Back to School,old school

As the kids get ready to head back to school, it’s striking how the “back to school” rituals and classroom experience has changed over the decades. Blackboards and huge flip charts have been replaced with hi-def TV screens projecting information off the teacher’s laptop. Remember the smell of chalk as one lucky student got to clap the erasers? Typewriters and spiral notebooks have been replaced with iPads.

The trappings of yesterday’s classrooms are now collector’s items. Vintage globes come in many colors and sizes and are frequently not dated. So how do can you tell the approximate age of a globe? Was Russia the USSR? Are there two Koreas, or just one? How many Germanys?

Remember spinning the globe, stopping it with your finger, then looking up the place your finger landed in an encyclopedia? Encyclopedias have existed for thousands of years but in the years following World War II, they became somewhat of a status symbol. They were almost always sold door to door, on a payment plan. Encyclopedias fell out of popularity because of the size, expense and inherent lag in information. The 1997 version of the World Book Encyclopedia did not include Google, which started in 1998. Yes, it’s already been almost a quarter of a century since the world met Google!

While encyclopedias have mostly disappeared, books in general have remained ubiquitous. Digital alternatives exist for virtually everything ever written, but people still love their books. New books, vintage books from childhood, antique volumes that have survived for a century or more — there’s something about the feel and smell of a book.

The Fargo Antiques & Repurposed Market always has a large selection of education related collectables, including The Library, dedicated to books of all kinds. Our dozens of small business vendors search musty basements and dusty attics for unique treasures. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for our upcoming 7th anniversary celebration. There’s always something fresh at the FARM. [ aw ]