A Nostalgic First Day of School

Today Facebook has been flooded with 'first day of school' photos; at least in my neighborhood. I have a great nephew who started kindergarten this morning, as well as a friend's granddaughter. Aah, the memories of a first day. The first day of elementary school, the first day of junior high, the first day of high school or college, and the first day of a new year for a teacher. Life is all about making memories and first days.

It's wonderful to see the kids so excited about their first day; smiling faces, new backpacks and sneakers, a new lunch box. It's always good when it's a positive experience. Many will come home to tell their parents about their teacher and classroom or their new best friend. Hopefully they will all feel the same next week when they realize they need to keep going, lol.

There are lots of things to remember about the first day of school. My kids are grown now; adults and well past the age of K-12, but I still remember their first days. I also remember the trips to Target or Office Max for the needed school supplies and the dreaded TI-86 graphic calculators. Once they were in junior high or high school it seemed like they needed a new version of calculator every year. By the time they were in high school we had the school supply shopping down to a 'science' or an 'art' form, pardon the school puns.

As a parent who has survived 2 children going through their general education, as well as obtaining their college degrees I pray each day for the students, the parents, and the teachers. So much to learn, so much commitment, and so much responsibility ... for all of them. Education is a beautiful thing and something that should never be taken for granted. As I sit here typing out this blog post I am watching the season premiere of The Ellen Degeneres Show, where Walmart just shared their commitment to education by supporting 5 students currently pursuing their college degrees with $50,000 in scholarships each. OMG! How wonderful for those five students. Taking a little of the stress out of pursuing a better life. That is to be commended.

Here's to a new school year for everyone. May it be one of new experiences, learning new things, making friends, and being respectful of everyone.

If your children are past this 'first day' what are some of your favorite memories?

If you sent your children out the door this morning for their 'first day', how did it go?

Cookie Cutters Are Best Left In The Kitchen

Cookie cutters are a great invention. Anyone can express their creativity in the kitchen with a cut out for any shape. You can honor every holiday, a birthday, a graduation, a new house, or tell someone you love them simply by pressing that special cookie cutter into some dough and then decorating it so that it is just the way YOU want it to be. But cookie cutters are best left in the kitchen.

 

People are not cookie dough, although their personalities can be sticky at times and things can get messy. Employees can not be duplicated to perform the same. Students will not all learn in similar ways. A lot of 'things' can be mass produced in a factory on a conveyor belt and they will appear to be the same, but people are different. People are unique. We look different, we behave and react different, and we process everything differently. A factory can create a product where the outcome will basically be the same because there are NO variations, but service-related industries will never have the same result. Why? Because people are directly involved. Sure, a company can have a goal of how their customer service should perform, but there are too many unknown factors. The customer may have had a bad experience with the company. The customer service rep may not be fully knowledgeable of the company's product or service and unknowingly give the customer the wrong information.

 

This week I attended a college lecture given by Henry Winkler (actor, writer, producer, etc., but best known to many as 'The Fonz' from the TV show 'Happy Days'). It was an interesting lecture with many great insights. He talked about his career, about his family, about his struggles with dyslexia, and his personal experiences with learning. Everyone has issues and things they must overcome in their lives, but he didn't discover his dyslexia til he was in his early 30s. Until then he was told constantly that he was dumb, he was stupid, he was lazy, and he would never amount to anything. His teachers couldn't (or didn't) help him; neither did his parents. But he didn't give up. He had dreams and goals and was determined to find a way to achieve them. He talked about today's education and the need and importance to try and reach each student where they are.

 

We've all known that student (perhaps we were that student) who tried and tried and tried to get through a particular subject at school, but found themselves struggling. I am certainly not going to blame the teachers, but believe it or not even teachers are human. As with any profession, some teachers are great and some are not. Today's schools have limitations though, as do many areas of life (businesses included). It is easy to understand why in a classroom of 30+ students some will be at the top of the learning curve and some will be at the bottom AND some will get lost in the middle. It is frustrating for any human being though, whether they are a young student in the classroom or an adult working at their job, to feel overwhelmed because they are yearning to learn and do a great job, but the system seems to be fighting them.

 

People cannot be treated like a product created by a shiny silver cookie cutter. We will never be perfect, nor will we be identical. We will all have our flaws, but if given some personal attention we will thrive. My advice? Leave the cookie cutters in the kitchen and save them for when you're feeling creative and want to impress someone. For everything else, stop and listen to what people are REALLY trying to say and perhaps assist them in getting to where they are trying to go.

It's Back To School Time

Today marks the second successful day of school around my home (for K-12). Most of the college students already headed back last week. I had to laugh today when my boss (the church's pastor) said that the Sunday School parent meeting had only 5 people attend last night. He sounded a little discouraged until his wife (who is an elementary teacher) reminded him that yesterday was the first day of school.

As parents, we know what that can mean ... emergency forms needed to be filled out and signed, school supplies needed to be purchased, lunches had to be made, bedtimes had to be enforced and if you're like me ... a headache needed to be treated. My daughter is a high school junior this year and all I can say is 'boy was she wired last night'. My husband and I sat at the dinner table and listened patiently to the full blown details of every class she has, every teacher she has, the sophomore/junior/senior ratio of every class, who said what to whom, what instrument she would be playing in the orchestra this year (switching it up and playing bass instead of the viola ... a fun challenge), and to top it off when I asked her if she had found any of her friends to eat 'A' lunch with she smiled and informed her father that she did and is eating lunch with some of the guys on the boys' swim team. Statements like that will make the hairs on the back of her dad's neck stand out every time. Fortunately we know who one of the boys is and dad approves. It's funny though. When her older brother was in school he had more friends that were girls than boys and now I see the same similarity with my daughter. While she has A LOT of girlfriends she also has a lot of boys who are friends who stand in as brothers, which is not a bad thing.

So, whether you are responsible for running your kids to soccer practice, making the lunches, carpooling to girl scouts or chaperoning the marching band at the weekend football game ... I tip my hat to you in respect. School schedules can be just as busy for parents as they are for the students, but years from now we'll all hopefully look back and smile. Time flies by too quickly as it is. Enjoy this time with your kids. There is no other time like it and you can't get it back later. Makes sense to enjoy it while it's here.