Recently I bumbled into the 1962 Spotlight, the yearbook for Boonville High School in Piedmont, N.C. I was in fifth grade that year, and the elementary school, which was on the same property and ran from first through eighth grade, was included in the album. My perusal left me a bit thunderstruck thanks to the differences between then and now.
Integration and Consolidation
Schools in the South were still segregated that year. Boonville’s black school was no more than a mile or two from ours. Desegregation would begin within three years.
Schools in Yadkin County were not yet consolidated. The school representing the town and its surrounding area would cease to exist several years later, with high-schoolers going to the new Starmount High.
The Names
For the most part, the surnames of the enrolled students went back generations: Speer, Shore, Moxley, Reece, and more. Many of these families had intermarried. The town shared common bonds and values. For school kids, that meant word spread quickly if you got into trouble.
Clubs
The high school featured sports teams, a glee club, a Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter, a Future Homemakers of America (FHA), and other organizations. FFA and FHA have largely gone missing in today’s culture.
The elementary school offered few extracurricular activities. When the dismissal bell rang, we went home and played with our friends.
Employees Other Than Teachers
Five cafeteria workers prepared, served, and cleaned up the meals for approximately 500-600 students.
Two custodians, a husband-and-wife team, were responsible for the buildings and grounds.
The school bus drivers were 19 of the school’s students, a mix of male and female. These teenagers were considered mature enough to drive students around the county.
Dress and Appearance
In every photograph other than those of the athletic teams, the boys are well-trimmed and neatly dressed, and the girls are wearing skirts. Many are also wearing the then-popular bobby socks. There are no monogrammed t-shirts. Missing as well are “body art” and nose rings. In those days only a few veterans sported tattoos.
With the exception of some teachers, no one appears overweight. No one is obese.
Elementary School
Pre-school and kindergarten did not yet exist. Some enterprising women had organized a private kindergarten a few years before, which two of my younger siblings attended, but the state had not yet seen reason to add a kindergarten to the school.
The elementary school had 17 teachers. My fifth grade class had 68 students, fourth grade had 56, and third grade had 64. If we do the math, and account for perhaps fewer students in the other grades, we still come up with a per classroom enrollment of at least 30 students. Yet in my six years in that school I never remember any of my classes as disorderly. The teachers were swift to discipline students – spanking or getting a ruler to the hand were still permitted and practiced – but even more, I suspect, the tight community reinforced proper classroom behavior.
The Basics
Though limited by today’s standards, the school and our teachers taught reading, writing, the essentials of math, history, science, and composition. Memory and repetition were a part of the program. We were drilled on the times tables, wrote longhand exercises, held spelling bees, learned the American past in a positive light, and studied some basic science.
The system worked. In seventh grade, at my request, I entered Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, 200 miles from my home. My classmates included a number of students from premier schools. At the end of that year, I was first in my class academically.
Conclusions
As a child and already an avid student of history, I frequently wished I’d been born in another era, the American Revolution, for instance, or the Old West. As an adult, I put away those childish thoughts. Today I enjoy and feel grateful for the common luxuries of our era compared to 1962: enormous grocery stores, more reliable cars, better healthcare, computers and phones, and much, much more. All of us in America, even those who are poor, live richer than the kings of just a few centuries ago.
Yet I also believe we can take lessons from that past. In those bygone days of my childhood schools focused on the basics. A skeleton staff of teachers and school employees gave those students a better education than most receive today. Other than producing civic-minded graduates, the school had no political agenda.
Most importantly, having served as an educator of one kind or another for over 30 years, I know that our young people are capable of much more than we give them credit. Like generations of students before them, they can be challenged to push themselves in the classroom, as I did when teaching, yet all too often teachers, parents, and other adults look to ease the way of these students rather than encouraging them to study hard and overcome obstacles.
“Climb though the rocks be rugged” was the motto of that 1962 senior class. That climb and those rocks are what the kids need today.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and several other publications.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
