It's hard to believe, but once again it's time for school to start.
When I was in school (many years ago), classes did not begin until after Labor Day, but now they begin in August.
We have all been suffering through this unusually hot summer. I really feel for those young ones who have to ride buses that aren't air-conditioned or, in some cases perhaps, go to class in classrooms that aren't. Anyway, maybe we can look forward to cooler weather in the near future.
I have a little friend who is entering fifth grade at Bankston this year, and she was lamenting the fact that she would have to go to different rooms for her classes and have several teachers. She was excited about it but a little apprehensive.
It reminded me of when I entered seventh grade at Morgan City. I had come from the elementary school in Swiftown, where we had several grades meeting together in one classroom with one teacher.
Although Morgan City School was small, it wasn't as small as Swiftown, and it seemed large to me. The seventh grade would be changing classrooms for different classes and would have a different teacher for each subject. I was afraid I would not be at the right place at the right time (although there were perhaps five different rooms to go to). But . . . I made it.
My daughter, Pam, has been a high school English teacher for the past 21 years but has made a change this year. She has taken a job as the librarian at a new middle school in Spring Hill, Tenn.
She had been teaching at Spring Hill High School for the past 18 years and three years at Greenwood High School previous to that.
She says it is really different dealing with younger children.
My daughter was telling me about one little boy, a fifth-grader, who asked her where the playground was. She told him that they didn't have a playground since they would not have recess.
She said he looked stunned but quickly recovered when his friend reminded him, "but we have lockers."
That seemed to have made up for the lack of a playground and recess. She said the lockers are a really big deal to them, and they couldn't wait to get their books so that they could store them in their lockers.
I'm sure all you parents will agree that we never quit worrying about our children, even when they are grown.
When Pam started her first teaching job at Greenwood High School 22 years ago, she was only 22 years old and very nervous as you might imagine.
On the first day of school, she packed a lunch to take along and was so nervous she left it at home. I discovered it about 30 minutes after she had left and felt compelled to take it to her.
I reasoned that because she is a fainter (she inherited that from me), it was the first day of her teaching career and that she was very nervous, she needed her lunch. So ... I took it to her.
When I got to the school, I went to the office as I did not know where her room was located.
I had to call her to get this all straight, but a veteran male teacher (who shall remain nameless) led me to her room.
Needless to say, she was very embarrassed. She said the other teacher passed the word around that her mother had brought her lunch to school, and she received considerable teasing for the rest of the day.
When she got home that day, she informed me that I was never to bring her lunch to her again, no matter what! However, she did enjoy her teaching days at Greenwood High and made many friends, both students and teachers, while there.
When I was in school, I always ate in the cafeteria or at Scott's Store across the road from the school, so I didn't have to remember to take my lunch.
I did have to remember to take my music for my lesson two times a week, though, and I often forgot that.
Since I didn't want to invoke the wrath of my teacher, Olive Thompson, I would go to the office and call my mother who would then have to make the trip from Swiftown to Morgan City to bring my music. But ... I guess that is what mothers are for.
Some parents are probably glad to see the start of school, while others may not be. Whatever the case, I'm sure all the mothers will be ready to deal with whatever problems arise. They always do.
•Ervilene Pruett is a long-time Delta resident and former Staplcotn employee.
