As a kid from Indiana I thought for sure outdoor schools were fake for tv. I knew it didn’t snow in California, but come on it had to rain! Even as an adult the concept is wild to me. For a cold weather Hoosier boy , it had to be fake for tv like people saying soda, right?
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I went to a small town school, anything that was different, I could easily shrug off as ‘City folk are weird.’
There are outdoor schools?
Outdoor school?
I just shrugged it off as something that happened somewhere else, like Dalmatians at fire stations and cheerleaders wearing their uniform to school.
I’ve never heard of this. What is an outdoor school?
i grew up in south dakota, and outdoor schools were unheard of because of the snow. then i moved to AZ, and i literally have not been to a single indoor school since, and that spans over 7 schools, elementary-highschool.
This is funny. I grew up in California going to outdoor schools and always thought indoor schools were TV creations until I went to Colorado to visit my cousin.
I never thought they were fake, I just chalked it up to climate differences and thought it looked cool.
I def thought they were fake until middle school. Spent my entire 7th grade year in those trailers
I didn’t think they were fake but I did think they were ridiculous. I had no understanding as a child how little it rains in some places.
What’s an outdoor school?
I grew up with both “indoor” and “outdoor” schools.
What is an outdoor school?
The Donner Party would like to remind you that it does indeed snow in California.
Are you talking about schools without interior hallways? Where all of the classroom doors opened to the outside?
They do exist in California.
No, I just thought that they existed in places where the weather was different than where I lived.
I am not the OP, but i would take “indoor school” to mean one where the classrooms open to an interior hallway. An “outdoor” school would be where the classrooms open to a breezeway.
I didn’t think they were fake but I didn’t even know they existed until Malcolm in the Middle debuted.
Wait like you are outside the entire day?
We had recess and would have picnics outside but the whole day seems a little crazy for me. I am from an area where it rains and snows and can be really freaking cold so an outdoor school for the whole day seems crazy to me.
Not going to lie, my wife would prob love that. (I think she is crazy lol)
No because I grew up in California. My schools were built with doors opening to outside.
I went to an indoor school and I don’t recall seeing outdoor schools on tv. All the Disney shows I watched as a kid showed big hallways with lockers, which were also nothing like the schools I went to, but it never occurred to me to think they were fake. I just it was a suburban thing.
So I grew up in Houston, Texas and all the schools I went to were indoor. It wasn’t until high school where I did speech and debate and going to other high schools where I did see SOME outdoor schools. I thought it was insane because Houston DOES have rain and cold weather (although no snow).
As for California and having friends who did go to outdoor schools, it actually doesn’t rain that much in Southern California to be an issue.
Yes I was convinced Buffy and 90210 were just tv sets and no one actually went to a school like that
I grew up going to the most outdoor, outdoorsy SoCal schools you could imagine (individual classrooms… no lockers, no awnings, just simple sidewalks connecting the classrooms)
I always thought the indoor schools with closed hallways looked fake, especially when they had lockers.
Also I had no idea what hall monitors were because we didn’t have hallways?
I went to an outdoor school … in Massachusetts. It was so cold.
I totally know what you mean! I grew up in Wisconsin in the 90s. It stood out as weird when kids were shown in schools where the lockers were outside under an eave and classrooms opened to the outdoors.
When I saw TV shows like that I was just like “oh, it’s rich people LA school”. Same thing as when the characters go to summer camp where they’re there for weeks at a time “it’s rich NY/CA kid camp”.
It was also funny when a show was set somewhere with winter but the buildings or windows were obviously not for a winter climate.
I always watched for this or it stood out to me because of how few shows were ever filmed outside of LA or NYC. Seinfeld was set in NYC and filmed in LA! All of these were like that!
There were only a few TV shows or movies filmed where I was, the Chicago area, like Home Alone and Breakfast Club and the Blues Brothers.
I grew up in Southern California. Outdoor school. When it rained we had snack/recess and lunch in the gym. We had some classes were in what we called the corridors. A big building with classroom doors on the inside. That same building had the library in it also. Most of the classrooms were in big buildings with the doors along the outside. We ate lunch outside all year unless it was pouring, so rarely indoors.
Living in Indiana, I’ve only seen ever outdoor schools on tv, like Malcolm in the Middle. I always assumed it was strictly a out west like in California or Texas.
I went to outdoor schools in Guam and Florida then indoor schools for highschool when we moved. The walkways were usually covered so you didnt really have to worry about rain. But if you got some of those portable classrooms… you better run!
wtf is an outdoor school
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. I knew that such buildings weren’t fake. We visited my cousins out in Los Angeles for Christmas when I was about 12, and one afternoon we went to the school playground one afternoon. The common areas at my school back home that would have been enclosed with acoustical tile ceilings were under a cover of pine trees and in open air.
Like Palm trees, mountains, the ocean, and 70 degrees and sunny in December, schools with outdoor common areas were exotic and that Los Angeles was the place for me.
That trip made such an impression on me that I ended up moving here and have lived here 20 years this spring.
i grew up in california and i always thought it was fascinating when they showed schools that were entirely indoors on tv.
My HS in NE OHIO was built as an “outdoor” campus. My mom was the second class to graduate from it. They had to put coats and boots on in between buildings. They gave the girls permission to wear pants in the winter as it was 1960! By the time I went there, the individual buildings were connected by glass enclosures, which leaked terribly. It was cold as hell in between classes. Yeah, they built a Florida school in the snow belt. So, we all knew exactly what an outdoor school was. They finally tore it down and built an entirely new school. What a waste of money. It was a complete hodge podge.
>knew it didn’t snow in California, but come on it had to rain
In southern california: not really. There’s basically no such thing as weather.
No, I grew up with all indoors schools, except for the mobile classroom trailers, but my mom went to a school that was a campus style school so I knew about that from a young age.
To be honest I’m not sure which outdoor schools you are talking about. And of course it’s soda.
I grew up in Florida and every single school I went to was an outdoor school.
i grew up going to an indoor school. i thought outdoor schools were private schools for rich kids.
My kid goes to an outdoor preschool. The only time they come inside is if the weather is actively hazardous (high wind, hail, tornado warning, etc). Their motto is “there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing”. It’s awesome, my kiddo is happy camping, hiking, and generally exploring, all while learning about nature and still learning letters and basic math. Plus great social skills
Every school I went to in Florida was “outdoors”, as you describe. There’s almost always a roof over the walkways to stay dry in the rain but also half the schools I went to flooded regularly and you’d have to wade with your shoes off to classes.
Floridian here. My elementary school was unusual for my area in that it was one single big building, but my middle and high school were several smaller buildings that you had to walk between (some of the oldest elementary and middle schools in my area are gradually being replaced with the newer single-building model). I mainly associate the huge single-building high schools with Disney channel TV shows even though I’m aware it’s more of a standard in some other states.
But yeah, I remember at least one day in high school where it was pouring rain and I had a class on the far outskirts of the campus and not connected to any covered walkways. The ground around the portable classroom was completely flooded, and even though I had an umbrella it was not enough to prevent my legs, shoes, and socks from becoming soaked in the floodwaters when we had to switch classes. Several people didn’t carry umbrellas with them for some reason, and would just let themselves get soaked from head to toe. I kept an umbrella in my backpack daily, as did many classmates. Good times…
California resident here, only attended outdoor schools. The elementary school I attended in SoCal even had an outdoor cafeteria.
I’m so far on the pendulum that the large university I attended you could walk to almost every building inside from a series of tunnels- guess what state did that… there are multiple days a year that walking out side for even a few minutes is dangerous and you could get frostbite.
I went to only outdoor schools.
Grew up in Florida and only went to outdoor schools!
I’ve never heard of an outdoor school before
I never saw outdoor school on TV growing up but I have a coworker now who sends her kids to outdoor preschool.
California rarely gets rain. Out of 365 days in a year, we get rain in about 34 of them here in Los Angeles.
I always thought completely-indoor schools were made up for the movies only. They didn’t make any sense to me.
Never seen such a thing.
Wait. People go to school outside in the US? What?!
I grew up in WA and my school was “California style” and was a bunch of buildings with outdoor (but mostly covered) walkways. I wanted to go to an indoor school so badly lol.
I grew up in california, and I never saw a school with inside hallways until I was an adult and moved out of state. To me it’s totally normal for all classrooms to open to the outside.
On the east coast I went to indoor schools. On the west coast I went to outdoor schools. I knew kids that thought both were fake depending on what type of school I was currently at. It was interesting.
I grew up in Florida and ours were a combination of both. Some classrooms had outside entrances, some inside. And of course, the portables lol
Bro, it snows is California.
Outdoor schools are very real in places that don’t have winter.
So parts of like Florida or California or Arizona 100% have outdoor schools. It’s just another method of construction.
I’m a Missourian who now lives in S Indiana. Soda is the right word.
Outdoor high school in Colorado. We froze our butts off between classes. It was a California design and did not translate well to 6500 feet of elevation in the Rockies.
What do you mean fake for TV people like saying “soda”? I live in the south and everyone under 60 pretty much says soda instead of pop or cola or coke.
Went to a campus middle. All classrooms opened to the outside. High school was campus style too until it was rebuilt 5 years ago.
The schools that many of the shows are depicted at are real schools in Southern California. A bunch of them use the same school as their set Torrance High school is probably the most recognizable
I have never heard of an outdoor school
Mine was always a mix. We had Bungalows that were outdoor buildings that were whole classes. And then main School building that had more classes and main office.
It was like that for Elementary to Middle School and college. My highschool was one building with 5 floors and the basement was the cafeteria.
There are indoor schools?
I’m seeing some people say an outdoor school is one where all your classrooms have a door that leads outside and sometimes does class outside, and others saying an outdoor school is just a school with a lot of buildings.
If you use the second definition for your question, I went to one. One main building that was the original school, around 30 mobile units, and then one big mobile unit that made a separate building with like 10 classrooms in it. A lot of the small mobile units leaked when it rained.
I grew up in the South, so no snow (or no school if there was snow), but it rained a lot. You just dealt with it. It was especially fun around hurricane season because my town was far enough inland to avoid schools canceling class for hurricanes, but still got colossal downpours and storms for several days. Umbrellas did not help.
A lot of California schools are “outdoor” but the space between classes and the areas you walk are covered.
California native, I’ve never considered that some schools don’t have quads
Seeing indoor schools on TV always looked so weird to me
Especially when they go to lunch and it’s like a food court style food meanwhile I got like chocolate milk bag, tiny bag of chips, and a spicy chicken sandwich
Extremely common school design in the 50s and 60s. We had them in southwest Virginia, and the weather is not always friendly there. Almost every Florida school was like this. Walkways are covered.
Now, thanks to school shootings and “what about the children” parents, every new school is built like a prison.
No I did not.
I attended a middle school in Virginia that had the “outdoor” configuration that you are talking about.
Wait until you learn we had an Open Campus and left school for lunch! We had upper and lower campus, literally had to cross a street and walk down the block a little to get from one to the other. And it was on a decent hill. If you had first period in the portable buildings on lower campus but had second period in the art building on upper campus, you had better hustle! Ain’t no time for socializing between classes
Northern California in a 100+ year old school