Tuesday, June 26, 2012

VHS Tapes in Elementary and High School



The 1980s were an interesting time for watching movies at elementary school.  While the large movie projectors had been around for a while, now schools could show movies and shows on VHS a lot more readily. In English class in particular it was pretty common to read something and then see a show/movie version of it. A common practice was for teachers at Roy Wilcox Elementary School and Mt. Elizabeth Secondary School in Kitimat to tape shows off TV and then play them in school (and it’s an easy bet this was common throughout the so-called western world).  As a student this was great fun.  Alas eventually copyright laws became crystallized and numerous tapes at the high school has to be erased because they were illegal copies.  There was still the occasional movie played, but they were less frequent.  As an adult I understand the legal reasons, but I do have to say that it was a lot more fun during that golden time when teachers showed whatever they had handy that was relevant to the course somehow.

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