Photo of the Raddest High School Math Teacher Explaining the Physics of Surfing in 1970s SoCal

What a dude backbone boards 1+1= Tube

A math teacher at Dana Hills High School in Southern California, circa late 1970s. The photo was posted by the engaged educator’s son on r/OldSchoolCool 4 years ago and making the rounds again.

“My dad teaching math in Southern California (late 70s/early 80s)”

He’s finally retiring after teaching for 40 years at the same school, so the yearbook had him recreate the picture.

November 14, 1960: Ruby Bridges' First Day of School

Surrounded by U.S. Marshals, six-year-old Ruby Bridges makes her way down the steps of the William Frantz Elementary building, finishing her first day of classes and becoming the first African-American to attend a white elementary school in the South. The moment is immortalized in this black and white photo taken by a Department of Justice employee. From fierce determination to tender approval, the iconic image simultaneously captures the vivid range of emotions spanning subjects of different age, gender and race.

Ruby Bridges escorted by three U.S. Marshals from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, 1960.

After her parents volunteered to have her participate in the integration of the New Orleans School system, Bridges was one of six black children selected for enrollment in an all-white school. Of the six, she was the only student assigned to Frantz Elementary, and the historic day arrived amidst a whirlwind of sentiments and controversy, best described in Bridges' own words:

“The morning of November 14 federal marshals drove my mother and me the five blocks to William Frantz. In the car one of the men explained that when we arrived at the school two marshals would walk in front of us an two behind, so we'd be protected on both sides. Sure enough, people shouted and shook their fist when we got out of the car, but to me it wasn't any noisier than Mardi Gras, I held my mother's hand and followed the marshals through the crowd, up the steps into the school.

We spent that whole day sitting in the principal's office. Through the window, I saw white parents pointing at us and yelling, then rushing their children out of the school. In the uproar I never got to my classroom. The marshals drove my mother and me to school again the next day. I tried not to pay attention to the mob. Someone had a black doll in a coffin, and that scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us.

A young white woman met us inside the building. She smiled at me. “Good morning, Ruby Nell,” she said, just like Mama except with what I later learned was a Boston accent. “Welcome, I'm your new teacher, Mrs. Henry.” She seemed nice, but I wasn't sure how to feel about her. I'd never been taught by a white teacher before. Mrs. Henry took my mother and me to her second-floor classroom. All the desk were empty and she asked me to choose a seat. I picked one up front, and Mrs. Henry started teaching me the letters of the alphabet.

I remember her explaining integration to me and why some people were against it. “It's not easy for people to change once they have gotten used to living a certain way,” Mrs. Henry said. “Some of them don't know any better and they're afraid. But not everyone is like that.”

Even though I was only six, I knew what she meant. The people I passed every morning as I walked up the schools steps were full of hate. They were white, but so was my teacher, who couldn't have been more different from them. She was one of the most loving people I had ever known. The greatest lesson I learned that year in Mrs. Henry's class was the lesson Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tried to teach us all. Never judge people by the color of their skin. God makes each of us unique in ways that go much deeper.

From her window, Mrs. Henry always watched me walk into school. One morning when I got to our classroom, she said she'd been surprised to see me talk to the mob. “I saw your lips moving,” she said, “but I couldn't make out what you were saying to those people.” “I wasn't talking to them,” I told her. “I was praying for them.” Usually I prayed in the car on the way to school, but that day I'd forgotten until I was in the crowd. Please be with me, I'd asked God, and be with those people too. Forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.

That was how I started praying on the way to school. The things people yelled at me didn't seem to touch me. Prayer was my protection. After walking up the steps past the angry crowd, though, I was glad to see Mrs. Henry. She gave me a hug, and she sat right by my side instead of at the big teacher's desk in the front of the room. Day after day, it was just Mrs. Henry and me, working on my lessons.”

Several years later, federal marshal Charles Burks, one of her escorts, commented with some pride that Ruby showed a lot of courage. She never cried or whimpered, Burks said, “She just marched along like a little soldier.”

Effect on the Bridges Family

The abuse wasn't limited to only Ruby Bridges; her family suffered as well. Her father lost his job at the filling station, and her grandparents were sent off the land they had sharecropped for over 25 years. The grocery store where the family shopped banned them from entering.

However many others in the community, both black and white, began to show support in a variety of ways. Gradually, many families began to send their children back to the school and the protests and civil disturbances seemed to subside as the year went on. A neighbor provided Ruby's father with a job, while others volunteered to babysit the four children, watch the house as protectors, and walk behind the federal marshals on the trips to school.

(via Piqueshow)

38 CDV Photos of Cambridge University Men in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by King Henry III in 1231, the University of Cambridge (informally Cambridge University) is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England and the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university.

The history and influence of the University of Cambridge has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

These CDV photos from gt_hawk63 that show portraits of gentlement who had some association with Cambridge University from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

D. Todd, 1897

 J.E. Cheese, 1897

 J.H.A. Hart, 1897

T.A. Moxon, Nov. 1897

 A.M. Cook, 1898

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Amazing Candid Photographs Capture Teenagers Dancing at the High School Dance From the 1960s and '70s

The school dance is looming and you have no idea what moves you will shake, much less how to do those moves. Dancing in front of other people can be intimidating, especially if you're already feeling self-conscious. These candid photographs primarily taken in the early 1970s, they give us a look at the high school dance when it was a time before disco, but after Woodstock. It had a little bit of the flavor of both the 60s and 70s, but plenty of teen awkwardness to go around.

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Rare Vintage Photos Capture Student Life at the World's First Medical College for Women From the Late 19th Century

The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, founded in 1850 as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the first medical school in the world for women authorized to award them the M.D. It was established in Philadelphia by a group of progressive Quakers and a businessman who believed that women had a right to education and would make excellent physicians. Renamed the Woman’s Medical College in 1867, the school trained thousands of women physicians from all over the world, many of whom went on to practice medicine internationally.

The college provided rare opportunities for women to teach, perform research, manage a medical school, and, with the establishment of Woman’s Hospital in 1861, learn and practice in a hospital setting. It was the longest-lasting all-women medical school in the nation, until it became coeducational in 1970, admitting four men into what became the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded during an era of reform, just two years after the first woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, asserted women’s rights to an education and a profession, among other rights. The college’s founders, early supporters, faculty, and earliest students reflected this reform mindset. The founders and early faculty included Quaker and non-Quaker activists for prison reform, abolition, and temperance.

Here, below is a collection of rare and amazing vintage photographs that capture student life at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania from between the 19th and early 20th centuries:

Three students in a boarding house room, from the book Daughters of Aesculapians, c.1890.

International students Anandabai Joshee, Kei Okami, and Tabat Islambooly, photographed at the Dean’s Reception on October 10, 1885.

Operating room, North College Avenue, early 1890s.

The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania class of 1891.

Medical students training in 1892.

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52 Pictures Show How North Carolina's Cheerleaders Have Changed For Nearly 100 Years

These pictures from North Carolina Digital Heritage Center that show how North Carolina cheerleaders have changed throughout the 20th century.

Wake Forest College, 1922

Davidson College, 1925

Wake Forest College, 1926

Guilford College, 1927

East Carolina Teachers College, 1930

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27 Black and White Photos That Document the Annual Christmas Dance of Lynchburg College, Virginia in the Late 1950s

An amazing photo collection from Lynchburg College Archives that show Annual Christmas Dance of students in Lynchburg College, Virginia from the late 1950s. Few from 1960.

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45 Color Class Photos That Capture Children of Primary Schools From Between the 1960s and 1970s

In the pre-1970s, most children attending Council Schools came in what was deemed "School Clothes", this could vary from school to school.

Some schools did have a uniform, which in some cases did include a blazer, however most schools settled for a blue or grey jumper, grey or white shirt or similar requests. Many council schools accepted that their children wore clothes that would stand up to the general day to day school life and might last out a term or two without looking too scruffy.

When it came to the class photo the teachers could arrange their children by their choice, often a row of boys in the front for modesty, then a couple of rows of girls and at top row of boys. Arranging by size to neaten up the group was often one task, those in rather worn clothes could be put at the back.

Some of the teachers in some schools seemed to have a competition between themselves as to how may of their children that decided to wear wellingtons during the school day, they could get on the front row. Or if there was a single child in wellingtons if the could get them in the centre of the picture. In later yeas all would become embarrassed over their school photos.

From the 1970s onwards more schools set a single uniform design for that school, and what their children were to wear indoors. The need for the teacher to arrange their group now became much less.

These class photos from Philip Howard that show how children of primary schools looked like from between the 1960s and 1970s.

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Vintage Photographs Capture the Life at an Outdoor "Bench School" in 1939

During the end of the Great Depression in 1939, many rural schools held classes outside due to the oppressive heat. Here is a day in the life of the enrollment of the Lincoln "Bench School" outside of Ontario, Oregon. They were more fortunate than most: the county had a bus that went to pick up most of the kids from the surrounding farms.

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Amazing Photos That Capture Teenage Girls of Fresno State College in the 1960s

Founded as the Fresno State Normal School in 1911, became Fresno State College in 1949, and in 1972 the name was officially changed to California State University, Fresno. It is a public research university and one of 23 campuses within the California State University system. The university is located at the northeast edge of Fresno, the fifth largest city in California.

Lance Nix, a former student of this university, took these amazing photos during his college years. They show portraits of students of the Fresno State College in the 1960s. Of course, most of them were his friends.

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45 Fascinating Photos That Show Students of the George Washington University in the Late 1950s

The George Washington University is a private research university in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1821 as Columbian College, and has since grown to comprise fourteen undergraduate and graduate colleges and schools, including the School of Media and Public Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, Law School, and School of Public Health.

George Washington's main campus is located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood with two satellite campuses located in the Foxhall neighborhood of Washington, D.C. and in Ashburn, Virginia. It is the second oldest and the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia.

The following photographs are from the University Archives, and were taken from the late 1950s when the GW football team were Sun Bowl champions and the price of a cup of coffee in Cleaves cafeteria was a mere eight cents.

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With Wielding Cardboard Boxes and Knives, See How 1960s Kids Made Box Pinhole Projectors to Safely Watch a Solar Eclipse

During the solar eclipse of 1960, hundreds of people had suffered permanent eye damage from looking directly at the sun. With help from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Emerson students avoided the same fate by building Sunscopes, pinhole camera-like contraptions that indirectly project an image of the sun. LIFE magazine offered instructions for those desiring to replicate the project at home:

To build your own, get a carton and cut a hole in one side, big enough to poke your head through. Paste white paper on the inside surface that you will be facing. Then punch a pinhole into the opposite side, high enough so that the little shaft of light will miss your head. For a sharper image you can make a better pinhole by cutting a one inch square hole in the carton, taping a piece of aluminum foil over this hole and then making the pinhole in the foil. Finally, tape the box shut and cover all light leaks with black tape.

Here, these photographs below were taken by LIFE photographer Francis Miller from 1963’s fifth grade class of the Emerson School in Maywood, Illinois. The photos show how kids made their own Sunscopes at school to safely look at an eclipse.

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