As it is September, school season starts at the very beginning for many. I thought I would share a small commentary on the first day of school, contrasting with what it was like for me, and for those going to school today.
In Canada (or, at least, common in Ontario), the third of September marked the yearly tradition that hundreds of thousands of people celebrate each year: the first day of school. For one group, it is simply is the day they return to school to embark on that next step to earning that college degree or diploma. They are boldly taking that next step into making a name for themselves in the modern world.
For many others, however, it is the time when they leave the safety of their parents and their home, and venture into the unforeseen wilderness at the local school, surrounded by those they do not know, or wish to know, and are left to fend for themselves from the hours of eight in the morning to three in the afternoon, all among a sea of children exactly in the same boat as they are.
For those kids and youngsters alike, it truly is the first day of school, ever.
School is intimidating for many, even on their very first day in kindergarten. Some pupils adjust better if they were, say, in daycare or a preschool program that gave them the little push into the big world. Not everyone gets that push, however, and they have to learn a little harder to adjust, but we all try our hardest.
I don’t remember my first day of school. It was so long ago—thirty years ago this year, I think—that I cannot recall even the vague specifics. That isn’t to say I have no memories of it. I do. The name of the school—Queen Elizabeth II Public School; the layout of the L-shaped building, the external classroom up on stilts, the ballpark, track field, the classrooms, and the gym. They are all vivid memories to me. I can recall some of the details of the other students and teachers, including one teacher who had Klingon Birds of Prey hanging from the ceiling in his Grade 6 classroom. Fantastic.
I was a shy and less social than the other students (I still am quite shy today. Can’t shake it off). I didn’t enjoy much of some of the activities, but I do remember the snow play-days when some of the mothers of the students, including my own, helped out in the staff area, serving hot chocolate or donuts, and letting the kids have fun for half a day. Those were some of the days that made elementary school special. Those days did their bit to boost the social skills of the students, including my own.
It was a different world back in the 80s and early 90s, much less friendly and hospitable than in modern times, it seems. You could do more, and possibly get away with more, than you can today—as children, that is. I think parents and teachers were a little more lenient in my youth, and I believe some of us were more easily forgiven for being kids.
As the years progressed, and I changed over to Lansdowne Public School for the remainder of elementary school before graduating to Sudbury Secondary (which, in my opinion, nowadays looks like a daycare for adults with some pavement attached to it), that feeling of warmth and innocence began to lose its luster. Children, like me, were hurtled farther and farther into teenage years. Some of us went through puberty like dancing on a lake of ice, while some of us hit puberty like falling out of an airplane onto a lake of ice. Suddenly, just as we were getting comfortable with ourselves, WHAM! We enter a completely unpredictable stage from here on in.
Besides the physical changes, all those children’s personalities who grew up in my generation changed as well, some for the better, but some for the worse. Some went on to be computer network engineers and have careers in important places, while some died attempting to hijack a car. I knew generations before me who genuinely said that their peers were not that hell-bent or bad than the generation I was in. I tend to think that may be true.
However, since the advent of the modern internet, since September 11, since many changes in the past decade at least, some of those newer generations—at least some that I have observed, and your own experiences may be radically different from mine—have produced some questionable characters. The eighteen-year-old who joked he would shoot up College Notre Dame (here in Greater Sudbury) on social media earlier this year is just a small example of how things have changed since I was a young kid.
With all the things going on today, sometimes I wish it was again the first day of school for me. When I look back on my youth, and compare it with today’s generation, I cannot help but sometimes shake my head. One one hand, we have modern technology and other resources that gives many students, both young and old, a chance for a career and make their mark in the world; but on the other hand, we have modern technology that ruins it for everyone.
It does sound like I’m saying that today’s youth are all brats. Maybe I’m more sensitive to that, seeing what was made of my generation of peers and what happened to them, and I’m biased about today’s youth in that context. However, it’s not doom and gloom. We’ve produced some incredibly smart people over the past decade, and with all the technology we have, despite the odds, those starting their first years of school have a better time adjusting, and are more prepared for the unknown world ahead of them.
In an age where climate change is the rage and children as young as ten discovering supernovas ahead of all the experienced professional astronomers, I think that, while there are certainly some negative aspects between my generation and the current, the positives far outweigh them. We should encourage those youngsters, because they are the ones who will eventually make the world, even if it takes all sorts, a better place to live.