DAY 26: My School
When I’ve used these words the last few years they have referred to the Independent School where I was a teacher. My school, I called it. And the students who attended it were my kids. I would’ve had an easier time letting go of my school and my kids if I’d never called them that.
Other schools have been mine, too. I was a lucky child who got the experience of a one room school. Several , actually. Half my school years happened in a one room school with only my sisters as fellow students. Those school rooms were tiny spaces where the door always stood open to allow in the weather, the insects, the pets, and the outdoor sounds. The day to day life of the rest of the family happening nearby was distracting, and I spent many hours rushing through my work so I could go join the real life happening only a few feet away. We were so efficient that we only needed approximately half the hours of school the rest of our friends had and my teachers were fantastic at squeezing normal school fun activities into those short hours. This was the redeeming quality of an unexciting school setting: we could work at our own pace (I never had those hours of waiting for the rest of my grade to catch up to my carelessly fast pace), we had very short school days, and we rarely had more than 4 days of school a week. Did I learn less than my friends did in normal school settings with full days and full weeks of school? Not significantly. The life lessons happening in between school were more valuable than any 7 hour school day.
And one more school, my mainstream school. (If an independent school can be called mainstream.) This was my original school, the place I took 1st, 2nd, and part of 3rd grade, and later returned for the last half of grade 6 and all of grade 7. This school is the one where I have the best memories of my school years, almost all of which took place post culture shock, in grade 7. At the same time, this is also the school I feel least connected to; I don’t remember a lot about my first few years of school and most of my memories of the other years are vague.
My school now. My Dad has this Dad saying he likes about attending the School of Hard Knocks. That’s where I’m currently attending: Life.
No comments:
Post a Comment