17 Things Kids Will Never Experience in School Today

When I was in school, students spent hours carefully crafting book covers out of paper grocery bags. I had the technique down to a science. The purpose of the cover was two-fold—it protected the textbook, of course, but also provided the perfect space for doodling and customizing the book.

The reason students no longer need book covers? They no longer have books! Many schools have done away with textbooks altogether and all of the reading and learning is done electronically.

Finding your locker and learning your code used to be a (stressful!) rite of passage. Now, many schools have done away with the once-staple of the hallways and found other uses for the space. Lockers fell out of popularity as students have fewer items to carry and they got used to not using them during times of social distancing.

Once thought to be a sign of advanced technology, many schools have done away with computer labs. The reason? Students bring their own devices (or are provided devices by their schools) and use them in every class, so no special space is needed.

Many schools have changed their rules on "dressing out" for gym, thanks to social distancing rules and the potential for locker room anxiety. While some schools still mandate uniforms, many have gone to a more relaxed dress code for P.E.

Did you grow up having to remember to take cash for school lunch? In most cases, those days are over. Instead, schools have app-based systems to pay for lunch, and parents can load their accounts in advance using a credit card.

Chalkboards (and erasers!) are largely a thing of the past. Instead, schools have easier-to-clean whiteboards and Smart Boards at the front of the classrooms.

Pull-down maps were once a staple in a classroom, but, because they become dated quickly, they are not commonly used these days.

It's not common to see wall-mounted pencil sharpeners in classrooms anymore. They've been replaced by electric versions, and, in some cases, mechanical pencils, which require no sharpening.

Anyone who took trigonometry, chemistry, or other form of higher math back in the day will recall this nifty little tool that was used for multiplication, division, and other complex computations, but which was later edged out by the handheld calculator.

Remember having to sift through drawer after drawer of alphabetized index cards to find potential sources when you had a research paper due? Today, all kids need is Google.

Now considered too violent by many parents and educators, this classic playground sport was a mainstay at recess and in PE class. That is until the tide turned and various scholarly sources began referring to it using terms like "litigation waiting to happen."

Who doesn't remember watching the teacher standing at the front of the class fiddling to get their transparencies in focus on these old-fashioned contraptions? Julie Young, a behavior specialist for a public school district in Boston, recalls a recent incident when one of her sons, who's in the first grade, came home and said, "We did this awesome thing at school today. We drew a map of Mexico and used this machine from the olden days called an overhead projector. I think it was used back when they just made electricity."

These days, more and more kids turn their homework in via programs like Google Docs, or make their presentations in PowerPoint versus on poster board, so the family pooch can't be blamed for destroying anyone's hard work—unless Rover can somehow manage to jump up on the computer and hit the "Delete" key.

Controversial now on both religious and political grounds, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem are no longer rituals of school-day mornings. "I discovered at a recent Red Sox game that my children had no idea how to sing the National Anthem or say the Pledge of Allegiance," says Julie Young, the public school administrator from Boston. "So I've taken it upon myself to review both over breakfast and then perform them on the Fourth of July for our family cookout."

There was an art to both the writing of the notes ("Do you like Steve? Check here.") and the passing of them, and a hint of danger if the teacher caught you handing them off under your desk. Today, kids just whip out their phones and text each other ("LOL").

The precursor to modern photocopiers, the ditto (often confused with the mimeograph) was a loud, cumbersome machine that was cranked by hand to create copies one page at a time. The print was a distinctive purple hue and anyone who grew up with them will remember the scent of fresh ink they gave off. "There were also carbon copies," recalls Dianna Gahlsdorf Terrell. "Today, students are like 'What does "cc" mean?'"