New York City Junior High Schools In 1961-Part 1

The year I graduated from Corlear's JHS. from the prelinger archives, including a few reviews This film was made by the 1961 New York City Board of Education for viewing by the parents of its junior high school students. While stilted and idealistic, it shows the goals of intermediate education during the "Father Knows Best" era.

This film starts out with Parents presumably at a Jr High Orientation asking various questions some good ("what do groups do what benefits do programs like Student Councils provide") to some...well not so good ("Do you let be lazy or do they really have to study") after the montage of questions (a majority of which are left unanswered.) a principal awkwardly introduces the film, we then see the curriculum of Jr. High Students played out, from home room to English to music ("all high school students are required to take at least one music program") to Health Ed it's all here and each course overview is narrated by the corresponding teacher. The problem here is some of the teachers are just so dull (the Social Studies one sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher if she learned English)Never the less there is some good stuff here from blatant sexism (in a line the boys are instructed to lead while the girls are expected to follow) to bad attempts at being P.C (The math course has a class for "Slow" children) Not the best movie available here, but it is interesting to see the differences between schools then and now.

A classic of the highest order, JHS NYC presents the geekiest looking students, the deers in headlights teachers, and very shaky camera work to good effect here! At first we see very odd looking 'parents' asking questions, (Check out the lady asking "Why doesn't Arnold read when he comes home from school?" Then, in a TOTAL Amelie moment, Dr. Larentan comes on totally awkwardly and says "Thank you for your questions" while looking bizarrely off to the side. He dictates his speech so strangely, looks at the camera only once or twice, but mostly sticks to his looking off to the side approach (for a better protograph position?). Soon, we're off to explore the many subjects your kids can learn! Native dancing for the girls! Shop for the boys! (love the 'metal fastening' scene) and typing (??) for everyone!! Clearly done without a clue, this is a MUST SEE on this site!!