School days, school days, dear old golden rule days,

Readin’ and ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic, Taught to the tune of a hick’ry stick,

You were my queen in calico, I was your bashful barefoot beau

And you wrote on my slate, I love you Joe, 

When we were a couple of kids.

Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards wrote School Days in 1907 from the nostalgic perspective of an older couple who probably grew up together in the same rural town. Many of us still look back on our “school days” with a bit of nostalgia, if only because we were younger then.

Rules for Teachers

As children and teachers return to classrooms, the poster “Rules for Teachers” also reappears. These rules were probably not as consistent as the posters make them appear, but the sentiment was probably universal. People didn’t become teachers due to good working conditions, but because they needed a job. The rules reflect social attitudes towards teachers — and they aren’t as pleasant as they appear on the Hallmark Channel.

The Rules in 1872

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean lamp chimneys.

2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual tastes of the pupils.

4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

5. After 10 hours in school, the teacher may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a good sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty

9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for 5 years will be given an increase of 25 cents per week in his pay, provided the Board of Education approve.

Notice that male teachers are allowed time for courting purposes, but female teachers who marry will be dismissed.

I was intrigued that male teachers should not go the barber shop. Perhaps when a quarter was still worth a quarter, it was too extravagant to spend two bits on a shave and a haircut, even if it was only on a Saturday. Fun Fact: A shot of whiskey also cost two bits.

The Rules in 1915

Times changed. These rules seem more directly aimed at women.

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.

2. You are not to keep company with men.

3. You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless attending a school function.

4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.

5. You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.

6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother.

7. You may not smoke cigarettes.

8. You may not dress in bright colors.

9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair.

10. You must wear at least 2 petticoats.

11. Your dresses must not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankle.

12. To keep the school neat and clean, you must sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day and start the fire at 7 a.m. so the room will be warm by 8 a.m.

It occurs to me that if a female teacher cannot keep company with men, she is unlikely to marry. This restriction on marriage continued into the 1930s when married female teachers were routinely dismissed, because a married woman had someone to support her. If she continued to teach, she would deprive someone else of a job. In addition, a married  female teacher was likely to become pregnant, and have to leave her job anyway. After World War II began, many women went to work in factories, thus causing a shortage of teachers. Suddenly, married women were less undesirable.

Why Couldn’t Teachers “Loiter” in Ice Cream Parlors?

But, why couldn’t teachers “loiter” in ice cream parlors. I suppose if a teacher had a dish of ice cream and left, that was okay, but she could not loiter on the premises. [Loiter: to stand or wait idly, without apparent purpose.]

Apparently ice cream parlors had a reputation as dens of iniquity. In 1895, a man from New York testified to the Senate that he knew of several ice cream parlors that were covers for prostitution.

In the early 1900s, ice cream was considered a “foreign” product, and ice cream parlors a recruiting location for prostitution and human trafficking, which was then called white slavery.

In Chicago, there was a curfew ice cream parlor hours, because, according to a 1911 report, ice cream parlors attracted gropers, flirts, and girls who told boys they could be ‘had.’ 

Wishing students and teachers, whether in-person or on-line, a successful and happy school year.!

“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!“

— Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Sandra’s Books: Sea Tigers & Merchants. Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources:

School Days 1905; School Bus by VectorOpenStock; The Celebrated Triumph Dovetailed & Doweled 1881; September-Back to Work-Back to School-Back to Books, 1940, NARA; 1880s Ice Cream Parlor; Theda Bara, When a Woman Sins, 1918; Recipe for Courtship, 1805; Ice Cream Cup by Killarney; Symbol of Education by Rflor. Erin Blakemore. “Why Ice Cream Parlors Were Once Considered Evil.” Mental Floss. Jul 15, 2017.

The post Rules for Teachers — No Loitering in Ice Cream Parlors first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Hawai`i Public School students and teachers went back to their classrooms last Monday, August 1^st. I probably will never get used to the present calendar for the school year. I recognize it, without entirely buying into the new system.  When I attended school, we started about the third week in August and finished about the middle of June. Though it seemed like summer vacation lasted through the months of June, July, and August, that’s not entirely true. But it did last for eight blissful weeks of doing not very much. I remember during one elementary school summer, I almost completely forgot how to write in cursive. Fortunately, my illegible scrawl came back rather quickly.

There’s nothing intrinsically useful about summer vacation. The earliest American schools were in session all year, if the community could afford it. In fact, public opinion thought the best schools had the most instructional days. Nevertheless, by 1900, the 9-month school calendar was culturally embedded for those children not occupied with earning a living. As the 20^th century progressed, child labor became illegal and formal education at least through the 8^th grade became standard.

Female Teachers

Besides children, schools require teachers, and there were strong opinions about who could or should teach. A 1772 advertisement in the Virginia Gazette indicated a need for “a sober diligent schoolmaster capable of teaching reading writing, arithmetic and the Latin tongue.” Applicants were expected to be male. The applicant might be an educated farmer who wanted employment during the off-season, or, more commonly, a young man who needed to earn money for further education. Women taught in dame schools for young boys and girls, and at academies for female education in music and other accomplishments, but schoolmasters were male.

By the middle of the 19^th century, attitudes regarding the superiority of male teachers continued, but the growth of Common Schools required more teachers, and women could fill the gap. The Littleton School Committee noted: “God seems to have made woman peculiarly suited to guide and develop the infant mind, and it seems…very poor policy to pay a man 20 or 22 dollars a month, for teaching children the ABCs, when a female could do the work more successfully at one-third of the price.” 

But were women up to the job? Many female teachers had only completed the 8^th grade and were as young as age 14. Could these girls keep order in a class that might include a hulking 18-year-old farm boy who attended in the off-season? Reformers concluded that with the benefit of a Normal School education dedicated to teacher training, they could. Graduates of Normal School programs frequently found themselves in a one-room school house with as many as 60 students of various ages and grades teaching a curriculum based on reading, writing, and arithmetic with bits of geography, history, and citizenship thrown in. Despite the low pay and less than ideal working conditions, women enthusiastically entered the profession, grateful for a salary and sense of independence.

But how independent were teachers? Their supervisors were male. The curriculum was out of their hands. And the rules and requirements kept these young women in their social place.

A smattering of late 19th/early20^th century rules of teachers demonstrates duties and expectations.

A Teacher is Responsible for her School Room

• She should arrive early enough to light the fire and warm the room before her pupils arrive.
• And, she is required to be in the school room fifteen minutes before the time fixed for the session to begin.
• She must check outhouses daily. 
• On a weekly basis, she must wash the windows and clean the classroom with soap and water, as well as cleaning the lamps and chimneys.
• On a daily basis, the she must sweep the floors and clean the blackboards

A Teacher is Above Reproach

• After 10 hours in school, teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
• Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or (in the case of a few male teachers) gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect her or his worth, intention, integrity and honesty, and can be immediately dismissed. Nor should a teacher loiter in town in an ice cream store.
• Female teachers may also be dismissed if they marry or engage in other unseemly behavior including joining a feminist movement, such as the suffragettes
• Female teachers are not allowed to wear bright colors, a bathing costume, bloomers for cycling, skirts that expose the ankles, or a bustle extension over 10 inches. Females may not dye or cut their hair short.

• Male teachers may not wear a detachable collar and/or necktie removed froth shirt, appear in shirt sleeves that were unlinked and rolled up, or have their hair closely cropped unless they were bald or had a scalp disease.
• Female teaches may not keep company with men, or ride in a carriage or automobile with any man who was not her father or brother.
• On the other hand, male teachers may take one evening a week in order to court an appropriate young woman. If the teacher attended church regularly, he could take two evenings a week.
• Otherwise, teachers should be at home between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., unless attending a school function. (Since teachers generally boarded at the various homes of their pupils, this was easy to monitor.)

In the Classroom, a Teacher . . .

• Makes pens and pen nibs for the students. Pen nubs should be whittled to individual preference.
• Begins morning exercises with a short Bible reading without comment. This can be followed by singing
• Exercises kind disciple without partiality and endeavors to correct all misconduct.

Teachers who faithfully follow all the rules and give good service for 5 years may receive a 25 cent per week pay increase. Many teachers hoped to marry or be in another profession before the 5 years were over.

It’s interesting to note that overall, school districts were far more concerned with rules than education. Schools have changed a lot since 1900, but giving teachers extra jobs to do at the expense of education is still common, and teachers still provide school supplies, as needed, for their pupils.

Illustrations

Teacher points to blackboard. 1924.

Beach Volley Ball.

Desert School House.

Interior Old Camp School House, Valley Forge PA

Students & Teachers, Maple Valley School. 1891.

Emoji from Noto Project.

Timeline. Only a Teacher. PBS

Rose Heichelbech. “The Strange and Strict Rules Teachers had to Follow in 1800s.” Dusty Old Thing.

Elizabeth Russel. “‘Check Outhouses Daily’: The Retro Teacher Rules.” We Are Teachers. Feb 20, 2018.

James Pederson. “The History of School and Summer Vacation.” Journal of Inquiry & Action in Education. 5 (1). 2012

The post Rules For Teachers, or, Teaching Before it Became a Profession first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.

2. You are not to keep company with men.

3. You must be home between the hours of 8 PM and 6 AM unless attending a school function.

4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.

5. You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.

6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man except your father or brother.

7. You may not smoke cigarettes.

8. You may not dress in bright colors.

9. You may under no circumstances dye your hair.

10. You must wear at least two petticoats.

11. Your dresses may not be any shorter than two inches above the ankles.

12. To keep the classroom neat and clean you must sweep the floor at least once a day, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day, and start the fire at 7 AM to have the school warm by 8 AM.

You may wonder if such rules really existed. I don’t know. But I knew a woman who taught in a country school before the second world war. She kept her engagement a secret because she would have lost her job.

Given cultural standards, I understand why teachers weren’t allowed to smoke, but I’ve no clue what was racy about the ice cream store.

The teacher photographed as she supervised a boy at the chalk board taught at the Landaff Blue School in New Hampshire in 1941. She boarded with the Chandler family for $7.50 per week, and received an annual salary of $800. By 1941 hemlines were shorter, and sensible shoes seem to be the norm.

Girls were expected to conclude their education with marriage, and so trained in the new classes of home economics. I remember sewing class when I was in middle school. I never succeeded in making a proper bound button hole, nor in understanding why anyone would want one.

Typing classes gave girls a skill in case they had to be self-supporting. Now we call the skill keyboarding.

People who went to school in the 1950s and 60s probably remember several items that now show up in cultural museums, among them the tin (later plastic) lunchboxes, each with a thermos. These came out every year with new themes. Slide rules were also common in the pre-calculator age. And when calculators first came out, it was considered cheating to use one.

Today, students still need pens and paper, backpacks and lunch bags. Teachers no longer have to stoke the fire, though they still sometimes clean the floor. And everyone can go to the ice cream store.

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Illustrations:

Landaff teacher. 1941. Public Domain.

Marchido School Desks by Doug Coldwell. Creative Commons Attribution.

Woman Smoking Cigarette by Raphael Kirchner. Public Domain.

Sewing Class. No Known Restriction.

Typing Class. No Known Restriction.

Lunchbox and Thermos by Davidmerkoski. Creative Commons Attribution.

Slide Rule by Jean-Jacques Milan. Creative Commons Attribution.

“15 Forgotten School Supplies.” Mental Floss.

“1872 Rules for Teachers.” Snopes. Dec 26, 2011.

“Rules for Teachers in 1872 and 1915.” Open Culture. Sept. 16, 2013.

The post Back to School first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.