Back to School Mania


A pile of bread rolls covered in sesame seeds.

My mom’s hommade rolls were waiting for me when I came home from school

A piece of cake with ice cream on top.Hey guys, do you remember when we went back to school way back in the day? It was the day after Labor Day on September 4th, and for sure we were still in school all the way up until the first week in June. The school week was a full 5 long days.

 

Since my mother brought me to a Catholic school, we always started the day off in early mass where we prayed for everybody in the world. We then prayed for world peace, world unity, and of course, our families, friends and ourselves. When we finally walked from the church to our classroom, we dare not sit in our seat until we pledged allegiance to the flag, sang a patriotic song, and prayed some more prayers for the day.

 

We all wore the same uniforms, and if a boy got caught with his white shirt out of his pants, he had to tuck it in in the front of the class. We never knew what a back-pack was, a computer, a hand-held I-pad, or God forbid, a cell phone. Our materials mostly composed of a 3-hole notebook binder, pencils, a ruler, and a small scissors. That was about it. We had books in every subject provided for us, with one teacher, a nun, who loved to carry her ruler.

 

We had to raise our hand to be recognized, and say things like: “May I, Yes, Sister, Please, and Thank-You.” The classroom was eerily quiet, and if you were ever caught talking out of turn, or cheating, you were clobbered by the nun, following a meeting with your parents. It just wasn’t worth it.

 

Now, I ask you, how did we ever learn? With no up-to-date devices, no fancy tennis shoes, wearing the same clothes every day, and only changing classrooms for choir, music, or perhaps a needed tutoring. We memorized the Ten Commandments, because they were on the walls of every classroom. And the main subject of the day was, of course, Religion. This was our school, this was our lot, and for some reason, we accepted it. We usually scored above average in all the state testing, and believe it or not, our little grade school produced doctors, lawyers, teachers, and a ton of everyday community servants.

 

School mania? Not that I can remember. And, hey, we never missed it. God bless those days, maybe we need to return to the simpler way of life. Just a thought.

Rosalie