👵👴 Grandparents recount the school of yesteryear

Yesterday morning, grandparents met with primary school pupils to tell them what school was like in their time.

🖋️ They wrote with ink and blotting paper, with steel nibs and wooden pen holders.

At school they wore aprons with neat bows, boys and girls in separate classes.

📚 Books were 'subsidiary', schoolbags instead of rucksacks, 'ugly' and 'pretty' notebooks.
⚖️ The rules were strict: rigid punishments, absolute respect for teachers and classmates, even a grade in Civil and Moral Education on the report card.
🥛 For the poorest children, there was milk and cocoa in the morning, and the first canteens saw the teachers themselves cooking.
🚍 Trips were few and far between. But they were still carefree times.
🌿 Despite the severity, respect was learnt above all: of others, of adults, of nature, of animals.

We also touched on many objects from the past: the baracchin, making a ball of wool, games, notebooks and the ruler for doing maths calculations!

Lots of questions and curiosity from our young students!