Viscouse
18238
528
12
And, one day, we learned how to juggle scarfs. And, and, another, they taught us how to BREAK DANCE!
Jul 7, 2026 10:43 PM
Viscouse
18238
528
12
And, one day, we learned how to juggle scarfs. And, and, another, they taught us how to BREAK DANCE!
sevro77
Even Carlton could breakdance in the 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqhjviixsSE
JerzeeTomato
Juggling scarves (and the circus unit, in general) sent me down a wild path in life!
b00guy
imsam77
Pizza Hut reading too…
Billis75
My dear Hortense, I long for the days, in more innocent antebellum times, when one could Book It at the Pizza Hut.
IhopeUgetwhatUvoted4
We were not allowed to use calculators during tests.
copingcabana
"When you're and adult, you're not going to carry a calculator with you everywhere . . ." Wanna bet on that, Mr. Harrington?
Resistance1000
EccentricNut
Good penmanship and analog calculations were important for manually filling out the Scholastic order forms for books and other printed media, and then we would patiently wait 3 to 4 fortnights for the postal service to deliver them.
trigonman3
abraxasfury
"and on phonics, we were hooked"* ftfy
LaBear5446
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aGh4cG9sNXY5bzdmcTMxbXM4bGJzZTF4bXNkZzh6Yjl3Y3RydnNqdyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/5xtDarmwsuR9sDRObyU/200w.webp
moistsox
It was walk like an Egyptian for me at my school for parachute PE
cgt9803
"You won't always have a calculator with you!" I get their point, but that aged like milk.
apLundell
The real answer was always "You need to understand this or next year's math will seem like dark magic.", but that doesn't shut down the conversation fast enough. They should have just gone with "Because I say so."
Frobizzle
Yeah I went to school in the 80s and 90s. Cursive can still fuck right off. It's utterly pointless.
CigarfromHavana
We Jazzercized in the auditorium and learned how to be "2 legit to quite."
brownribbon
Aww I miss the parachute
akafluffy
when we connected to the internet we had to murder a baby robot and listen to its cries or it wouldn't work.
uzetaab
I was born in 1978 and was taught cursive handwriting. I never really managed to get the hang of it though and don't regret that I cannot do it anymore. I would be a lot more bothered if I couldn't type.
KMSigma
Did anyone have those little scooters that you just wiggle the handlebars back and forth to move? We had them once until someone ran over someone else's finger.
LanceTex
Parachute arts? How about some dodge ball MF'er.... that put hair on our chests (graduated HS in 1988). And oh how I hated the square dance in gym class. I mean WTW - gym class?
LanceTex
The library and its manual 'card catalogue' were awesome though.
LeifHietala
I never understood the point of phonics. I muddled through that in a complete daze.
StupidCanadianWolfBird
Ah yes, the Scholastic Book Faire.
ChewyTheWookie
and square dance was meant to drive kids towards Jazz faster?
ObjectivePragmatistWithHope
Oh, I have such fond memories of the annual school Book Fair. Besides all the Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, and assorted other Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy authors' books, I got the 1st and 2nd The Far Side Galleries from there. I grew up on The Far Side in the Chicago Trib, and I have everything ever published by Larson in both hard-copy & digital archive. ^_^
GrandmasterSpank
Oh I remember pumping up the jam and being better off alone.
Jaqdakloun
Do you think you're better off alone?
Jakesonyou
For many years, I did think I was better off alone (soft echo).
Turdfurgis0n
professorlemonwood
Mack's dad kept insisting that we jump, jump.
djphydoux1701D
And verily, it was wigita wigita wigita whack.
msgbubba
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MnhmODhvbmVtbzZrZDZwaWZwZWdxcWN2eTN0M2c5YnpiZTJwa3J4aiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/7ubB5sfFvKWsM/200w.webp
Geveg
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...
TheDarkEagle
The neighborhood girl next door was hooked on phonics. She was truly articulate but could never get the help she needed
FizzleBurger
Those were the days, when a shitpost could start with one sentence in modern English before drifting into a paragraph of old-timey ramblings.
Thresholdpush
"You're not always going to have a calculator.."
DVSBSTrD
You will, until Apple bricks your phone for not updating to that year's model.
Thresholdpush
I've not heard about that, but I'm not surprised. Can't stand the apple ui. Clunky & perfunctory.
Viscouse
Aye they warned us of the woes of being left behind without a portable computing device...
DVSBSTrD
Yeah, why should I have to use my own brain when I can just use AI?
Something1Said
Are you defending the "You won't have a calculator" thing? It looks like you are. AI has very little in common with a calculator.
DVSBSTrD
Because you won't always have a calculator in your pocket.
DarkBusterBaron
Except you literally do every smartphone has a calculator app by default.
Something1Said
I will have a calculator in my pocket almost all the time, for the forseeable future. I don't think a day will ever pass where I won't have a calculator. I don't think there's a benefit in repeating tedious calculations. Should I also practice commuting to work on foot? I won't always have a car, by the same logic.
kraeftig
I learned cursive and never wrote print, until 8th grade where the English teacher couldnt read it, and would then F my papers for bad print
SnakuPlisskin
I remember realizing one day a year or so after they made me switch to cursive that it seemed the teachers no longer cared. I went back to print and never looked back.
kraeftig
No merit whatsoever was considered for the actual paper, I would get zero out of however many points because of poor print handwriting.
asm80dfa8sdfj
It's kinda messed up. But if the teacher told you that print was required and you didn't do it, I also kinda get it.
kraeftig
No, I did do it. It looked like ass because I did not ever write in print before that year. They were failing my papers because it looked bad, even though they knew perfectly well I was writing a script that was brand new to me.
asm80dfa8sdfj
Aight, that's some bullshit then. I had that happen to me too. I learned cursive in 3rd grade and I can still write it mostly, but it was never my preferred method, I always did print. But I write like a bat out of hell, in both speed and quality. Some teachers gave me a C and told me they couldn't read it, some gave me a D or an F for not being able to read it. It was a crapshoot on if a teacher even bothered trying to read my paper or not. I was actually glad when we started typing them
kraeftig
I had offered to type and print the papers too, with software engineers as parents I was one of the few homes where each person at home had their own PC at that time. They refused that too, and demanded I hand-write it in print, knowing I had NEVER written in print before their current demand (and I do mean never), and then proceeded to zero-point my assignments because the handwriting "was too bad". The admin office had to get involved (and threatened) over it.
spittleteets
Not so fun fact: Square Dancing was added to curricula across the US bc Henry Ford believed that the Jews were weaponizing Jazz to take over the country...
https://emmachristleywrites.medium.com/how-henry-ford-weaponized-country-music-for-white-supremacy-8fee02fe9053
mikeatike
Wtf that is why we had to learn that crap? Fuckin idiot Nazis.
spittleteets
More in depth PBS article:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/henryford-antisemitism/
Ford makes MTG look like Carl Sagan
Filanwizard
okay that makes a lot more sense now, Because in New England there was not exactly square dancing culture.
FeedTheNachoMan
Came here to post that exact "fun" fact! Good work!
meganical
Seriously? I always asked why we had to learn it because it made no sense and I didn’t know anyone who actually square danced as an adult. Teachers were just like, “Shut up and dance around that square made of tape on the floor.”
Nim449
Same. It was SO weird.
astrangehop
Line dancing—which uses many if the same moves—is actually really fun and doesn't suck. Then again, I might hate contradancing if I had to do it in elementary school.
Viscouse
TIL. It always seemed a bit fishy to me...especially in Illinois...
SnakuPlisskin
I remember just straight up refusing in school. The teacher finally gave in and let me sit in the corner and clap to the beat. I didn't even want to do that but I accepted it as a compromise.
To be clear, I had no idea about anything brainwashy about it (I might've had an inkling but nothing I really understood). I just thought it was a stupid hick thing to do and I wanted no part of it.
Kemi337
Man I hate Illinois Nazis
spittleteets
Or someone didnt loofah their hoo-hah
spittleteets
Ok I just rhymed that and posted before realizing the potential for coarse exfoliation....
viva93
square dancing is a normal thing in US schools? is this a south thing or something? I'm from the north east coast and that's something I never heard before going to school in the 90s and I just asked a bunch of friends too who went to other schools and they all looked at me like "who the fuck taught square dancing in school"
djdelbiondo4
Schooled in Florida myself. Never heard of this and never was it brought up amongst friends from other high schools in the area (we had four and a fifth that every once in a while mingled). Never even once, completely new to me today (but Florida is the cracker south, not Deep South)
TIREDGANG
Indiana, junior high ~07, 08 we had to do it
astrangehop
Central Maine here, we sid like a week on it. The vast majority of the local folk dancing is line dancing though, and has been since the 70s.
Something1Said
"Woke" is just the new name for "cultural marxism/bolshevism", and Henry Ford was an "anti-woke" crusader. Very little has changed, unfortunately.
Arenlor
Woke is from African Americans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
Something1Said
I know about its origins. The loudest people currently saying "woke" are talking about "cultural marxism/bolshevism". It's why people like DeSantis talk about it like it's going to "destroy the West".
spittleteets
I agree they are both terms used as a general "catch-all" for everything the "in-group" doesnt like, but anti-semites blame *everything* on the Jews so they just use it as a coded dogwhislte for Jews and jewish cultures.
Everything neocons hate is woke.
Not every neocon is anti-semitic (e.g.: Ben Shapiro)
Everything anti-semitic neocons hate is woke, and everything that is woke, they attribute to Jews.
Something1Said
Yeah. They do think the Jews are behind woke. Just like the Nazis thought the Jews were behind cultural bolshevism. Both are supposedly plots to use progressive art, social pressure and immigration to destroy a country from within.
Insane stuff.
spittleteets
The degree and magnitude to which hate can be transcripted, subverted and hidden in plain sight is truly fucking bonkers.