Today, it seems disaster preparedness is on the top of the minds of parents, teachers and school officials more than ever.  Let’s not forget however that those who lived in simpler times still had their own potential emergencies to contend with. Many can vividly recall preparing for that all-crucial moment when an earthquake (or a tornado, or a fire, or a nuclear bomb, for that matter) might rear its ugly head. Students were well conditioned to follow the appropriate procedures.

If it’s an earthquake, stand under the doorway, or get under a sturdy desk.  The desk also worked as a seemingly impervious shield to those preparing for nuclear devastation during the Cold War (One can only wonder who determined that a desk was capable of deflecting radiation.)  If it’s a tornado, hit the hallways, and get your body as low as you could – underground if at all possible.  Fire means exit safely and calmly with your class outside - usually many, many yards away.  And frankly, if you did all of these things calmly, that alone gave you a better chance of survival (well, except for the nuclear scenario perhaps.)

So why were emergency drills so eagerly anticipated by the student body? It certainly wasn’t for the safety benefits. No, to the sneaky kid in training, this was the perfect opportunity to take this moment of disorder and chaos (calm chaos, that is) in order to sneak in a bathroom break or take a drink from the fountain without having to get a hall pass.  It was an opportunity to go walk next to the guy or girl they had a crush on and make small talk.  If you were unfortunate enough to get busted, the situation allowed for the failsafe excuses that quickly came to mind: “I got lost” and/or “I got confused.”

No matter how an emergency drill was used, one thing’s for sure; they did help keep things calm should the real deal happen.  Having a little practice, even pretend-practice, goes a long way towards keeping students cool and collected. And our response to the bells and alarms would have made Pavlov proud.