Socrates is one of the world’s most iconic teachers; unfortunately he had to make do without one of today’s standard teaching tools, the blackboard. No telling what might’ve been accomplished had Socrates had access to a blackboard alongside his olive groves for use with his famous “method,” or whether his teaching career might’ve ended on more satisfying note than with a cup of hemlock in hand.
Recent ancestors were no strangers to teaching; schoolhouses across America have long relied upon blackboards–an effective and cost-efficient tool invented over 200 years ago according to some accounts.
Still today, even as blackboards (commonly referred to in America as “chalkboards”) have given way to dry-erase marker boards and computerized whiteboards, most people still associate learning with the sound and dust of chalk. Who hasn’t stayed after school to clean their blackboard and erasers at least once? Who wouldn’t wince at the thought of their fingernails scraping along one? TV series The Simpsons still opens each episode with Bart doing penance by repeatedly writing on one blackboard (his writings vary between “I will not waste chalk” to “High explosives don’t mix”).
Technology may have advanced since 1809 (or 1801 or 1823 depending on which account one uses), yet we take for granted a teacher’s ability to convey information directly to all their students simultaneously. Without access to blackboards they had no way of doing this and each pupil needed their own individual way to read their material at different times during class sessions.
Olive M. Isbell was at the epicenter of this dilemma when she opened California’s inaugural school in 1846 despite lacking neither blackboard, slates, or paper – therefore writing out alphabetic letters on pupils’ hands as a means of teaching students about writing the alphabet.
“Hornbook” and the “Reading Board” Colonial American students carried “hornbooks”, similar to what was used in England, which consisted of paddle-shaped pieces of wood with various learning aids attached (such as alphabet charts or Lord’s Prayer pages) attached. Their name comes from being covered with translucent sheets made of animal horn. As time went on, larger wooden strips known as “reading boards” became part of classroom decor.
These teaching tools were rigid and inflexible; teachers couldn’t adapt them easily to each day’s lesson. Over time, students would eventually receive individual writing slates on which they scratched using small pieces of slate; still teachers needed to instruct each pupil individually.
James Pillans is widely recognized for combining the “reading board” and slate into what would later become the blackboard. According to one story, Pillans initially arranged students’ slates on a wall–an early form of museum display using TV monitors–to create this breakthrough teaching technology. Pillans is also widely credited with inventing colored chalk as part of this breakthrough teaching technology breakthrough. Known for his support of compulsory education reform at his alma mater University of Edinburgh.
George Baron of West Point military academy in America is widely acknowledged as being the first teacher to use a blackboard. According to legend, Baron first implemented this innovation around 1801 – eight years before some historians attribute its creation to Thomas Pillans; another account says 1809 (Philadelphia); or Samuel Read Hall who began teaching in Rumford Maine: An 1890 history of that town claimed Hall invented the blackboard; it may instead have been that Hall patented one himself during 1823 (when opening Concord Vermont’s first normal school)!
At first, blackboards were crude devices made of materials like pine coated with an egg white and carbon mixture obtained by burning potatoes, or simply spread across classroom walls as paste containing lime, plaster of Paris and lampblack.
As blackboards became standard fixtures in American classrooms by the mid-1800s, their production became more sophisticated. Slate from New England and later newly settled Western states became the standard writing surface.
Chalkboard
By the 1960s, a six-step process had evolved, using porcelain enamel and steel as bases: Once cut and prepped for plating, silica “slip” (usually) would be applied, similar to how porcelain is formed. Fusing slip with steel at high temperatures required using a furnace chamber, before the resultant porcelain-ed surface was given a smooth, colorful coating, heated up to 1,200 degrees and further fused together by heating again. This enabled writers to write directly onto it while leaving their writing surfaces protected from damage from pen nibs or sharp objects. Once complete, the sheet was laminated onto fiberboard with trim and accessories such as chalk trays attached. As these classroom boards could now be tinted any color they became commonly referred to as “chalkboards”, although their black lines no longer appeared prominently; green became an especially popular choice.
As early as the mid-1980s, business offices that had relied heavily on chalkboards for meetings and brainstorming began switching over to more modern alternatives called whiteboards crafted of plastic material with dry-erase markers. Schools soon followed suit; by late 1995 more than 20% of American schools had adopted these board versions over traditional chalkboards.
Electronics had already begun to remove chalk-and-ink blackboards with the advent of overhead projectors in the mid 1960s and LCD projectors in 1984, followed by interactive digital whiteboards introduced in 1991 that use electrons instead.
One can only imagine what Bart Simpson will do once he gets hold of one of these gadgets.
