Back to School: Then, Now, Always

       

September and “back to school” days, can be a wistful time.

For teachers, back to school used to mean endless handouts, creating lesson plans, ordering audio-visual materials, checking that the maps don’t spin backward and pounding the erasers.

Today, teachers have a web site, post assignments, email students, show  current news clips via computer.  No chalk necessary.

For earlier generations, back to grade school meant a new pencil box with pens, erasers, a ruler and a protractor. Today’s kids carry a backpack and a laptop.    While the older generation is happy to describe walking three miles to get to school, today’s youth doesn’t walk anywhere. 

Back to high school centered around the thrill of clothes, picking out just the right sweater and wearing it on the first day even if there was sweltering September heat.  It meant fresh notebooks and one’s own locker.  And always it was about cars. In the 1950s the kids would pile into lowered Chevys and Fords with pipes if they could finagle it, squeeze eight teenagers where only four should be.   Today, it’s Toyotas and Hondas while still piling in.

Not much has changed. Boys and girls still want to see who is going to share homeroom, figure out the good from the evil teachers and throw away the lunch pail.

College back to school used to mean long lines in the college gym to register for a class, hoping it wouldn’t close.  If it did, one had to join a new line and begin again. Now it is simply a click of the mouse.

The anticipation of going “back to school” is exhilarating, where memories are made that shape one’s whole life:  first loves that are never forgotten and best friends bonded forever. Some  stay stuck in those “good old days”.   Others stay close.  Most revisit. 

With each school year, the refuge of youth is slowly peeled away and the independence so longed for ends up coming way too soon.   So, if you are a kid, enjoy September with its restart of engines and paths yet to be carved.  The fun of youth is in your pocket.  Don’t waste a nickel of it.  All too soon, September will be a wistful time for you.

email: wvcpat@comcast.net