Yesterday's Child

I hope that you have had a good week. Friday has arrived already; school has officially opened in our area; children are showing mixed emotions about their teachers, and they are hoping to find some of their best friends in their classrooms. I remember those days very well. I was excited to see my best buddies; I was even excited to receive my new books (we would always groan when the book we received was in fair condition instead of new or very good...I wonder if the books are still classified that way). We were always anxious to see where the teacher would place us, who would be seated beside or behind us, whether we would be seated in the front or back of the classroom. Whatever, we knew that sooner or later, usually much sooner, we would be moved from the seat we first occupied. I recall being seated alphabetically by some teachers and I hated that! The person behind me didn't always come to school clean, but, worse yet, he/she loved to talk and pick on me since I was so very small at that time in my life (Wow! Times change!). I liked it when the teacher said we could stay where we were so long as we behaved ourselves. That was fun because we had already found our seats with our closest friends. Problem with this? Yes! Within a day or two, the misbehavior would begin with some, and to separate the troublemakers, we were all separated from our best friends, guilty or not! Every year it was the same...would we never learn? When I was a teacher, I recall actually having lessons on how to behave and I had to teach the children how to whisper! That was a chore! Then I would give them 2 whispering periods per day of 10 minutes each; that is, unless they became noisy, then time was cut short or forfeited. Believe it or not, this worked! I had their attention for the rest of the day! I wonder how much children have changed today from yesterday's child. Perhaps I should spend some time in a classroom to observe today's child.