School Days

I've been watching this TV show called "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader".  It has made me try to remember what I learned in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade.  I definitely didn't learn some of
the things they question you about on that show.  Some of those things I didn't even learn in high school.
They must be teaching a lot of things today they did't teach in the fortys.  Of course back then we didn't have pre-school or kindergarden.  I think the main aim of first grade was to teach you the alphabet and the numbers.  We started out reading in a primer and I can't remember if we went farther than that in first grade.
We didn't learn any geography or history until seventh and eighth grades.

I really think the main aim in grade school back then was "reading, writing, and arithmetic", and sometimes it was taught by the tune of a hicory stick as the old ryme goes.  The grade school I went to had two rooms,
although most schools back then were one room.  They were called the little room and the big room because the little kids were in the little room and the big kids were in the big room.  When I was in eighth grade our teacher had a large stick, he called a friend.  It was on the wall on top of a picture and sometimes he used it 
but not for discipline.  If you missed over so many problems in arithmetic or so many words in spelling there were so many wacks with that friend.  In this day and age that would not be allowed but it definitely made the kids study harder.

I enjoy watching the TV show and it's very seldom an adult can answer all the questions.  Just two questions for each grade on different subjects, but some of them are definitely not subjects taught in those grades when I was in grade school.  I think maybe I prefer the generation I was born into.