My Primary Days

Sometimes the Year 6 students ask me if it was very different when I was a primary student. I thought it might be fun to go back a bit and see a couple of snapshots into what it was like for my schoolmates and myself when we were that age. Then we can do a little guessing game.

The first thing which usually stands out to me, and it’s a decidedly negative thing in my experience, is that corporal punishment was still legal. The principal (Head) of the school could paddle you if it was felt necessary!

Unfortunately, this archaic method seems to be going back into favour in some parts of the US…. But that’s a topic for another day.

Inclusion and differentiation of students was very minimal, at least at my school. We all followed the same program, and if you could not keep up, then you were placed in the Special Ed class.

The Field Day, at the end of the school year, when we would all do fun outdoor activities, would not meet the health and safety standards of today, whether it would be in the UK, US or Slovakia. The highlight, and last event, of Field Day was seeing who could catch the greased pig. That’s right, it was actually a greased pig whch the children would actually run around and try to catch.

I can come back later to add more anecdotes if people are interested, including dangerous playground and PE equipment, yellow school buses, and interesting history lessons.

The photos below each have me somewhere in the class picture. Let me know if you have a guess where I am, in either or both of the photos.