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A Skip Back
in Time
With the Interactive Smartboard switched off for the day,
blackboard wheeled into place and desks in rows, students
from Tenison Woods College today (Tuesday 1st
September) turned back their clocks and opened their history
books to the time that only their grandparents would
remember.
The past was brought to life as students left their 21st
century education to experience life as a student in a
1950’s Australian classroom.
Students from Year 5 took part in interactive workshops with
presenter and substitute teacher, Mr Keith Baverstock, who
students referred to as ‘Sir’ for the day. The travelling
Colonial School and Classrooms from the Past
presentation has been running for over 23 years and has been
bringing history to life with an old fashioned manner of
teaching for more than 180,000 students around the nation.
Students had the opportunity to dress up in period costumes
and witness first-hand what life – and particularly
schooling – was like in the 1950’s. Ready to immerse
themselves into the 1950’s students arrived at school for
the day to find their room transformed into a real 1950’s
room, the classes were divided, with girls seated on one
side and boys on the other, just as many parents and
grandparents would recall from their early school-days.
Throughout the day classes looked at discipline and rules of
the schoolroom, the Oath of Allegiance and saluting of the
flag to start the day, slate work, pen and ink lessons and
lessons about the massive snowy mountain scheme, a vaccine
for the dreaded Polio and about our Prime Minister, Mr
Robert Menzies.
Year 5 teacher Lauren Breeding said in the weeks leading up
to the presentation, students had been researching everyday
life in the 1950’s and looking back at some of the major
milestone’s in Australia’s history including the 1956
Melbourne Games, the construction of the Sydney Opera House
and the introduction of Television to homes across
Australia.
Punishment and discipline were also outlined during the
visit with special emphasis being given to why the strap,
cane, ruler and other items were used to enforce discipline
and its acceptance by students and society in general.
Students were amazed at how strict teachers were and how few
resources the children had access to back then. Those left
handed students were also reprimanded by their teacher Mr
Baverstock.
‘The unit of work has made the students realise and
appreciate what they have today, and it encourages them to
try to understand what it was really like during these times
’
‘Students have developed a keen interest in other eras, and
as a result have had many long discussions with their
parents and grandparents exchanging stories about life in
‘the good old days.’ Miss Breeding said.
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