Thursday, September 10, 2009

First day of school

I stepped out the house this morning to a flurry of activity, my neighbour's twins were getting ready for their first day of school and, as is custom, she was trying to obtain a record of this momentous event via a photograph.

Twin1 was happily standing by the door waiting, but Twin2 was too full of energy and running around the damp grass of their front lawn getting his trousers wet. Daughter1 tried to help, but had to give up to get away and Daughter2 just waltzed straight past to wait in the car.

She finally got them to stand together, but Twin2 didn't want to smile or look-up. I got roped in, as I seem to do with kids, in an effort to make him look-up and smile which I easily succeeded in doing. At which point the battery in the camera conked out.

I offered to fetch my camera, but running late and exasperated my offer was declined in favour of a shot when they return and the battery recharged.

Just made me reminisce to my first day of school way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I don't have a clear recollection mostly because I was only there for a couple of days before the dinner-ladies went on strike for a week or two. All that fuss and preparation for such little reward.


Dan H said...

My old infant school used to (and still does) have a half-day for the first two or three days, to let the little ones get used to the idea before having a whole day or regimented lunching. My brothers and I all went to pre-school, so it wasn't a big change for us.

FlipC said...

Sadly not in my day. I think it's a good idea and indeed both Bratii had acclimatising days, if not implemented already it should be something that should be done for ever major school change. I recall the mental shock between each school change - everything got bigger and you were suddenly interacting with a much larger crowd.

Then again I had some small advantage in that I switched Middle Schools halfway through so I'd already been dumped in the deep end with all my friends whisked away at an earlyish age.

Orphi said...

Pah. Try spending 7 years in a school for people with mental handicaps, run by religeous fanatics, in a grade-II listed building with no electricity, located in a secluded valley in the middle of nowhere. Then you will know what mental shock actually is.

FlipC said...

I think that would class as major mental shock and something to write about in more detail... if only to highlight that this sort of misguided help existed and may still exist.

I was speaking more comparatively though; an example would be taking someone who's lived their whole life on a small rural farm in a community of 200 people and dropping them in the middle of Tokyo with a casual "Have fun sweetie" brain snap information overload.