non copyrighted real chalkboard background

The blackboard had been faithfully reconstructed as a souvenir of the school’s past, while the teacher and students mainly used the whiteboards that covered the other walls. The last time I saw a real blackboard in a classroom was during a visit to a still-functioning one-room schoolhouse near Hollister, California. In my daughter’s schools, computers, scads of them, are replaced every two to three years.

Imagine that, a classroom machine so durable and flexible. In the 20 th century, blackboards were mostly porcelain-enameled steel and could last 10 to 20 years. By 1840 blackboards were manufactured commercially, smoothly planed wooden boards coated with a thick, porcelain-based paint. Like many of the best tools, the blackboard is a simple machine, and in the 19 th century, in rural areas particularly, it was often made from scratch, rough pine boards nailed together and covered with a mixture of egg whites and the carbon leavings from charred potatoes. Students no longer simply listened to the teacher they had reason to look up from their desks. The blackboard illustrates and is illustrated. Teachers now had a flexible and versatile visual aid, a device that was both textbook and blank page, as well as a laboratory, and most importantly, a point of focus. Although the term blackboard did not appear until 1815, the use of these cobbled-together slates spread quickly by 1809, every public school in Philadelphia was using them.

Non copyrighted real chalkboard background