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Chalkboard drawings frozen in time for 100 years discovered in Oklahoma school
- ForFreedom 11y agoThe multiplication table baffled me but the cursive writing strokes and lines are beautiful. Beautiful, possibly because its close to 100 years. There are teachers who write that way now too.
- lotharbot 11y agoLooking at the multiplication circle, it doesn't appear to have any products written. The numbers on the outside are almost definitely factors (note the lack of 10, and the relatively high frequency of 7 and 8, which are generally the hardest to memorize.) So I don't think it's a way of teaching multiplication directly, but more likely is a way of testing. My best guess is that the teacher would call a student up to the board, and then (using some sort of semi-random process, like slapping a ruler against the board) use the wheel to generate a problem for the student to solve (5x7, or 8x9). It looks like a more complex/extensible version of this worksheet: https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/multiplication/circle-multiplication_TWZFT.pdf https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/multiplication/circle...
- cactusface 11y agoWhy are 7 and 8 the hardest to memorize?
- callmeed 11y agoI don't know why, but as a parent of 4 I definitely think it holds true.
- iherbig 11y agoNo discernible pattern and the numbers very quickly get large, I imagine. 2 is always even. 3 only gets to 30 after 3 x 10. 4 has a quick pattern (4>8>2>6>0>..). 5 always ends in a 5 or a 0. 7's pattern is long 7>4>1>8>5>2>9>6>3>0>.. with no sense to it and the numbers get big fast. 8's pattern is short (8>6>4>2>0>..) but the numbers are unwieldy getting into the 40s really quickly. 9's pattern is easy: start with 09. Add one to tens-place and subtract one from ones-place. So it's long, but pretty: 9>8>7>6>5>4>3>2>1>0>.. I skipped 6 because it seems to me that 6 would probably be pretty difficult for the same reason 8 is difficult. Its pattern is short (6>2>8>4>0>..) but there's less sense to it than there is to 8's pattern, and the numbers get large rather quickly. At least, that's the reasoning I've always figured. I have no idea.
- cactusface 11y agoSeems reasonable to me. I'd say 7 is harder than 8. I think 6 is easy because it's 2 x 3 so you're already kind of familiar with the products.
- keithpeter 11y agoJust one idea: you don't come across things in multiples of 7 that often. UK: eggs come in 6s. Pizzas get cut into 4s and perhaps 8s for a really huge one, so multiples of those numbers get seen around. Half is sort of easy (all my adult students can usually find half of a figure, especially if I encourage them to think of paying it out in money with £10 notes and £1 coins). 5 fits into the decimal system nicely. Threes are easy to count up.
- beejiu 11y ago> Just one idea: you don't come across things in multiples of 7 that often. Days of the week?
- keithpeter 11y agoYou got me there! But just thinking around weeks, apart from a fortnight do you actually count the days in multiples of 7 or just think about months or a period of weeks?
- songshu 11y agoI became good at sevens working in a pharmacy store room in a large hospital where we did continue to count in weeks. Boxes of 112 were common. Inside you would find blister packs arranged in rows of seven with the days of the week printed.
- keithpeter 11y agoNice example!
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- astrobe_ 11y ago2 * n is easy. 3 * n is easy, just multiply by 2 and add one n. 4 is easy, just multiply by 2, two times (or multiply by 5 and subtract one n). 5 is easy. Six is easy, just multiply by 5 and add one n. 9 is easy, just multiply by 10 and subtract one n. But 7 and 8 are not 'reachable' with two operations.
- astrobe_ 11y agoActually, Using those tips and commutativity, the only thing you need to know about 7 and 8 is 7 * 8.
- sorich87 11y agoI think this is correct. I remember using a version of this as you described, in primary school (it may have been simpler, my memory is quite fuzzy). I'm 27 years old from West Africa.
- dtparr 11y agoThis is actually how my 4th grade teacher did it circa 1990. We had to prove we'd memorized our times tables up to 12. So when you said you were ready, she'd draw 1-12 in a 'random' order on the circle, write the number you were ready for in the center, then work her way around the circle, pointing with a yardstick (she'd occasionally jump around to keep you from working ahead). If you got them all right, you could move on to the next number.
- rcurry 11y agoThe cursive writing is beautiful, what a wonderful little find. It's always a joy to find some echo of the past tucked away right under your nose.
- cosarara97 11y agoWhat picture are you referring to? Kids are taught cursive after capital letters in my country (well, it's more of a mix since capital letters are not cursive but print-like). This one is not beautiful at all, in my opinion: https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/06/OKCPS-Emerson-6-5-15-IMG_3780.jpg&w=1484 https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://... This one (low res) is very well aligned, but e's and s's aren't too good: https://twitter.com/OKCPS/status/606905034111000576/photo/1 https://twitter.com/OKCPS/status/606905034111000576/photo/1
- ams6110 11y agoThere is definitely a growing sentiment in the USA that cursive writing is an anachronism. My kids (who just finished elementary school) learned it, but its use is not enforced in other schoolwork. They and most of their friends just print when they have to write by hand. Most writing assignments are typed on a computer now.
- whatever897 11y agoThat's just mediocre cursive. Any fourth grader should be able to do that.
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- smallhands 11y agothe lines on those drawings are excellent .i wonder who may be the artist teacher or students?
- kingmanaz 11y ago
- iaw 11y agoI feel like there's so much beauty unintentionally lost to the movement of time. It's always remarkable when it pops back up again.
- userbinator 11y agoI find it surprising that they didn't clean the old chalkboards before putting new ones over them. In fact, modulo the holes in one of them (which might've been created during the installation of the new ones), these old chalkboards look perfectly usable to me...
- derefr 11y agoBy the shape of the hole around the old chalkboard, I would say it was a size upgrade.
- mhb 11y agoOf course they are. And they're all going to be replaced by insipid whiteboards.
- jimmaswell 11y agoNothing is wrong with whiteboards. I;d evem say they're better. No inhaling chalk dust, dusty erasers, looks clearer, more erasible by common materials, the list goes on.
- omegaham 11y agoI agree - the only good thing I can say about chalkboards is that they're something like an order of magnitude cheaper.
- smorrow 11y agoYou can teach maths on a blackboard. Can't teach maths on a whiteboard. Don't ask me to explain it, but it's true.
- jimmaswell 11y agoBlackboards do seem better for math and whiteboards better for compsci, oddly
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- df41 11y agoSo the chalkboards that were just removed have been used for 100 years?
- stu_harvey 11y agoPlease use common sense; no, the chalkboards have not been "used for 100 years", the school seems to be in the process of replacing the whiteboards and uncovered these boards from underneath their old boards. Hence, the work on them is 100 years old. "The most important principle on HN, though, is to make thoughtful comments. Thoughtful in both senses: civil and substantial."
- SanFranManDan 11y agoI just love comments that are quick to attempt to point out someones stupidity but at the same time reveal their own. The comment you replied to is saying the boards that covered up these "time-capsule" boards have been used for 100 years. :)
- ghshephard 11y ago"This week, contractors removing old chalkboards at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City made a startling discovery: Underneath them rested another set of chalkboards, untouched since 1917." So, presumably, the "old chalkboards" being removed by contractors have been there since 1917, or approximately 100 years.
- nobrains 11y agoThe calendar has Sunday as the first day of the week. Interesting.
- coldtea 11y agoSunday was supposed to be the first day of the week traditionally. It was seen as such in Christian, Muslim and Hebrew culture. Monday was later adopted internationally (and there is an ISO [1] for which is the first day of the week too) for business reasons, as it's the first office work begins again, banks open, etc in most places. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601
- stardek 11y agoI'm curious where you're from that Sunday isn't considered the first day of the week? I know Monday is often treated as such since it follows the "week end" but (in my very limited experience) I've never actually seen anything claiming that Monday is actually first.
- ramgorur 11y agothe penmenship is still considered as a central part of primary education in many asian countries, notably in japan, south/south-east asia, I think in china and korea too.
- dredmorbius 11y agoI'm reading the Arabian Nights, and a recurrent theme within them is the consideration given to not only script penmanship, but in knowing multiple scripts (one of a number of interesting revelations from the stories).
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- geuis 11y agoShort related story. When I was in first grade in the 80's, all of our chalk boards were being upgraded to white boards. The teacher used it as an opportunity to be a kind of time capsule. We each wrote our names and something personal on the boards. Later they placed the white boards over them. It wouldn't surprise me at all if those boards are still there to this day.
- clsec 11y agoI have to wonder how this might possibly relate to Native Americans? Especially in light of the pilgrim history boards that were discovered. 1917 was just 10 years after Oklahoma became a state, it was called Indian Territory prior to that [1]. And Indian boarding schools [2], where they tried to wash the "savage" away, were a big thing back then. To this day oklahoma has a very high Native American population and current reservations/nations reflect Indian removal [3] as there are many nations there that did not come from that area. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Territory [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schoo... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_removal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_removal edit - added 3rd citation
- JshWright 11y agoEither that, or the renovation that covered the boards up took place in December (a theory supported by the calendar drawn on one of the boards), and that just happened to be what was on the boards at the time.
- ams6110 11y agoLessons about the pilgrims are stock curriculum in every elementary school in the USA, usually timed to lead up to Thanksgiving.
- probably_wrong 11y agoThere is an article by the Public Domain Review[1] where they present an old book about sketching on a blackboard. I've been wondering how often would a regular teacher make such elaborate drawings. Considering this completely arbitrary and small sample, I guess the answer is "often". [1] http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/blackboard-sketching-1909/ http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/blackboard-sketchi...