I was not concerned with school policies in the 1940\u2019s, 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.\u00a0 The policy was \u201cYou marry, you quit school.\u201d\u00a0 After discussions (more likely arguments) with the superintendent, she was finally allowed to enroll.\u00a0 She could attend classes but could not participate in any activities.\u00a0 I suppose the thought was that she would corrupt all of those innocent, or presumed innocent, students with whom she came in contact.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 We played schools with considerably more students.\u00a0 They had boys who played offense and those who played defense.\u00a0 Most of our boys had to play both roles.\u00a0 We usually won district and during those years were frequent state champions.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 The first classes were called bachelor living, powder puff mechanics or by other gender- specific names.\u00a0 Eventually the classes became coed.<\/p>\n
Ken had a contract to teach in Dallas when he graduated from North Texas.\u00a0 Uncle Sam had other plans for him so he went into the army instead of teaching.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We both took jobs in Fort Worth.\u00a0 We were thrilled when our assignments arrived and we had been assigned to the same school.\u00a0 Most families in those days owned only one car.\u00a0 This meant that we could ride to work together and would not have to depend on public transportation or car pool with co-workers.\u00a0 (City buses were prevalent then.)\u00a0 We did not know that our assignments were an accident until the first day of teacher in-service.\u00a0 Our principal introduced us and added that we were the first couple in the Fort Worth ISD to be assigned to the same school.\u00a0 It seems that the policy allowed for a husband and wife to both be employed by the district, but not in the same school.\u00a0 Different assistant superintendents had made our assignments.\u00a0 The error was discovered and it was\u00a0decided it was too late to make a change.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cshow\u201d and had to wear\u00a0maternity clothes.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She enjoyed teasing me saying, \u201cDon\u2019t worry.\u00a0 I am not going to have this baby in your class.\u201d\u00a0 My standard retort was, \u201cPromise! Midwife duties are not in my job description.\u201d\u00a0 She appeared uncomfortable and squirmy on the day she delivered.\u00a0 I suspected that she was in labor, but she assured me she felt fine.\u00a0 She did not, but was determined not to let me know.\u00a0 She left school immediately after the class and had her baby that evening.<\/p>\n
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. \u00a0His students used power equipment and there was danger of serious consequences if safety was not enforced. \u00a0No horseplay was allowed.\u00a0 In one class he had a boy who was larger and older than his classmates.\u00a0 He was the self -appointed leader of the boys and was encouraging misbehavior.\u00a0 Did I mention that at this time Ken was 6\u20191\u201d and weighed less than 150 pounds?\u00a0\u00a0The boy\u00a0eventually pushed too far and got his third and final warning for violating a safety rule.\u00a0 Ken applied the paddle.\u00a0 The boy told another teacher, \u201cYou know, that Mr. Standifer is not as weak as he looks.\u201d\u00a0 The boy did a turnaround and became a positive role model and an assistant helper of sorts.<\/p>\n
Ken\u2019s predecessor in one high school had difficulty with discipline.\u00a0 The students had made his life miserable.\u00a0 A group had physically held him in a shower until he was soaked, reportedly ruining a new suit.\u00a0 No wonder the man didn\u2019t return.\u00a0 Sure enough, the students began to try and see just how much Ken would take.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He told them that he had no doubt that they could do it, but that he did not guarantee that the\u00a0two standing nearest\u00a0to him would not be physically hurt.\u00a0 They backed off and said,\u00a0 \u201cWe were just wondering.” \u00a0A 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.\u00a0 Ken expected an unpleasant encounter.\u00a0 Instead, the father thanked him for helping \u201cstraighten that boy up.\u201d\u00a0 None of his students ever held a grudge or felt they received unfair punishment.\u00a0 One of them later said, \u201cMr. Standifer had absolute do\u2019s and do not\u2019s and we all knew what the consequences would be for the do not\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 About ten years after Ken left teaching, a former student approached him in a restaurant.\u00a0 After some conversation, he asked if he could bring his father-in-law over to meet Ken.\u00a0 He introduced Ken as \u201cthe only man who ever whipped me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smoking and e-cigarettes are banned from school campuses now. In the sixties Abilene High School had a morning and an afternoon break.\u00a0 Students were allowed to walk across a street to a parking lot and smoke.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 It covered relationship skills, decision- making steps, dating, and similar topics.\u00a0 We discussed the \u201cS\u201d word during the dating unit and some other subjects that were considered sensitive at that time.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
And the list could go on and on.<\/p>\n
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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) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-things"],"yoast_head":"\n