What was high school like in the 90s

But our elementary and middle school years included "duck and cover" drills in case of nuclear war. My freshman year of high school had job opening announcements because the Louisiana oilfield companies were hiring and paying big bucks. Following year, not even half as much job announcements. By my junior year, the job announcements stopped and the oil field job market dried up. Being "on tha welfare" was an insult and part of an Eddie Murphy joke. Being on the "free lunch" program was a source of shame.

Our food was cooked inside the school instead of at a central location and brought to the schools. Only one soda vending machine located in a back room for teachers and other school faculty.

Students drank milk, chocolate milk, or water. We were scared to death of AIDS. There was big divide between the first half and second half of the decade, especially with the Internet.

Most of the people on the Internet during the first few years of the 90s were people in college and some government employees, and there wasn't any real commercial activity on the Internet.

A lot of people didn't have internet at home, although people in bigger cities would be more likely to have it.

And yes, everything was dialup. There was an idea that the internet should only be for education and shouldn't have any kind of business involved in it. That died out as the Internet got more popular. The Web was really primitive and a lot of stuff was just text.

Most of the time you had to type commands to be able to do a lot of things on the Internet that people just do with a mouse now. A lot of people did not have computers in their homes. Usually the only ones who did were "computer nerd" people who were actually into programming. I think by then most schools did have computers, but not all of them had the internet.

What was really common would be a computer class where they'd try to teach you some kind of basic programming, but most of the time the kids would just want to play games. The later part of the decade the Internet was closer to how it is now.

I remember the first time I saw a commercial website was around This was also the time when you started seeing more people with cell phones, but they were still kind of a novelty. The drugs that were popular depended on where you lived, but I think the three main ones were pot, Ecstasy, and I guess heroin. A lot of stuff depended on where you lived--at my high school students who were 18 were allowed to smoke if they stayed on one part of the school grounds.

But I lived in a rural area and a lot of stuff was allowed that might not have been in other places back then. We always usually had one or two girls who would get pregnant and have to drop out or take correspondence classes [what would be distance learning today.

Rap music was just starting to get mainstream. Music was kind of all over the place, you had a lot of different types of music all being popular at the same time. A lot of stuff that would have been considered underground or non-commercial back in the 80s was suddenly getting on the radio.

One thing people were really upset about were cigarette advertisements being in magazines, having characters like Joe Camel, etc. It's not really that much different than today, people were just upset about different things. I don't know if people dressed all that differently than now. I guess you had some things that were popular for a while and then went away, but even then not everyone wore it. Originally Posted by NJBest. The internet was the big thing in the 90s. We has dialup in the early 90s and got cable modem high speed internet high speed at the time in There was a clear divide between parents who adopted technology and those who did not.

Half the children had pagers, cell phones and high speed internet while the other half didn't. Marijuana - Yes. Other drugs - not so popular, but I'm sure some did. Sex - ofcourse. Drinking -Yes. Cliques - In middle school a bit Dress - like music Music - like clothing Cell phones - mid-late 90s.

Early 90s - pagers Computers - since the 80s. I started H. Cell phones weren't mainstream anywhere. Something tells me this notion will spread like wildfire. Again, WiFi wasn't really a big deal in the '90s. No one had cell phones, tablets, or laptops. Teachers who needed a connection generally used an ethernet cord or stuck by their desktop computer. These days, WiFi is a necessity—especially if lessons are taught on computers.

While some teachers may hate the fact that kids can log on to the WiFi so quickly, it's there for a reason: to learn and explore.

Most '90s kids can remember their school cafeteria lunches being a little stale. Selections typically featured fat, cheesy pizza, chicken nuggets, cartons of milk, and maybe some kind of pasta dish. But the food game has changed in With more and more studies being published about our children's behavioral needs linked with the food they eat, schools are putting an emphasis on healthier lunches.

Instead of fried chicken nuggets and a sad salad with one tomato, they're focusing on all dietary restrictions and creating fresh options, which is refreshing to see. Some kids adored writing on the chalkboard when their teacher called on them, while others dreaded it. Knowing all eyes were on them could be nerve-racking. Chalkboards are still very much a thing in classrooms today, but many schools are opting for whiteboards or smartboards instead.

Whiteboards are easier to write and draw on, while smartboards have tech capabilities that chalkboards could sadly never match.

It's no surprise to anyone that the obesity levels in North America are insanely high. With the incredible amount of snacks and fried foods we have, our poor children are getting bigger and bigger. To take a stand against the norm, some classrooms across the US are implementing standing desks.

These desks will allow kids to move around and be a little bit more flexible than just sitting all day. The option to sit is still there but if they want to stand up and stretch, they absolutely can. Let's be honest, we all love therapy animals. We may not always be allowed to pet or hug them as often as we'd like but if we are allowed to pet them, we sure take advantage of it.

Some schools connect with various programs, bringing in therapy dogs a couple of times a week to help kids release anxious energy, stress, or fear of test-taking. Seeing a fluffy dog who is excited to see and smell everyone walking around the halls is a wonderful gift schools are giving.

Remember how I said computers can be found in just about every room in schools these days? Well, when computers run dry, iPads are given.

What's even crazier is some schools have classroom iPads for their students. Given a serial number and all the accessories, kids can use it in class and bring it home after school to use for homework.

When it comes to the last day of school, students return the iPads back to their teacher and it's repeated the next year.