School in the 1980s came with plenty of things that would seem strange to students today. From outdated technology and unusual classroom rules to forgotten trends and everyday routines, these little details reveal just how different school life could be back then. Here are 25 funny things about school back in the ’80s that you never knew.
Computers Were Still a Big Deal
For many students, getting a computer in the classroom was an event. Apple II and Commodore machines were common in schools, but students often had to share them because a classroom might only have a handful.
Encyclopedias Were Basically Google
If a student needed information for a report, there was no quick internet search. They had to find an encyclopedia, locate the right volume and flip through the alphabetical entries.
School Libraries Had Card Catalogs
Finding a book meant searching through drawers filled with index cards. Students had to know whether to look under the author’s name, book title or subject before they could even find out where the book was.
Detention Meant Sitting in Silence
Getting detention usually meant sitting in a classroom after school with nothing entertaining to do. There were no smartphones to secretly scroll through, so boredom was basically the entire punishment.
Nobody Could Text Their Parents
If something happened at school, students couldn’t simply send a message home. They needed access to a school office phone or a public payphone, assuming they had the right amount of change.
School Photos Were Serious Business
Picture Day meant sitting in front of a photographer and trying to produce one respectable photograph. There was no checking the result afterward, so students had to live with whatever expression the camera captured.
Filmstrips Were a Whole Classroom Event
Teachers sometimes showed lessons using filmstrips projected onto a screen. The projector advanced one frame at a time, often accompanied by an audio recording telling the teacher exactly when to click to the next image.
VHS Changed School Movies
VCRs gradually made it easier for schools to show movies and educational programs. Suddenly, teachers could pop a VHS tape into a machine instead of dealing with a film projector.
Chalkboards Were Still Everywhere
The standard classroom board was still a chalkboard. Teachers wrote lessons by hand, students copied them down and someone eventually had to deal with the dusty erasers.
Report Cards Came on Paper
Grades weren’t sitting inside an online student portal. Report cards were printed on paper and handed to students, who then had to take them home and face their parents.
Homework Meant an Actual Notebook
There was no Google Docs, cloud storage or online assignment system. Homework was written in notebooks or typed on paper, and losing the page could mean losing the entire assignment.
Pencil Sharpeners Were Classroom Technology
Many classrooms had those heavy metal pencil sharpeners attached directly to the wall. Students would sometimes turn sharpening a pencil into an unnecessarily elaborate process that produced a mountain of wood shavings.
Trapper Keepers Became a Huge Deal
The Trapper Keeper became one of the defining school supplies of the decade. It was essentially a colorful binder with folders inside, but its Velcro closure made it feel like something far more sophisticated.
Lisa Frank Took Over School Supplies
Lisa Frank’s colorful designs became increasingly popular among American schoolchildren. Notebooks, folders and stickers were covered with neon animals, rainbows and enough glittery imagery to make a normal pencil case look like a nightclub.
Spelling Tests Meant Actual Spelling
Teachers could simply say the word aloud and expect students to write it correctly. There was no autocorrect waiting to fix a misspelling before the teacher saw it.
There Was No Internet Research
A research assignment could mean spending an entire afternoon in the library. Students had to find books, read through them and physically write down useful information.
The School Secretary Was the Information Hub
The school office handled everything that today might happen through apps, email and automated systems. If a student needed to contact home, get a message or solve an administrative problem, the secretary was usually the person to see.
Calculators Were Not Always Allowed
Pocket calculators were becoming affordable, but teachers didn’t necessarily want students using them for every calculation. Basic arithmetic was still something students were expected to perform themselves.
The Apple II Was a Classroom Celebrity
Apple II computers became popular in American schools during the early personal-computer boom. Educational programs and simple games gave students their first taste of computing, often on machines with tiny amounts of memory by today’s standards.
Oregon Trail Was the Game Everyone Knew
The Oregon Trail became one of the most recognizable educational computer games of the era. Students could manage a wagon journey across the American frontier, hunt for food and, inevitably, watch somebody die of dysentery.
School Buses Had No Seatbelts
Most traditional American school buses of the 1980s did not have lap belts for every passenger. Students simply sat on long bench seats while the bus bounced along the road.
Classroom TV Was a Big Deal
A television on a rolling cart or on top of the chalkboard could instantly change the mood of a classroom. The second a teacher wheeled one through the door, students knew that something other than a normal lesson was about to happen.
School Lunches Came on Trays
School cafeterias commonly served meals on reusable plastic or compartmentalized trays. Students carried everything from their main course to their milk carton in one tray before finding a seat in the noisy cafeteria.
Kids Actually Had to Memorize Phone Numbers
There was no contact list storing everyone’s number. Students commonly memorized the phone numbers of their parents, relatives and closest friends because there was no smartphone available to look them up.
Teachers Used Mimeographs
Mimeograph machines produced the purple-ink worksheets familiar to generations of students. Freshly printed copies had a distinctive chemical smell, and many students couldn’t resist sniffing them.
