Talk:Chalkboard

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I venture to offer an early reference to a 'new invention' in respect of the blackboard: In a prospectus for an undated: MATHEMATICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES, ... Mathematical and philosophical lectures, by Mr.$Dowling, at his establishment, No. 23, Devonshire Street, Queen Square. ... The lectures commence on the 10th of September, and they will be continued on Tuesday and Friday evenings, during the winter season. ... - London: E.$Blackader, printer, [1813?] [4] p. (three blank)

This carries the statement: 'Mr. Dowling performs all the problems, and demonstrates them with a piece of chalk on a board painted black, and made for that purpose; and the rapid improvement that his pupils have made since he has adopted this mode of instruction, is the strongest proof he can offer in favor of it'.

Stephen Massil (Library, Sir John Soane's Museum)

Contents 1 Chalkboard scratching 2 Blackboard and AI 3 Chalkboards in science & math disciplines 4 Please Add 5 Blackboard 6 Political Correctness 7 Blackboard / chalkboard 8 Using wet cloths 9 Political correctness

[edit] Chalkboard scratching

The scratching of fingernails on a blackboard is a sound that is well-known for being extremely irritating.

It would be nice to add some psychological/physical information explaining what in the nature of this sound make it so irritating. SaintCahier 01:31, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blackboard and AI

Reference added to BBTech as reminder of the history of and future use of this type of system. My thought is that Blackboard ought to be a disambiguation page. (jmswtlk)

I'd be against that, IMAO chalkboard is still the most common usage of the word. --H2g2bob 20:01, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I thought chalkboard was a PC term for blackboard (despite the fact that whiteboard is considered acceptable). It's certainly taught as such in UK teacher training.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Jameskeates (talk • contribs)

[edit] Chalkboards in science & math disciplines

Maybe someone knows why chalkboards are especially being used in science&math disciplines (over whiteboards or whatever)? 85.65.54.142 12:22, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Lack of funding ;-) Actually, I've not noticed this (I'm at Exeter University, where whiteboards are more common than blackboards), and most of the time PowerPoint (or OOo Impress) is used. I think the most likely reason for that to happen is if the lecturers prefer chalkboards - after all the whiteboard pens run out really easily, which is bad because science people tend to write quite a lot on the boards. --H2g2bob 20:10, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

No, it is not lack of founding. Most lectures I know from math and physics absolutely hate to work an whiteboards. To my personal experience it is more difficult to write clearly enough on a whiteboard and still be readable from the last row of a large lecture hall. I do not why, maybe the pens float to easily on the whiteboard surface. Also all the whiteboards I have seen so far for university teaching featured a much smaller space than the blackboards. When you present lengthy proofs you often lack the space to keep definitions and lemmas needed for the proof. (This is even worse if you use PowerPoint for presenting a proof.) In addition, it is hard to guess if those whiteboard pens will keep working until the end of the lecture. With chalk sticks it is comparably easy. I think whiteboards are OK when you just draw an occasional quick diagram for illustration. For writing a serious amount of content give me a backboard ... --Lars 17:46, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Please Add

I'm no expert, so I ask others to contribute along these lines. I came to this article looking to learn:

How is modern-day chalk made, and along those lines, how is the dye added? Alvis 03:56, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Why is yellow chalk so common? Cstaffa 02:10, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blackboard

Google:

Blackboard: 18,200,000 hits
Chalkboard: 3,460,000 hits

Yes yes, the Google test is not always a great indicator of what should be used (an argument I have used myself before), but that's only if there are other factors to consider. This is quite clear cut. Should be moved! Opinions, anyone? EuroSong ^talk 11:26, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

This topic should indeed belong under Blackboard. Even if it is usually dark green, this is the most common name, and it also makes a nice contrast with whiteboard. The word blackboard is replaced by chalkboard just because of a deviated sense of political correctness. LHOON 11:23, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

To be honest, I don't really mind if this gets named "blackboard" or "chalkboard". But it might be an idea to open this to a Wikipedia:Straw poll to get wider consensus.

Playing devils advocate though, a chalkboard could be preferable, as it would include similar colour-based chalkboards. Google trends shows chalkboard is searched for more, but there are quite a few other uses of "blackboard" - blackboard itself is a disambiguation page.

I don't think this is a clear-cut decision, so discussion is probably the best way to go --h2g2bob 15:14, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I almost always hear people calling them blackboards in the UK, almost never chalkboards, although anyone would understand you if you used either. --Tango 17:48, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Political Correctness

Would it be worth noting that in the UK, possibly other English speaking countries I'm not sure, it is considered politically incorrect to call it a blackboard as the black part is considered racist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.209.198.251 (talk • contribs)

I've never heard that before. There are some people that object to any use of the word "black", but it's a tiny minority, and as far as I know, doesn't include many black people. --Tango 17:48, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm removing this line from the article: "Some think that the term "chalkboard" is used rather than "blackboard" for reasons of political correctness.[2]" The bbc citation (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1988952.stm) is not about chalkboards---the only relevant part of the linked page is in a user posted comment to the bbc article.Wpegden 20:20, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I reverted this, a simple search yielded hundreds of references to this discussion, so it seems worth mentioning, however with a specific reference to the UK where it seems to be the biggest issue LHOON 11:42, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I've reverted it back. If there are hundreds of references, reference one of them. The BBC reference is just one guy telling an anecdote. --Tango 13:05, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

The combinations "blackboard chalkboard political correctness" gives over 600 hits on Google. This is a clear illustration that there is some discussion mentioning these otherwise unrelated terms, and that it is an issue to be mentioned. If I have some more time the next few days, I'll have a look to find a link that clearly illustrates the point. LHOON 14:17, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

It depends what those hits are - you need a reputable source, not just a few bloggers. --Tango 20:23, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Just to make a point - political correctness has gone mad in London, and I can't speak for the rest of the UK, but I think its the same in most places. I've certainly been involved in an argument or two over the use of the term 'blackboard'. Also, I've heard of many London schools (and one in Kent) removing the word 'black' from the nursery rhyme 'Baa baa black sheep'. Its renamed things such as 'Baa baa rainbow sheep'. As I said - political correctness gone mad. It should definately be mentioned, even if its just in one brief sentence. --Zestos 18:21, 19 December 2006 (GMT)

I fully agree. It should be mentioned again indeed. LHOON 18:27, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

If you want to mention it, find a reliable source. Anecdotes are not reliable. --Tango 17:35, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I take this whole thing with a pinch of salt. I've heard numerous people say that the word "Blackboard" is supposedly racist while clearly not agreeing that it is, yet I've NEVER heard anybody who actually DID think it was racist. And through my entire time at school and college in England from the 1980s to the 21st century I always heard it referred to as a blackboard and always thought the word Chalkboard was a an Americanism. (so it confuses me when people talk about this as a presumably mostly British problem when I'm under the impression that the supposedly PC variation is far more commonly used America)

Of course as I got older blackboards started to be replaced by whiteboards. Now first of all not only was the word WHITEboard specifically used in class (which, if the word BLACKboard really was racist then so too would the word WHITEboard be), but also one could take offence because the Whiteboards were taking over the role of Blackboards, presumably because they were better, and that could be seen as symbolic of 'Superior' Whites taking over 'Inferior' Blacks like some kind of European Empire. (Yes I know that sounds idiotic but I'm trying to apply the same warped logic that is supposedly behind the word Blackboard being somehow racist)

Furthermore according to this Wiki article the word "Chalkboard" originates from the 1930s, a time when there were far more important civil rights issues than the colour of a board for writing on.

Oh and let us not forget the obvious reason why I think the whole this is BS... THE COLOUR OF 'CHALK'BOARDS HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SKIN COLOUR OF PEOPLE WITH AFRICAN ANCESTRY!!!!

Presumably the name comes from the fact that not all Chalkboards are black and somebody added the PC bit later either as a joke or because they know nothing gets right-wing parties and newspapers support than an anti-PC crusade. To me the whole thing just sounds like "PC Gone Mad!" Gone Mad!!!

(Waiting for somebody to tell me I can't use the word crusade in 4... 3... 2...)

- Rich 23:59 08 May 2007

[edit] Blackboard / chalkboard

User:82.20.11.157 changed all the "chalkboards" to "blackboard". I'm leaving it like that for the moment so I can get people's reactions to it. Personally I like chalkboard better. They don't need to be black (can be dark blue, dark green or even a dark magenta), so chalkboard is a more general term. If the consensus is for chalkboard, then just undo those edits. But if the consensus here is for blackboard, then the page should probably be renamed (moved) to blackboard. --h2g2bob 17:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

If the article is titled Chalkboard it should use the word chalkboard. It might be a good idea to move the article to Blackboard, but whatever word we use we should be consistent between title and article. --Tango 14:15, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Now the article uses "chalkboard" half of the time and "blackboard" half of the time, as if it can't make up its mind which word it's going to use. It makes the article read kind of oddly. ::Travis Evans 08:16, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Using wet cloths

The article says: "The chalk marks can be quickly and easily wiped off with a damp cloth". Doesn't this ruin chalkboards? -Rolypolyman 16:33, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

You have to wait for it to dry again before it will work properly, but I've never heard of it doing permanent damage. When I worked in a pub we used to clean the menu board with lemonade - apparently the sugar cuts through the chalk in some way. --Tango 18:02, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I recall once we did this with a couple of dirty boards, and I think it did damage them by causing further chalk markings to bond with the board, making them difficult to erase. Then again, maybe the cause-and-effect is not clear and maybe the board was already damaged by the time we got to this point. -Rolypolyman 22:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it depends on the type of board - some may take the water better than others. What also comes into consideration is that a well used board has a layer of chalk all over the surface and so makes the chalk go on easier - a freshly washed board is totally clean and so the stick of chalk can "stutter" a bit on the pure surface. SFC9394 20:00, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

It does depend on the type of chalkboard. Chalkboards were once generally made of slate but this is not longer the case since slate is expensive to purchase and install. Chalkboards made of composition board are more affordable but can be damaged by wet cleaning methods. Chalkboards can also be made of porcelain-coated steel which can be can be wet-cleaned. Even when chalkboards are not damaged by wet cleaning, it is possible for the pores in them to fill with the paste that is formed of chalk dust and water. This makes erasing difficult if not impossible. Such boards must be cleaned by special methods and then "re-chalked" (chalk is rubbed on the board and then erased). Boards that are not "chalked" can leave shadows when erased. Dale M (talk) 01:11, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Political correctness

Being little more than a politically motivated rant the reference for the following is hardly valid "In the United Kingdom, several local authorities have instructed to schools that blackboards should be reffered to as chalkboards for political correctness reasons, amid fears that the word "blackboard" is offensive towards black pupils." It looks more like Daily Mail-esque scaremongering rather than a genuine local authority directive. To remain it needs legimtate citations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.154.226 (talk) 14:55, 21 December 2007 (UTC)