School Discovers Chalkboard Drawings Preserved for Over 100 Years

Have you ever wondered what classrooms were like 100 years ago? Or better yet, what they wrote on their chalkboards? Well, wonder no more. In some ways it’s what you might expect: outdated techniques, lots of script, and even a lesson on cleaning.

Contractors were removing chalkboards at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City to make room for new white boards when they found the remains of school lessons from 1917. The old chalkboards were found underneath the modern ones.

Emerson High School Principal Sherry Kishore told the Oklahoman that the penmanship was like nothing she’d ever seen.

“The penmanship blows me away, because you don’t see a lot of that anymore,” she said. “Some of the handwriting in some of these rooms is beautiful.”

The haunting drawings and lessons were found in four classrooms and all of them contain a lesson about the Pilgrims. According to Oklahoma City Public Schools, there was an aligned curriculum back then, meaning the teachers all taught the same lessons in every classroom.

https://twitter.com/OKCPS/status/606905034111000576/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The classrooms feature techniques that are not used anymore, such as a multiplication wheel used to teach multiplication.

“I have never seen that technique in my life,” Kishore told the Oklahoman.

The chalkboards also featured work from the students, such as names and drawings.

“Their names are here; I don’t know whether they were students in charge that day that got to do the special chores if they were the ones that had a little extra to do because they were acting up,” Kishore said. “But it’s all kinds of different feelings when you look at this.”

Other lessons include how to clean and music lessons.

According to the Washington Post, the district is working with the city to “preserve the ‘chalk’ work of the teachers that has been captured in time.”

Take a look at some of the chalk work below. There’s even a note left by a janitor!