When I was born........

Modern technology. My grandparents would be astounded by the mobile phone, they didn't have a telephone in either of their houses. We didn't get the phone in until the late '70's.
The smart speaker. It's something out of a sci-fi movie. Impossible to imagine asking a little box in the corner of the room to play music, or read your book, or remind you about things you need to do.

EllanVannin I’m with you on that, though it was 60’s I thought about. There were excellent teachers and not so good ones same as now I suppose, but what wows me now is how parents go into school and rant or even offer physical violence if their little dear has been reprimanded. I’d have got another telling off at home if my mum heard I’d been in trouble at school.

I was born in a house with no bathroom, no inside loo, and no running hot water. (This was the 1950s, and my dad had a decent job.) Seems amazing, now.

I can remember my grandmother telling me she was a very old lady, and she certainly behaved that way, but I have since realised she was only late 50's! We seem to look and feel younger for longer now.

The brilliant teachers in the 50's who could hold the pupils interests in every lesson. They were to be looked up to and respected and seemingly, those many who I knew throughout school all did well.

I am wowed by central heating and hot water to shower in whenever I choose.
My family home was kept warm by one coal fire in the living room, and every other room was freezing in cold weather. A bath was taken on a Sunday evening only, ready for the school week and water was heated in a Burco boiler and my mum carried it in bowlful up the stairs! God bless her ?

TV, washing machine, phone, only the well off had these luxuries when I was a child.
I love today's technology especially the smart phone, essential when your children and grandchildren live abroad!

When I was born, just after the war, secondary education was made accessible to all, (1944) and it drove my childhood, to take full advantage of the opportunities and continue to tertiary education as well.

Now it is regarded, correctly, as a right, but sadly, not valued nearly so much by too many.

We had to boil a kettle of water to do the washing up

Ditto to distances in space.
And more especially the idea of the universe going on and on for ever. I just can’t get my head round that.
Everything we know is finite - land, sea, life....
But then if that endless space did suddenly come to a metaphorical brick wall, what would be beyond that?

Of course dh says he has no problem with the concept at all!

Agree with your last post MerylStreep that is really astounding.

Who would have thought that a fairly basic car now costs more than the first house I bought ( by a country mile )

Yes I had teachers in the seventies who mocked children with a stammer, who had no idea how to support children with disabilities, and who threw things at children, my children have much better teachers today.

I imagine your 'well thought of' grammar school was in reality only fairly good then LullyDully

Our teachers were 'always right' and more interested in being right than developing us as people and showing us how to improve.

We had a marking system that included fairly good plus, fairly good and fairly good minus. We also got housepoints for posture. The school was a well thought of grammar school in the early 60s.

I look at my granddaughter of 15 and how she is being taught with rigour and encouragement.
There is no comparison, even though I did quite well eventually. This was despite the teachers thinking I wasn't that good. They had only a fairly good impression of me.

Sorry for the rant but it does still annoy me.

I meant to add we are holding more technology in our hand than what was used/ available to put a man on the moon.

What astounds you or freaks you out
The distances in space.

For me, the concept of the world wide web (free o use too, just wonderful) and emailing people still has the ‘wow’ factor because unlike the yoof we didn’t grow up with it.
?

I agree about the magic of the phone now.

I wonder how we spent our time when we had to amuse ourselves as children. We had no TV.

When I was in labour with my first child, DH had to run down 4 flights of stairs to the street to a phone box to call the midwife in the middle of the night. (in the rain ofcourse!). cars? who had a car?

I was astonished to learn today that a bike for a 12 yr old cost £900.

The way teacher/pupil relations are. We were scared of our teachers and had great respect for them. Not many stepped out of line. Today teachers want to be the children’s friends and consequently aren’t treated with respect, are unruly and have too much to say for themselves.