you forward. 

ACADEMICS & ACHIEVEMENT

1. Success in high school is, as in life, 90% effort, 10% luck.  Your success will depend almost wholly on the effort you put into it. However, some things will also require patience. 
2. Develop your critical thinking skills.  High school is when you need to learn how to start thinking for yourself instead of allowing other people (parents, teachers, friends, politicians, social media influencers) to think for you. The sooner you master this skill, the better. 
3. Venture beyond your comfort zone and seek out new experiences. Growth comes from exposing yourself to new ideas and experiences. Later in life, new experiences can be harder to come by, so take advantage of opportunities when they arise.
4. Maintain a healthy balance between academics and extracurriculars. Both are equally important in preparing you for life. 
5. You don't know as much as you think you know. Not even close. Be open to viewing things from different perspectives, changing your mind, and accepting constructive criticism graciously.
6. Never be afraid to ask questions. You're not expected to know all the answers - otherwise, you wouldn't need schooling
7. Teachers are there to help you, but they can't help you if you don't tell them what you need. 
8. You can do anything, but not everything. Don't expect to be good at everything you do, but also don't let not being great at something prevent you from doing it!  
9. Most of the things you think are limiting you are actually self-imposed. Practice replacing "I can't do that" with "I can't do that YET."
10. Perfection isn't attainable.  Stop trying, and never, ever use "I'm afraid it's not going to be perfect" as an excuse not to attempt something. You learn 0% of what you don't attempt. 
11. Academics is one path to success, but it isn't the only path.
12. Even if your future lies along another path, however, a high school degree can be critical to accessing all the other paths. Don't close doors that you may one day need to walk through.