From School Labs to Chalkboards, 90’s Experiences That Don’t Exist in Schools Anymore

For someone who attended high school in the 90s or the early 2000s, the idea of stepping into today’s modern day classrooms is nothing short of a nightmare. Just imagine underage school kids with fancy iPads, computers and other high-tech gadgets whereas back in the day, it would be considered a big deal if our parents even allowed us to take a pager to school once a week.

Back in the day, school supplies used to evoke a sense of excitement and fun which turned education into a quintessential experience that you can’t find in classrooms today. Below are some of the biggest differences in schools from our childhood and the schools today.

Computer Rooms

Computer rooms in the schools back in the 90’s.

The idea of sending a whole class to a computer with an outdated equipment and then call them back after 30 minutes is obsolete nowadays.

Schools Without WIFI

There was no facility of WiFi in the schools for students and teachers in the 90’s. But schools nowadays have a robust WiFi for the whole staff and the students.

Ban On Phones

Kids can learn more on mobile phones while sitting in the classroom.

Mobile phones and tablets were not allowed in the millennium era schools.

AV CARTS

Every student knew that it would be a great day when someone rolled the cart in the classroom. Modern-day classrooms are filled with projectors and they will never feel the excitement of AV carts.

ZIP-UP BINDERS

Packing all the stuff from your school in a colorful bag was a source of joy in 90’s and there is nothing like it in modern-day schools.

Catalog OF CARDS

Modern kids don’t have an idea about the Dewey Decimal system. But a catalog of classic cards was a source of enjoyment for millennium kids.

CHALKBOARDS

Writing on the blackboards with chalkboards was fun back in 90’s but now the blackboards have been replaced by projectors and whiteboards. Kids nowadays will never understand the meaning of “nails on a chalkboard”.

CURSIVE WRITING

The debate whether the kids should learn cursive or not is still going on but many countries have changed the curriculum which requires cursive writing.

COMBINED DESKS

In the 90’s, there were combined desks and a couple of students sat on those. Now the chairs have replaced those desks.

GEL PENS

Nothing can match the joy of having gel pens of different colors. They were used to write the nicknames and the index page of notebooks.

GLOBES

Now the map is available in the form of Google Maps in smartphones. Back in the 90’s, every classroom had a globe and students use it to locate distant places.

LIBRARY CARDS

Library cards – tracking record of books issued to a student.

A millennium kid uses a library card for entering the library, issue a book, leaving the library and then return the book back. Nowadays, all this is done on the computer.

PLASTIC LUNCH BOXES

21st-century kids may not find these plastic lunch boxes.

Show off your new lunch box to your friends was the best thing about the 90’s school. Still today, kids carry lunch boxes, but they are not as cool as they were in the millennium era.

MR. SKETCH MARKERS

The smell of these markers was so captivating that kids used to sniff it for hours. These markers are still available but the original ones which were available in the 90’s.

WALL PENCIL SHARPENERS

Modern-day schools do not have wall pencil sharpeners.

The schools have changed a lot and now they have shifted to an electric sharpener or every kid has its own sharpener.

TWISTABLES CRAYONS

These Crayolas are still available in the market but modern-day kids are too shy to use those in schools.

TYPING GAMES

Playing typing games in spare time was a real fun in the millennium era.

Modern kids are born with typing as their hobby and they know a lot about computers as well. Kids of the 90’s do not know much about typing and playing a typing game was really fun for them.

MICROSOFT WordArt

WordArt –  a source of learning and enjoyment for the 90’s kids.

I don’t think kids born in the 21st century have ever seen this Microsoft WordArt. But it was a source of amusement as well as learning for the millenniums.

ANALOG CLOCKS

It was hard to teach kids how to read an analog clock.

Teaching kids how to learn an analog clock was a real struggle. Now iPhone’s digital clock has replaced those analog ones and no one bothers to learn about those clocks.