It’s the time of year when children and teens and adults are returning
to school. I’ve been thinking about my own school experiences and remembering
how excited I always was to start a new year or a new semester.
So my Random 5 this week is about back to school.
I’m joining with Nancy of A Rural
Journal in her Random 5 Friday, where, as Nancy says, “you can share 5
random facts about you, your day, your pets, your kids, whatever!”
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| My first grade picture. My mother made the dress I'm wearing. |
One
I started school when I was six years old. Kindergarten wasn’t available
in public school when I was a child, and my parents didn’t send me to private
kindergarten. But I learned my numbers, the alphabet, my colors, etc. at home.
Two
I went to school for 21 years straight: first through 12th
grades plus four years of college plus five years of graduate school, where I
got my master’s in English and worked on (but never finished) my doctorate in
English.
Three
I was excited to start elementary school. I rode bus number 41 the first
day of school and sat beside a neighbor girl who was in about the seventh
grade. She seemed so grown up to me, and I couldn’t imagine ever being that
old.
Four
For the most part, I loved school and hated to miss a day. I had perfect
attendance in sixth grade and in my senior year of high school.
But in first grade, I missed two weeks of school: one week for the
chicken pox and one week for the mumps. This was before vaccines were developed
for those diseases.
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| Me on my family's sofa in our living room when I was in first grade. I had the mumps, and my family teased me about my plump cheeks. |
Five
The year I started school, 1969, was the first year of total integration
in my county’s schools. I didn’t know this at the time because my parents never
mentioned it to me. I’m glad they didn’t. I’m glad I was able to go to school
with children of different races and think nothing was odd about it.
Did you enjoy school when you were a child? Do you ever wish you could
go back to school?
