Inside a Changing First-Grade Classroom in the 1970s

When first-grade teacher Bill L’Orange invited LIFE into his classroom 45 years ago, he offered the magazine’s readers a glimpse into a world that few would have otherwise had access to — the world of the child, so foreign to many adults, as well as the world of a male elementary-school teacher. At the time, a male elementary-school teacher (like a female college professor, as one education expert put it) was rare enough to be considered newsworthy. L’Orange, whose profession is feted each Oct. 5 on UNESCO’s World Teachers’ Day, taught a group of 28 students in a Chicago suburb. When he had begun teaching in 1967, he had been even more of a rarity. But, since then, American society had seen a small but noticeable uptick in the level of involvement men were expected to have in young children’s lives, at home as well as in the teaching profession.   Leonard McCombe—LIFE MagazineOct. 25, 1972 cover of LIFE magazine. “The traditionally sex-typed school system has had its impact on children,” LIFE noted in an Oct. 20, 1972, cover story. “Eighty to 90% of all children who have difficulties in school are boys, and the absence of a male figure is seen by experienced educators as an important factor.” In light of that idea, one dedicated program called Project Male grew out of a government-funded study of male teachers. It had become an advocacy group that promoted the idea that male and female adults alike...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized 1972 Education Elementary School Leonard McCombe LIFE Magazine photography Source Type: news