When school begins in late August or early September, it can be a bit of a shock. Trading summer’s relative freedom for school requirements five days a week is especially challenging for exuberant young ones. While the first day of school can be an unavoidable submission to necessary labor, a sense of eagerness often accompanies students assembling for the first day of school each year. They wonder, “Will there be anyone new in school? Where will I sit? Who will be sitting next to me? What will we play?” And fortunately, in this place, “What are we going to study this year?”
Children enter school as readiness (kindergarten) students and can be both excited and apprehensive about beginning school life. They know entering school is an exciting milestone in their oh-so-short existence on the planet. They feel both grown-up – BIG! – and uncertain – little.
(One kindergarten student returned home after his first day of school and informed his mother that school wasn’t really that big of a deal. His teacher hadn’t even taught him how to read!”)
They’ve dreamed of playing with the “BIG KIDS.” Many watched brothers, sisters, and friends leave home to attend school. They’ve seen recess, school plays, field trips, hiking in the valley, and dressing up just for fun. They’ve watched students perform at end-of-the-year programs, Trillium Festivals, and graduations. They’ve seen school as FUN!
Yes. children often regard the first day of school as the portal to an exciting new world. Within a few short days, however, they come face to face with reality. They soon discover that for all their dreaming of fun with the other valley children, school attendance requires something else they didn’t necessarily expect – HARD WORK!
There is a place between hard work and fun where a balance resides. It is this equilibrium point that teachers seek. Developing the fulcrum upon which the polarities of work and fun balance require a conjurer’s touch. Dollops of drama, touches of ceremony, miles of smiles, buckets of effort, and at least a bushel or two of laughter are required to maintain equilibrium in the one-room classroom. Establishing where hard work and fun balance starts the day before school begins by traveling to Stehekin’s flourishing gardens to gather first-day flowers.
Yes, the first day of school signifies a new stage of growth and maturation. In the One-Room school, children from five to fourteen may eventually spend eight years in the same physical setting with the same teacher and some of the same classmates. To flourish on this path, trusted activities and comfortable landmarks are needed along the way. Each year, first graders, new students, and eighth graders receive flowers on the first day of school. The traditional bouquets are gathered in the gardens of warm-hearted community members the day before school begins.
See “Giddy-up! Let’s get going!” to read about three second graders visiting valley gardens to pick flowers for the first day of school.
“For it is correct to take care of the young first, so that they will be the best possible, just as a good farmer properly takes care of the young plants first, and after this of the others as well.”
–Socrates in Plato’s Euthyphro
