What's this business of covering schoolbooks with wallpaper all about?

[Bungle73]

Dug out some of my old school books recently. Several are covered in wallpaper. I certainly remember doing it to my books when I was at school; I guess because we were told to. But why? What purpose does it serve?

 

[Bletchleyite]

It was normally wrapping paper or if you wanted to buy sticky backed clear plastic then that. It was quite simply to make it last longer.

 

[Bungle73]

It was normally wrapping paper or if you wanted to buy sticky backed clear plastic then that. It was quite simply to make it last longer.

Some are definitely wallpaper. The ones that aren't covered seemed to have lasted just fine, but then I guess I was never really that rough with my schoolbooks. Although I will admit that the hymn book they gave us at primary school for assemblies wasn't quite in the same condition when I left the school as when I first got it. LOL!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It was normally wrapping paper or if you wanted to buy sticky backed clear plastic then that. It was quite simply to make it last longer.

It varied. Use of wallpaper offcuts wasn't at all untypical. But, as @Bletchleyite says, the primary purpose was to protect the book (covers) from excessive wear and tear.

 

[Pit_buzzer]

Mine from the early seventies are all wallpaper, still got a few hiding in the loft

 

[PeterC]

We had to cover our books too. The end of a roll of wallpaper was the most likely source of suitable paper in the home.

I never saw the point either

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Never had to do mine at school...

 

[Hadders]

It was to protect the book. Brown paper was the preferred covering at my school, wallpaper was also acceptable. You didn't actually have to stock the paper to the book.

Sticky back plastic was not allowed.

 

[DelayRepay]

I think most of mine were covered with wrapping paper, but you used to be able to buy plastic covers that were specially made for this purpose.

My school used the same colour books for different subjects, so having them covered made it easier to pick up the right ones.

Do kids still use books or is it all iPads these days?

 

[AJG3]

Only had one teacher at secondary school who insisted on this; first year biology (1978-9). With hindsight, I can see it made life easier for her when it came to sifting through the piles of exercise books outside the staff room with completed homework

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Yes we had to do that too back in the 1970s, some masters where very insistent about it, some times it was exercise books only, others it was text books too I think. I never saw the point of having to do that either.

 

[zero]

Only had one teacher at secondary school who insisted on this; first year biology (1978-9). With hindsight, I can see it made life easier for her when it came to sifting through the piles of exercise books outside the staff room with completed homework

Exercise books? I thought everyone was talking about textbooks.

We had to cover textbooks in clear wrapping, but I don't think it really did anything, the books still got tatty after a year and the wrapping tended to get dirty itself, plus the sticky tape would peel off and so forth

 

[najaB]

Dug out some of my old school books recently. Several are covered in wallpaper. I certainly remember doing it to my books when I was at school; I guess because we were told to. But why? What purpose does it serve?

I don't know if this applies in the UK, but we had a textbook loan scheme - you didn't (unless you were seriously rich) buy textbooks but rather the school loaned them. Each book was rated for condition at the start of the year: A was brand new, through to F which didn't have to be returned at the end of the year.

If the book dropped more than one level you would be fined, and if it dropped three or more you had to buy the book.

Hence, as @Bletchleyite says, we used thick paper (or even wallpaper) to cover them as it had to be both sturdy and removable.

Edit: Just saw that people were also referring to exercise books. I don't remember wrapping them as we also had different colour textbook covers to identify the subject.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not as formal as that, but yes, they are lent out and expected to be returned in good condition, which is part of the reason.

 

[E27007]

I don't know if this applies in the UK, but we had a textbook loan scheme - you didn't (unless you were seriously rich) buy textbooks but rather the school loaned them. Each book was rated for condition at the start of the year: A was brand new, through to F which didn't have to be returned at the end of the year.

If the book dropped more than one level you would be fined, and if it dropped three or more you had to buy the book.

Hence, as @Bletchleyite says, we used thick paper (or even wallpaper) to cover them as it had to be both sturdy and removable.

Edit: Just saw that people were also referring to exercise books. I don't remember wrapping them as we also had different colour textbook covers to identify the subject.

The backing of text books was to protect the cover from damage, a reasonable measure, the following account reveals the warped thinking of Teaching staff of the era.
I can recall being placed in detention for a book not being covered to the satisfaction of a particularly strict Teacher,a former Army Officer , the reason for detention, my book backing was not satisfactory due to a lack of sellotape.
In my home we did not have sellotape, we were on the poverty line. Why the School could not supply sufficient paper and sellotape to all for the purpose is beyond me, after all the books were their property
Another warpage , boys, mandatory short back and sides hairstyle, girls, no restrictions, hair as long as they wished, The thinking, long hair breeds headlice, Are girls immune to headlice?
The vast majority of the Teachers in my Grammar School, a school which had public school aspirations, had been raised in comfortable middle-class homes, and judged pupils by those standards, I do not believe they had any sympathy for the working class pupils, especially the paupers from the rough end of the town.

 

[Bungle73]

Definitely exercise books. We never had to keep textbooks. That sort of thing was kept by the school and handed out at each lesson as far I remember. This was the 1980s in the UK.

 

[Gloster]

Covering exercise books with anything was strictly banned, while writing on them was limited to your name, class and the subject. Most books had a preprinted couple of lines (*) at the top right-hand corner of the front cover where you filled in your details: we did have some with completely plain covers, but they supplied little stickers with lines on them. They did try to organise books so that the books for specific subjects were in particular colours, but that didn’t last.

With text books we had a sort of sale-and-return system. At the beginning of the year you would collect a pile of the books listed for your subject, all with your name stamped in the front: your parent was billed for these. At the end of the year you returned your books and your parent was credited an amount based on their value. Sticking anything on immediately reduced the value to zero. Needless to say, this system was rife with fiddles.

* - It looked a bit like:

Name.....................
Class......................
Subject...................

 

[Bungle73]

Covering exercise books with anything was strictly banned, while writing on them was limited to your name, class and the subject. Most books had a preprinted couple of lines (*) at the top right-hand corner of the front cover where you filled in your details: we did have some with completely plain covers, but they supplied little stickers with lines on them. They did try to organise books so that the books for specific subjects were in particular colours, but that didn’t last.

With text books we had a sort of sale-and-return system. At the beginning of the year you would collect a pile of the books listed for your subject, all with your name stamped in the front: your parent was billed for these. At the end of the year you returned your books and your parent was credited an amount based on their value. Sticking anything on immediately reduced the value to zero. Needless to say, this system was rife with fiddles.

* - It looked a bit like:

Name.....................
Class......................
Subject...................

Pretty much the same for the exercise books that weren't covered, although more central. And a label for the covered ones.

 

[Phil56]

My son had to cover all his exercise books, that was basically over the noughties, so very recent. He didn't get to bring any text books home, they were just used in classrooms only. I never saw the point in covering exercise books - what usually happens is that the cover falls off anyway when it comes loose from it's staples, and covering the book with sticky back plastic doesn't solve that anyway! In the first couple of years, they were encouraged to "decorate" the cover with illustrations, stickers, etc before the sticky back plastic (usually languages and sciences), but in later years, that was actively frowned upon (talk about mixed messages!). I'm pretty sure it's another one of these "we've always done it" rather than the teachers having any real reason for wanting it done - like a lot of what goes on in schools!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

We had to cover our text books (and not exercise books) to protect them. Brown paper was the usual method but I can't remember if that was required, suggested or just common practice. I do remember getting sneery comments from a teacher when my books were protected by heavy duty embossed wallpaper. In our house, we had no use for brown parcel wrapping paper!

As an aside, in our registration/form class we were sat alphabetically, I was next to the storeroom door (unlocked). There was regular theft of exercise books from the storeroom - a couple at a time not by the boxfull. Guess who got the sarcastic comment / accusation from the teacher whose storeroom it was!

 

[DelayRepay]

Definitely exercise books. We never had to keep textbooks. That sort of thing was kept by the school and handed out at each lesson as far I remember. This was the 1980s in the UK.

Same here, I don't remember taking textbooks home until I was doing A-levels.

Although the teachers did make handouts by photocopying pages from the textbooks. Probably not legal but times were hard in 1990s/90s South Yorkshire!