That Was The Yearbook That Was

BITS OF HISTORY Notes on Two High School Yearbooks: 1982 and 1898 (not a typo) from one of the oldest high schools in the US West.

Two yearbooks from the same school, 84 years apart. I'm starting to think about them as primary sources, how they cast some light into changes in one public (UK state) school, and the city, state, and nation in which it was embedded. Images: Annette Laing, 2024

Reading Length: About 30 minutes (audio is much longer because I digress)

Dear Nonnie Friend,

There’s a huge list of American things I didn't understand before I came to his country. Like, much more time in high school was spent on stuff like yearbooks and football, than on learning genuinely interesting things and reading books, which was (I thought) the main point of education.

These particular yearbooks (above) are from 1982 and (get this) 1898, and both from Sacramento High School in Sacramento, California. There’s nothing much exceptional about the 1982 yearbook, but it makes a good point of comparison for the 1898 version, which is very different from what we think of as a high school yearbook. And that’s only a hint about what makes it so interesting. Turns out, putting these two together returns me to a question I've had for years: How did American education get this way? And I don't think it is just because of money woes, or party politics.