Return to School
It’s a rite of passage. And somehow even though it is as locked into our calendar as many major holidays, kids going back to school seems to catch us by surprise… Especially if you have school-aged kids.
Our two children started back to grade school last week. They were both excited. Smiles on their faces. Anxiously awaiting a new year. While there was always a moment or two of lamenting the lost summer, enthusiasm reigned supreme within a 9- and 5-year-old.
However, the same cannot be said for my children’s parents. This year marks the year that our daughter heads off to kindergarten. Another rite of passage. And just as important was the sadness of parents realizing their household wouldn’t be the same anymore. Yes, there were joys in thinking about a little girl truly being ready for her first full year of school. Unfortunately, her not being home all day, minus a little preschool time, made the house all too quiet.
Going to school is so much different than when I went decades ago. We didn’t have things like “securing yourself in the classroom” drills. There weren’t iPads. Frankly, in my case, there weren’t computers. And yet the objectives remain the same. Education is meant to prepare people to be productive citizens and professionals, whole people ready to engage in personal and professional life. This is a partnership with parents and yet we parents turn our kids over eight hours a day to the teachers. Most of the teachers are underappreciated, overworked, and not recognized for their important contribution--- yet they give their all.
It’s another page in the journal, and we turn it as we enter a new school year to take more notes about what was learned in the classroom, new friends, and new challenges to be overcome.
