In the broke New York City of the 1970s, P.S. 41, on West 11th Street, was a lot rougher than it is today.
Parental involvement was minimal. Big yellow school buses, not nannies, ferried kids back and forth from their homes in the Village, Soho, and Lower East Side.
It wasn’t uncommon to have your brown-bagged lunch stolen and eaten by a hungry classmate before you got to it. And 30 kids to a class with one teacher? Totally normal.
One thing probably hasn’t changed though: class pictures are always pretty goofy. What became of these first graders from 1975, who are now in their early 40s?
Tags: class picture 1970s, class picture PS 41, funny class pictures, growing up West Village 1970s, New York City class photo, PS 41, public schools New York City, West Village 1970s
Ephemeral New York 
November 12, 2012 at 7:15 am |
Really? That radical a transformation in only one decade? In the early to late 1960s I lived on the Lower East Side where the schools were not very good academically and people in my area were always scheming to get our kids into P.S. 41 in the Village. That’s because it was such a good school (per test scores, reading levels, culture and reputation). The student body was a mix of middle class, upper middle class and bohemian. The demand was such that the school was vigilant about admissions and it was just about impossible to fake one’s way in. What happened? This is just a guess, but this could have happened as a result of the Board of Educatoin dropping this school out of the district that ran from the West Village up through the Upper West Side. This was often employed as a strategy for keeping a “good” district exclusive.
November 12, 2012 at 7:37 am |
Oh, I’m sure it was still considered a good public school in the 1970s. This is the West Village, after all. Yet by today’s standards, it probably would be considered iffy. Part of it was cultural; parents weren’t so involved in smoothing out every facet of their kids’ lives. You were expected to take a bus to school and deal with bullies.
But also, the city was broke, middle-class residents were moving out, and the teachers union went on strike that September. The school board had decentralized school districts in the late 1960s. I think it had to have made schools rockier, even PS 41.
November 12, 2012 at 9:39 am |
I do remember those general conditions in the 1970s. By then I’d lost touch with what was going on at P.S. 41 and anything outside of District 1. If kids were coming to P.S. 41 in school buses, I think something must have changed with the districting. I remember the 1968 teachers strike. It was an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Decentralization, however well intentioned and politically correct and so forth, was in practice a horror show–at least as I experienced it. But I experienced it in District 1 (on the LES), not in the district which at the time included P.S. 41. Interesting post, anyway. Thanks. Those children are adorable!
November 12, 2012 at 2:38 pm |
I went to PS 41 until I graduated in 1963. My brother and I walked alone to school from Bleecker and Sullivan Streets, quite a long distance for elementary school kids. I do not recall any of my classmates coming to school via school bus, but I did know three kids who lied about their addresses to come to PS 41 because it was such a good school. They took the subway long distances alone to get there.
November 15, 2012 at 2:57 am |
I went to PS 41 in the late 70’s. I will never forget Principal Tsefura(spelling?) His famous mantra in the cafeteria, “ALRIGHT, EVERYONE GIVE ME YOUR RIGHT HAND!!!” He sure whipped us into shape. I would love to grab a photo composite from back in the day. My teachers were Lacks, Mandell, Lazarus, (something that begins with H), Weinberg, and my all time favorite Mr. Smith. Hit me up if you have any leads: atlanticbounty@gmail.com
November 15, 2012 at 3:03 am |
I had Mrs. Lacks!
November 16, 2012 at 3:01 am |
So, Wildenewyork….does that mean that one of those adorable first-graders is YOU?
November 16, 2012 at 3:09 am |
Close! My sister is the fourth kid in the bottom row.
November 18, 2012 at 5:23 pm |
Love this picture
June 23, 2014 at 6:57 pm |
I was one of those kids who claimed a local address to go. 4th grade was mrs Mintz, fifth was Mr Smith. She sang opera to us and he was everybody’s favorite. Whatever happened to Mr Smith?
June 23, 2014 at 6:59 pm |
I don’t think there were school buses…mid 70s all the lower east side kids took the crosstown (city) bus.
August 12, 2014 at 10:58 pm |
creativemonster, I wonder what happened to Mr. Smith too. What a gentleman. I had him for fifth grade as well. Did he do the colored push pins with you guys to keep the noise level down. At the end of the week whichever group had the most pins he would give a “wad” of money to go buy candy(usually at the killer sweet shop btwn 9th and 10th), or we’d go blow it on video games at Maime’s on 8th street. We(sister and I) grew up on 14th street, walked to PS 41, snuck out at lunch to get a slice at Rays, and then jumped on a little bus after school to goto “Whiz Kids” until 5PM. Then we would head home and let ourselves into our apartment(with the key that was hanging around our neck) and wait for pops to come home. Oh the good old days.
February 20, 2018 at 8:21 pm |
I attended PS 41 in 68 and 69 and what brought me to this page is the latest battle over guns and school shootings. Today there is a sector of the electorate that suggests arming teachers is the only way to end the insanity. This very stupid idea caused me to look back at all of my teachers and professors whom I would actually trust with a firearm. The only one that came to mind was Mr. Smith. I find that remarkable as I haven’t considered the man since June of 69.
January 2, 2022 at 8:56 am |
I went to school at P.S. 41 in the late 70s to early 80s. I have too wondered what happened to Mr. Smith. It was the reason a google search got me to this article. Although I never had him as a teacher, instead I had Mrs. C. Edgerly in the fifth grade, one of my brothers did. Back then I made it a special point to say hello to him whenever I saw him in the halls or just outside the school while he was dismissing his students. Even as a child I perceived that he was such a great and admirable gentleman. I had hoped to get into his class for the fifth grad but I got Mrs. Edgerly. Her class turned out to fine (and very fun).
As to the article above. I think the author has an agenda or at the most a uniquely bad experience that has ‘colored’ his memories. The school the author describes does not coincide with my experience and memories. I doubt that any of the author’s classmates then (or any of the teachers) would agree – except perhaps for the large classes back then. I do have a vague memory of a teacher mentioning that the union limit was 27 students per class but that teacher’s class about 30. So there may have been a union dispute at the time.
If the author came from a family that harboured feelings then that I might surmise; in the very progressively aware 70s, and in the very progressive Greenwich Village no less I remind you, it’s not a wonder they had a ‘bad’ experience. It just wasn’t the school for them. Particularly, if they came with any baked in preconceptions that came out from the author sideways that could cause outage or conflict.
As for what happened to the kids from the class, those that I am aware of spread the gamut. Normal people, from housewives, to a limousine driver, small online entrepreneur, doctor, pharmacist, a biological scientific researcher, an international journalist, working actor, yoga instructor, and a bunch of lawyers. I even believe, according to rumor at the time, one was temporarily caught up in the central park ‘wildings’ or one of those episodes. It turned out later that person was completely falsely accused.
Last thing: the principal’s name was Mr. Tadashi Tsufura. I had always wanted to talk to him further once i hit high school. He was quite a character (and a presence). In the 1990s, I was told by a teacher that he was believed to have died. That was wrong. I learned in 2020 that he and his wife died during the coronavirus pandemic. You can google search his story. I am really upset I never got a chance to speak to him as an adult. I am sure that he would have remembered me 🙂