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Old 12-03-2010, 04:52 AM
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TV in the classroom - 1954

Found this photo on Shorpy, thought I'd share it here. Dated Nov. 1, 1954 Schenectady NY. No doubt it's WRGB they're watching.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6831

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Old 12-03-2010, 10:56 AM
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Zenith?
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Old 12-03-2010, 11:11 AM
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Zenith.
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Old 12-03-2010, 01:31 PM
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In around 1964, we had TVs in each classroom. They were rarely used, maybe once a year. TV shows, even the educational ones, would have taken time away from the teachers drilling us on stuff that would get asked on the yearly computer scored achievement tests. Just like today's recent "No Child Left Behind" testing. "Teach to the test, if it doesn't get asked on the test, don't waste time teaching it". No creative writing in English class, just do the grammar stuff.
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Old 12-03-2010, 01:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyMack View Post
Found this photo on Shorpy, thought I'd share it here. Dated Nov. 1, 1954 Schenectady NY. No doubt it's WRGB they're watching.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/6831

How can you tell what channel they are watching? I could barely see the picture on the set, let alone the channel selector. Only thing I can figure is that WRGB-TV was the only television station in Schenectady in 1954, decades before they switched from NBC to CBS and from channel 4 to channel 6.
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Old 12-03-2010, 02:19 PM
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Here's TV in the classroom 1962. My 6th grade class. TV was a "Ling DeLuxe Television" built by Ling Electronics here locally. They outfitted the main high school in the district with a small studio setup and transmitter that was on UHF ch 23. Each school had a parabolic dish UHF antenna. Each classroom had a kid appointed to be the one who pushed the TVs from one room to another, as the TVs were shared. At least once someone got going too fast and toppled one over in the hallway. I remember getting Spanish lessons and some history lessons on those TVs.

Good ol' Mr. Duncan standing beside the TV.





(Yes I am in the picture. No I won't say which one!)
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Old 12-03-2010, 02:51 PM
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In around 1964, we had TVs in each classroom. They were rarely used, maybe once a year. TV shows, even the educational ones, would have taken time away from the teachers drilling us on stuff that would get asked on the yearly computer scored achievement tests. Just like today's recent "No Child Left Behind" testing. "Teach to the test, if it doesn't get asked on the test, don't waste time teaching it". No creative writing in English class, just do the grammar stuff.
Aaahhh yes those stupid Stanford Acheivement Tests, lots of #2 pencils little swirley dots, a book the size of a People magazine and a week of wasted time...
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Old 12-03-2010, 02:52 PM
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Classroom TV in northeastern Ohio, circa 1965, meant (at least in the elementary school in the Cleveland suburb where I grew up) one or perhaps two 23" RCA Victor all-channel TVs on large, tall wheeled carts. (My grade school was quite small, so we could get by with just two sets.) The school had a MATV (master antenna) system that downconverted Cleveland's PBS (then NET) channel, WVIZ channel 25, to VHF channel 4; though those sets had all-channel tuning, I don't think they were ever tuned to any other channel. I remember seeing some programs on those sets, but I don't think they weren't used a heck of a lot (not unlike the set in wa2ise's grade school), although I'm sure our sets were used somewhat more than once a year.

Unfortunately, the elementary school in my hometown was demolished several years ago to make room for condos. I have no clue as to what happened to the TVs or to the school's MATV system, as I had left town and moved to my current residence before the school came down.

In reference to the standardized achievement tests wa2ise, et al. have mentioned here, they were administered in northeastern Ohio as well. They were called, in this area anyway, the "Iowa tests of basic skills" and were given once every few years (I don't remember the schedule anymore). The test instructions were on audio tape, and yes, our tests also used sheets with dots the students filled in for their answers. I also remember the sheets having long strings of computer codes on them and a warning: "Make no marks or smudges near these rectangles." These tests were also computer-scored, although I don't remember ever hearing or seeing the results afterwards.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 12-03-2010 at 03:02 PM.
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Old 12-03-2010, 03:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Jeffhs View Post
How can you tell what channel they are watching? I could barely see the picture on the set, let alone the channel selector. Only thing I can figure is that WRGB-TV was the only television station in Schenectady in 1954, decades before they switched from NBC to CBS and from channel 4 to channel 6.
Seems like a pretty good guess... Here Is a list from 1955 (pix1):

jr
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Old 12-03-2010, 04:41 PM
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Aaahhh yes those stupid Stanford Acheivement Tests,... and a week of wasted time...
Think we had tests from Iowa, even though this was a NJ school. Anyway, I don't remember what my classmates thought of these tests, but I saw it as a pleasant break from the tedium of teachers yelling at us and hitting us with rulers and blackboard pointers. Ever see that Pink Floyd video "Another brick in the Wall", that was the equivalent of my grammar school. I didn't worry about failing these tests, as there was no fail grade, and whatever I got didn't matter anyway as it didn't impact my report card.

Ah, memories. Teachers hated TV and hated us watching TV shows On our now vintage TV sets and not studying... As if there was no other reason for us to live...
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Old 12-03-2010, 05:14 PM
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We had TVs, big ol' GE metal cabinet jobs-They'd play 'em the last day of school, & sometimes, we'd catch the teacher watchin' her Soap Operas when we came in from lunch/recess...
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Old 12-03-2010, 06:59 PM
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Old 12-04-2010, 12:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs View Post
How can you tell what channel they are watching? I could barely see the picture on the set, let alone the channel selector. Only thing I can figure is that WRGB-TV was the only television station in Schenectady in 1954, decades before they switched from NBC to CBS and from channel 4 to channel 6.
The local paper for that date is online, and only two stations were on the air during the daytime hours that day, Channel 6 and Channel 41. Since that TV lacks a UHF tuner from what I can tell, it's an educated guess
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Old 12-04-2010, 09:49 AM
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We did the Iowa Tests in North Carolina, too.

I remember once, taking the test, and getting bored with it, and filling in random circles all the way to the end. The teacher was too smart for me, and made me take the test over again while she watched me like an eagle. She even showed me my first results... I did good until I got bored, then got NONE right up to the end.

I done good the 2nd time around.

We had very similar light fixtures in our classrooms. Ours used 300 watt GE incandescent lamps with mogul bases. I can remember the POP when the bulbs would burn out, and watching the janitor come in the classroom to change the bulbs.

The building was built in 1953, and I was there in 1963-64. They tore down that building in 2009, and had lowered the ceilings, but those old fixtures were still up there, above the dropped ceilings. I rode by there while the demo was going on, but was run off. All I wanted was one brick!

Our school didnt have TV sets early on. About 1967, the system got GE sets on tall metal carts with a speaker under the set. We watched the Apollo space flights on these.
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Old 12-04-2010, 05:54 PM
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We did the Iowa Tests in North Carolina, too.

I remember once, taking the test, and getting bored with it, and filling in random circles all the way to the end. The teacher was too smart for me, and made me take the test over again while she watched me like an eagle. She even showed me my first results... I did good until I got bored, then got NONE right up to the end.
My school was so cheap that they used the same test question booklets year to year. We were not supposed to mark anything in the booklets, but use scrap paper to figure stuff out on. Well, one year I got a booklet that a previous kid had marked off his picks for the correct answers, some of which were wrong!

My classes had 30 kids in the room, so it would be pretty hard for a teacher to spot a kid messing around with the test... Your teacher probably got mad at you as her raise or job would be on the line if the class did badly on the test.

Once, during a read it out loud session in a reading class, I'm tripping over some hard word, and a classmate (who was always a pain in my butt) makes fun of me. Teacher tells him to shut up "He scored a lot higher on that achievement test than you did!"
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