June 7, 2015: Blackboards from 1917
 

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard00.jpg

Oklahoma City, December, 1917. Emerson High School's custodian, R. J. Scott, has taken delivery of brand-new slate blackboards to replace the old ones that are not in good condition. He writes on each room's old board that today is the day the new ones are going to be installed.

It's a pretty big deal.

But R.J. got lazy, faced with several rooms to work on over a week's time; and he decided to just mount the new boards right over the old boards.

And two days ago workers came to remove the chalkboards altogether; they're installing network cables in this building that was built in 1895 and has been the High School since then.

And when they removed the first layer of slate, they found those old blackboards from 1917, with the lessons still on them.

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard0.jpg

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard1.jpg

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard2.jpg

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard3.jpg

Over the years we teach kids how to do math in radically different ways. But here's your challenge: WTF is this? How does it work?

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard4.jpg

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard6.jpg

http://cellar.org/2015/1917blackboard5.jpg

WaPo story

What a wonderful find! The lessons/boards seem surprisingly modern in tone

Nothing is ever new in education. Recycling at its best. I'm still trying to work out that math thing. Some kind of times table system... :)

I figured it was a puzzle of some type--cross multiply, or scratch out all the factors of whatever in order to reveal which numbers are left... If nothing else, there are no zeroes anywhere on it, so it can't be a stand alone system for anything.

It is a mighty fine circle though.

I doubt he got lazy. I think he probably left the boards as is on purpose, like a time capsule

Agree, not lazy. Why bother to take the old ones down, they weren't worth anything, couldn't be reused, and provided a flat stable surface for the new boards.

I'd say they got their money's worth from the slate boards.
But now no more sending the unruly out to beat erasers or using your fingernails to impress the girls.

The circle is a multiplication assignment with random numbers around the edge to match up with the ones in the middle.
I used one similar with my granddaughter to avoid the regimentation of the standard grid and introduce the randomness of actual use.
Something is to be learned in every pic.
The subjects covered were the end of Thanksgiving themes with a turkey and an unlikely African-American Pilgrim girl.
You can see the blobs of adhesive that Mr. Scott used to install the new boards as well as what might be the 1917 version of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Great IOTD

Nice analysis, DJ

I'm wondering if the hexagons above your multiplication circle are "shields of David" indicating a Jewish presence.

That is, there is a mention of the Dutch and moving to the Netherlands...
And wikipedia says the following:

I like fonts, so... the cursive is identical to the cursive I was taught, how about you?

The non-cursive seen in the second-to-last image... is more difficult than "standard" alphabet, but probably matches what would have been the movable type fonts of the time. Someone copied that directly out of a book, including the serifs and what-not.

The curlie-ques on the numbers on the multiplication teaching tool are cute.

The Pilgrims went to Amsterdam to break with the Church of England, but after ten years they worried their children were becoming too Dutch, so they went back to England with the intention of sailing to New York. Absolutely nothing to do with Jews.
Shields of David? No, they're stars, something teachers have used since the invention of blackboards. I had teachers use them all through school. Do you think the Jewish kids had to wear armbands too? :rolleyes:

Stars !!! Look closer...
Stars always have and have had 5 points, not 6 :facepalm:

Geez, some people still believe Pluto is a planet :p:

well, they're certainly not hexagons

Wrong... again. http://cellar.org/2015/shades.gif

The symbol is more commonly known as the Star of David than as the Shield of David.