Ducks and Dancing

The other day someone mentioned how embarrassed they were when about 20 years ago their Junior High School teacher had asked them to dance a waltz at one of the school dances. As she was describing her feelings of horror and embarrassment as the whole school watched , her companion  commented that they doubted that that would even be considered legal  and not  certainly not wise on any school teacher's part in today's world.

That got me to wondering about other pedagogical best practices that have had to be put by the wayside because of today's standards. 

One such practice that has not stood the test of time I suspect is the Girl's Basketball Coach playing alongside the players for a friendly game of tag ball.  Nor would his presence right inside the same  team's change room be deemed acceptable today as it was 40 years ago.

Another thing that would be considered an  'edgy' educational practice at best and even  risking a charge of an assault with a weapon is the tradition of tossing (winging?) of a piece of chalk towards a fatigued or wayward student. Sometimes hitting the aimed for student on or near the head, and sometimes hitting the student next to them instead.

I am also pretty certain that heads might fall if the teacher nowadays decided to pull out his/her very own cigarette rolling machine and roll a few during the noon hour break,  all the while smoking one of the products, and then dumping the ashes into the wastepaper basket by the desk at the end of the day. Windows closed, matches tossed into the top drawer, and ash tray out in the open on the desk.  
Those cigarette rolling machines were quite the fascinating inventions.

Yes classroom rules, social mores, and pedagogical methods have surely changed in an effort to reflect society's values and standards.  Some things that once were common practice and even expected such as the saying of the Lord's Prayer have fallen by the wayside to make way for  practices designed to create more and better educated citizens of the world.

 I would  bet any money that the teacher bringing his own double barrel shotgun along with a box of appropriate ammunition in his car to the school with the plan to walk down to the  creek during the fall noon hour break would probably be frowned  upon by school boards across the land.   Especially if he left  his sixteen  or so unsupervised students on the school  playground playing soccer while he slipped quietly down the path to shoot Mallards with only the blast of the gun giving away his location (if he was needed) and his purpose.

The natural history lesson in science that afternoon fifty years ago was a memorable one as the whole school was shown all the parts of the North American  Duck. All the students from Grades One to Eight were encouraged , albeit gloveless, to touch the webbed feet, the bill, the wings, and the varied coloured feathers. I remember looking at the tongue and feeling the inside ridges in the mouth . We were even shown where the  lead shot had entered and consequently rested in what would become the teacher's supper.

I  have never  since seen a Mallard duck in a pond that the vision of that teacher's bounty lying limp and still with eyes closed on the  grass beside  the school doesn't come to mind.

Probably because we lived in Canada, we were not shown the workings of the shotgun, although I do remember being allowed to smell the empty shell.