What is the slate that students need to bring to school
The following paragraph is excerpted from The Eclectic Readers by William H. McGuffey.
If the bird and the bee, little boy, were too late,
Remember, as you play along
On your way to school, with pencil and slate,
Never stay a moment too long.
I know that a slate is a piece of rock that a mason can engrave on. But did students really need to bring heavy slates with them in the past? Did this happen before the paper was invented? I also wonder what kind of pencil it is that can write on a slate.
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 5
2
Yes, a slate is just a small, portable, individual-sized blackboard/chalkboard (with chalk to write with) that students used a long time ago when paper was expensive and/or not widely available. It is referenced in many older English-language books or modern books and films set 100-200 years ago.
For example, I remember Anne Shirley of the Anne of Green Gables books had to take a slate to school.
1
Our public schools in Virginia take children to see colonial era schools and have them experience writing on a slate. We use an equivalent whiteboard slate with erasable markers for arithmetic practice. I use one frequently to practice writing Arabic.
1
yes, these were actual stones and were common during the times of one room schoolhouses. As far the pencil, I don't think (could be wrong) that it was an actual pencil. From what I understand it was also called a balckboard, which is like a whiteboard except that isntead of black on white, your words and letters were in white, so I think it was chalk of some sort
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