Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,707
- 4,483
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- Banned
- #1
I’m 73 and I can still remember my first day of school. I had brand new shoes and my mother scolded me for scuffing them on the sidewalk. The school was about a half mile from our house in Marlborough NH and we walked. The mothers all stood at the back of the room while we were assigned a desk and they were told to discreetly go into another room while we copied what was on the blackboard. If a kid cried when mom was gone then it apparently meant that that kid was not yet mature enough for school.
I didn’t cry. I was fastidiously writing 1952, the first thing I ever wrote! I chose that because it was easier than drawing the birthday cake next to it. I remember the teacher’s name; it was Miss Clark. She was nice and I did not cry or even notice that my mother was already back home.
After 68 years I remember the names of all the teachers I had from first through the sixth grade. I remember those names because they were goddesses giving me gifts I would need to get through life. ABC was huge! Once I memorized the alphabet and the pronunciation of each letter, I could make words! The same was true of numbers. I had to learn each number before I could use them. It was tedious but those goddesses instilled those numbers into my brain and never complained. They smiled a lot and gave encouragement. I learned the words; I learned the numbers!
Today we are under a cloud where corporations are people and innocent kids might get deprived of the wonderful rite of passage I got as a child. That saddens me as a great grandfather. Nefarious politics may steal the first day of school from kids that have no idea what a teacher’s union even is. Using vulnerable children as a political football to unseat a president is about as low as anyone could go.
Harry Truman was president on my first day of school and I guess I was lucky there were no public sector unions going after him. I learned enough about numbers to know that most teachers and most kids are in no danger from a virus that all but exclusively kills elderly people with underlying health issues.
Schools need to reopen on time this year.
I didn’t cry. I was fastidiously writing 1952, the first thing I ever wrote! I chose that because it was easier than drawing the birthday cake next to it. I remember the teacher’s name; it was Miss Clark. She was nice and I did not cry or even notice that my mother was already back home.
After 68 years I remember the names of all the teachers I had from first through the sixth grade. I remember those names because they were goddesses giving me gifts I would need to get through life. ABC was huge! Once I memorized the alphabet and the pronunciation of each letter, I could make words! The same was true of numbers. I had to learn each number before I could use them. It was tedious but those goddesses instilled those numbers into my brain and never complained. They smiled a lot and gave encouragement. I learned the words; I learned the numbers!
Today we are under a cloud where corporations are people and innocent kids might get deprived of the wonderful rite of passage I got as a child. That saddens me as a great grandfather. Nefarious politics may steal the first day of school from kids that have no idea what a teacher’s union even is. Using vulnerable children as a political football to unseat a president is about as low as anyone could go.
Harry Truman was president on my first day of school and I guess I was lucky there were no public sector unions going after him. I learned enough about numbers to know that most teachers and most kids are in no danger from a virus that all but exclusively kills elderly people with underlying health issues.
Schools need to reopen on time this year.
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