Survey of Changes since the Sixties I designed a questionnaire which I used to help me find out information about continuity and change since the 1960s. My questionnaire includes: Education, Leisure time, Entertainment, Travel and Transport, Shopping habits, Communications and Holidays. I asked six people, who were at school in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties to complete my questionnaire. Here are some of the things I found out: Equipment in schools has greatly improved since the 1960s. In those days classes would be lucky to have a radio, TV or a tape recorder. One person I interviewed can remember when the school had one television and all the classes would go to the assembly hall to watch the programme that was suitable for their age group. Now we have calculators, computers, TVs, video recorders, tape recorders and even CD players in every classroom in our school. Even subjects have changed over the years. In the 1960s they did English, maths, reading, spellings, tables, art and P.E. as we do. Instead of science, history and geography these subjects were bundled together under the umbrella of nature study in some schools. Craft work was an afternoon subject where the boys went to one teacher and did handiwork while the girls went to another teacher to do needlework and knitting. Now more subjects have been added to our curriculum such as Technology, ICT, Science, History and Geography. We have so much more to cram into each day. From the 1990s we have also had to do Key Stage I tests and Key Stage 2 tests and Baseline tests as well as the Transfer Test which used to be the Eleven Plus. Lunch time has also changed because in the 1960s children would either go home or take school dinners. Also in the 1960s and 70s free milk was given to children at break time. Packed lunches became more popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Then in the 1990s came the introduction of the cafeteria system offering a greater choice of meals although having said this, I don't think it is a good idea because you could have chips every day if you wanted to! Playgrounds have also changed. Safety being the main reason why the old metal climbing frames were taken away and fewer girls play skipping and elastics, but games like football and chasing still happen today. We have a greater variety of sports today, both in P.E. and in after school activities. In the 1960s and 70s after school activities were unheard of compared to now when we have something on every day of the week. In the 1960s free time was spent mainly playing outside and when inside board games were popular. In those days children were expected to help a lot more around the home than children are today. Television started to become popular in the 60s but not everyone could afford a set. Today lots of children even have colour TV in their bedrooms. It is common now for houses to have three or four colour sets. Today we have more gadgets like computers, playstations and quads. This has not been a good change because children do not go outside to play as they used to. Now they play computer games, watch TV and 'surf the net.' The only advantage we have is that there are leisure centres dotted around the country offering loads of activities such as swimming, keep fit, 5-a-side football and gymnastics. In the 60s the cinema and theatre would have been the main source of entertainment besides the TV. In the 70s roller skating became an additional option with indoor rinks being set up in various towns. This was then taken over in the 90s by ice-skating rinks and ten-pin bowling alleys dotted throughout the country. Some cinemas had to close down in the 1980s due to the popularity of home videos.The old betamax video was soon replaced by the VCR which is presently being replaced by DVD players as technology continues to progress. In recent times cinema going has become very popular again and new multi-screen cinemas have opened up. It is interesting to notice the change in travel over the years. Forty years ago more people had to walk but the amount of walking has slowly decreased until today when some people would hardly walk the length of themselves! Years back more people used the bus service and the train service became more popular but unfortunately people now prefer the luxury of using the car, hence the decline in bus services and the closure of lots of train stations. In the sixties there were a lot of locally owned shops like the butcher, grocer and greengrocer and people shopped three or four times a week. In the eighties small corner shops were swallowed up by Spar and Mace. Today there are large supermarkets such as Tesco and Safeway as well as out of town shopping centres like Abbeycentre or Sprucefield that people can drive to and buy almost anything at the one spot. The latest way of shopping is of course by computer using the internet and having your purchases delivered, so you don't even have to leave home. In the 1960s letter writing was the main form of communication although some people had a telephone. Now every home has a phone. Some even have two or three and more than one outside line going in. It is possible and as easy to ring Australia as it is to call your next door neighbour. Since 2000 mobile phones have really taken off and today most people carry one.Not only are they used to telephone but text messages can be sent at the touch of a button. This craze even has its own shorthand language to increase the speed of communication and reduce the cost. With the increase in home computers many people now communicate by e-mail.With all the changes in technology we probably write fewer letters than our parents did. In fact I would say that many young people today would find it very hard to write a letter. In the 1960s people went for one week to the local seaside. They may have stayed in a guest house if they were lucky otherwise it was a tent or a rented caravan. In the 1970s they started to go to England and Scotland. Some may have gone abroad to France or Spain but that meant saving hard all year to afford such a luxury. In the 1980s people wanted to go further still as the weather in our country was unreliable and people were really fed up with rain, rain and more rain! Air travel became cheaper and more people could afford foreign holidays. America became a popular choice when Disneyland packages were offered at more affordable prices. Now people think nothing of jumping onto a plane or boat for a day trip or a weekend break. Some of the changes from the 1960s have been for the good, especially advances in technology but we must beware that they do not make us lazy or forget some of the important skills, especially in communication, that we have learnt in the past. Simon Shannon - P7 - Ballyclare Primary School   Another Story Competition Index Return to Main Page