Photos That Will Take You Back To The Good Ol’ Days Of School

By Media Feed | Published

As you get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember what it was like to be a kid: what your hobbies were, how you felt, and what school was really like. However, there are some items or images that can instantly spark memories from decades ago.

These are some things that will give you instant grade school nostalgia when you see them.

Just About Every Lesson Was Taught On The Overhead Projector

Date: Oct. 26 2006 Slug: me-esl assignment #185124 Photograp
Gerald Martineau/The The Washington Post via Getty Images

The worst was when the teacher was using an old marker so you could barely see the words. Runner up for a bad time was when your teacher had messy handwriting.

This Is How I Learned Math

Dienes_blocks_used_by_a_8_year-old_student
Annielogue/Wikimedia Commons

In terms of hands-on visualization tools, these blue cube things were probably the most helpful ones they ever gave us in school. What I’d give to go back to having my goal of the day be to understand addition and subtraction.

The Legendary Square Pizza Slices

lunch lady holding tray of rectangular pizza
Photo Credit: Reddit / Whitlow14

Round pizzas? I guess they now are the crème de la crème in adulthood, but I can still feel the collective sense of joy and excitement we felt when it was square pizza day in the cafeteria.

The Sweet Cruelty Of Smothering Your Calculator

person covers solar power panel on calculator with finger
Photo Credit: Reddit / Mea05cer

Children’s brains are so simple, yet so evil. For some reason, our first instinct upon learning that the top panel on a calculator was so it could absorb light to power it was to try and kill it like this.

This Pencil Case Haunts My Nightmares

Photo Credit: Reddit / FatSloppyPecker

When I see this pencil case, I distinctly think of that one girl in my class who always had a minimum of 10 pencils, seven different highlighters, and the 72-color pencil crayon pack on her at all times.

Anyone Who Religiously Used These Pencils Is In Jail Now

Photo Credit: Reddit / Lexjiggler

I distinctly remember when these pencils initially came out and they seemed like fun, but anyone with a sane mind gave up on using one after a month or two.

The Best Gym Class

kids sitting under tri-colour parachute
Photo Credit: Reddit / burnedMoth

Do you remember the quiet hype that would spread throughout your entire class when you walked into the gym and this four-color parachute would be lying out in the middle of the room?

The Pull-Down Map Was A Classroom Staple

map pulled down on wall with draw string
Photo Credit: Reddit / mmajunkie77

I swear we all had the same childhood, because I really thought that the pull-down maps in my school were unique for years, only to realize that every classroom across the country was basically the same.

Wishing For A Snow Day So School Would Be Canceled

NO SCHOOL written in snow on street
Photo Credit: Reddit / Avenger101

Waking up in the morning, you’d impatiently huddle beside the radio while still in your pajamas after a snowstorm, waiting to hopefully hear the local news station declare that school is canceled.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

displays of book, pencils, and other goods set up
Photo Credit: Reddit / MccreesKnees

What I would give to be walking into the opening day of the Scholastic Book Fair on a crisp, autumn morning to buy a bunch of cool pencils and erasers to flex on my classmates.

The Old Way To Check Out A Library Book

library book pocket card has fake names scribbled on it
Photo Credit: Reddit / Jfonzy

There was something exhilarating about having the librarian stamp this card in your copy of a large hardcover non-fiction book about Vikings. Of course, once you were old enough, you started writing fake names on the card and thinking it was peak comedy.

The Legendary Grade Book

rows of grades recorded in grid
Photo Credit: Reddit / -icon

Even though they had computers with Excel spreadsheets at their disposal, I feel like every teacher had an enormous binder full of sheets like this, and whenever they’d leave the room, we’d try to sneak a peek.

Burning Your Own CDs Gave You Clout

Photo Credit: Reddit / JeffreyStrange

I distinctly remember feeling so slick with my CD player and my 2005 punk rock mix of songs including a combination of Blink-182, Green Day, and Sum 41. Not to brag, but I would still listen to it today.

Every School Had These Same Blue Mats

blue padded exercise mats stacked up
Photo Credit: Reddit / burnedMoth

I feel like every single gym equipment room across the country housed a large stack or two of these blue mats that definitely have not been effectively cleaned since the 1990s.

This Man Was A Science Class Staple

bill nye the science guy
Photo Credit: moviestillsdb / NBC

I think, if someone put it on today, I could still sing the Bill Nye the Science Guy theme song by heart. I can still feel the sense of excitement that came when the teacher would roll out the TV and put on an episode.

The Shoebox Diorama Project

shoebox diorama
Photo Credit: Reddit / assumingdirectcontrl

I feel like every student, at some point during grade school, was forced to construct a shoebox diorama. Did I learn anything from this project? No. Did my mom have to help me do most of it? Absolutely.

The Thrill Of Being At School After Dark

dimly lit classroom hallway
Photo Credit: Reddit / mr_plopsy

There was something exciting and kind of eerie about the way the school looked when you were there after regular school hours for a play or other performance. The hallways managed to look so different.

These Were The Best Snacks

scooby doo gummy fruit snacks
Photo Credit: Reddit / ipsboi

If you had a pack of the Scooby-Doo gummy snacks in your lunch, everyone else was jealous. These were the elite of all gummy snacks, and the second you opened the pack, people would be asking to have one.

Remember Portable Classrooms?

children walking in front of portable classroom
Photo Credit: Reddit / jsakic99

Being in the portable classroom seemed really cool when they were first installed at your school until you realized that you had to run through the rain to get to the main building every time you had to use the washroom.

These Paper Reinforcements Were An Absolute Necessity

page of circle sticker paper reinforcements
Photo Credit: Reddit / PMMEANUMBER1-10

These tiny circular stickers were the only thing keeping all the pages and notes in your binder from ripping and falling out. Without them, I would have probably lost all my science worksheets.

These Were Essential For Field Trip Days

kodak disposable camera
Photo Credit: Reddit / 300mcaffeine

Remember the good old days when you would take one of these on a class field trip, snap a bunch of pictures, and then have to wait until your parents got the film developed to find out all the photos were terrible?

Why Did Milk Come In These Crates?

American Cities Go Eerily Quiet In The Age Of 'Shelter in Place'
Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Did anyone else have a regular milk time during the school day where someone would roll up to the classroom with a crate and hand out cartons of milk to everyone, or was that just my school?

These Are The Only Reason I Know Different Shapes

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Photo Credit: Reddit / moesickle

The worst thing about playing with these shape blocks was that the orange square never fit anywhere neatly. All the rest were so easy to mesh together and the square was a nightmare.

The Random Stage In The Cafeteria Was Key

cafeteria with stage on one side
Photo Credit: Reddit / Zolebrow

I wonder why the person who was behind the creation of cafeterias in public schools decided that there should be a stage in the cafeteria out of all places. What was their logic?

This Calculator With 80085

blue, red, and white basic calculator
Photo Credit: Reddit / eldersveld

Firstly, why was this the universally chosen calculator across seemingly every school in the country? Second of all, boys really thought that typing this in was the apex of comedy.

All In All, Grade School Was A Time Full Of Memories

elementary school classroom
Photo Credit: Reddit / Lostscribe007

Playing kickball in the yard, terrorizing your substitute teachers until they cried, cheating while playing Seven-Up by looking at people’s shoes—whether grade school was good or bad, it sure was memorable.