I was not concerned with school policies in the 1940’s, but I was vaguely aware that there was a discussion about a relative. She married after her junior year of high school and was not allowed to register for her senior year. The policy was “You marry, you quit school.” After discussions (more likely arguments) with the superintendent, she was finally allowed to enroll. She could attend classes but could not participate in any activities. I suppose the thought was that she would corrupt all of those innocent, or presumed innocent, students with whom she came in contact.
UIL rules permitted a small school like Breckenridge to play schools with larger enrollments. The schools within the district voted Breckenridge into their district annually. We played schools with considerably more students. They had boys who played offense and those who played defense. Most of our boys had to play both roles. We usually won district and during those years were frequent state champions.
I don’t believe that it was a written rule, but girls did not take shop or agriculture classes and boys did not take homemaking. I did not have any boys in a homemaking class until the sixties in Tucson. The first classes were called bachelor living, powder puff mechanics or by other gender- specific names. Eventually the classes became coed.
Ken had a contract to teach in Dallas when he graduated from North Texas. Uncle Sam had other plans for him so he went into the army instead of teaching. When he got out of the Army, we did not apply for jobs in the Dallas ISD because a husband and wife could not both be employed by the district. We both took jobs in Fort Worth. We were thrilled when our assignments arrived and we had been assigned to the same school. Most families in those days owned only one car. This meant that we could ride to work together and would not have to depend on public transportation or car pool with co-workers. (City buses were prevalent then.) We did not know that our assignments were an accident until the first day of teacher in-service. Our principal introduced us and added that we were the first couple in the Fort Worth ISD to be assigned to the same school. It seems that the policy allowed for a husband and wife to both be employed by the district, but not in the same school. Different assistant superintendents had made our assignments. The error was discovered and it was decided it was too late to make a change.
Teachers who were obviously pregnant were not allowed to continue teaching in most districts. The Fort Worth policy required that a female teacher resign at the end of the semester in which she became pregnant or as soon as she began to “show” and had to wear maternity clothes.
By the seventies pregnant teachers were given the choice to stay in the classroom as long as they were comfortable doing so. Earlier policies regarding pregnant students required that they enter a homebound program. During the seventies they were also given the choice to remain in class or to take the homebound classes. I had a student in a child development class who came to class until the day she delivered her baby. She enjoyed teasing me saying, “Don’t worry. I am not going to have this baby in your class.” My standard retort was, “Promise! Midwife duties are not in my job description.” She appeared uncomfortable and squirmy on the day she delivered. I suspected that she was in labor, but she assured me she felt fine. She did not, but was determined not to let me know. She left school immediately after the class and had her baby that evening.
Discipline policies had abolished paddling in most districts by the time Ken and I started teaching. Ken taught wood shop and drafting (called mechanical drawing then) and was allowed to handle discipline in his classroom. His students used power equipment and there was danger of serious consequences if safety was not enforced. No horseplay was allowed. In one class he had a boy who was larger and older than his classmates. He was the self -appointed leader of the boys and was encouraging misbehavior. Did I mention that at this time Ken was 6’1” and weighed less than 150 pounds? The boy eventually pushed too far and got his third and final warning for violating a safety rule. Ken applied the paddle. The boy told another teacher, “You know, that Mr. Standifer is not as weak as he looks.” The boy did a turnaround and became a positive role model and an assistant helper of sorts.
Ken’s predecessor in one high school had difficulty with discipline. The students had made his life miserable. A group had physically held him in a shower until he was soaked, reportedly ruining a new suit. No wonder the man didn’t return. Sure enough, the students began to try and see just how much Ken would take. A group gathered around his desk the first week of school and asked him what he would do if they tried to put him in a shower. He told them that he had no doubt that they could do it, but that he did not guarantee that the two standing nearest to him would not be physically hurt. They backed off and said, “We were just wondering.” A student who was paddled on the day of an evening open house told Ken that his father would be there and would want to talk to him. Ken expected an unpleasant encounter. Instead, the father thanked him for helping “straighten that boy up.” None of his students ever held a grudge or felt they received unfair punishment. One of them later said, “Mr. Standifer had absolute do’s and do not’s and we all knew what the consequences would be for the do not’s.” About ten years after Ken left teaching, a former student approached him in a restaurant. After some conversation, he asked if he could bring his father-in-law over to meet Ken. He introduced Ken as “the only man who ever whipped me.”
Smoking and e-cigarettes are banned from school campuses now. In the sixties Abilene High School had a morning and an afternoon break. Students were allowed to walk across a street to a parking lot and smoke.
In the seventies I taught a class called home and family living. It was part of the homemaking program and was only offered to juniors and seniors. It covered relationship skills, decision- making steps, dating, and similar topics. We discussed the “S” word during the dating unit and some other subjects that were considered sensitive at that time. Students were given a course outline to take home and had to have parental permission to take the class. My grandchildren find this quite amusing.
And the list could go on and on.