Old School: Starting Over

By Carol McEwen,

I have mixed feelings about the start of school. I liked it when I was a kid, but I really HATED it as a parent. I would love to say that I stood teary-eyed as my kid(s) boarded the school bus, but instead, I was resisting the urge to break into a cheer. 

Actually it wasn’t the first DAY of school that was the problem. It was the first NIGHT that was traumatic for us parents. You parents know what I’m talking about. The kid(s) brought home a list of school supplies that his or her teacher thought essential to the learning process. 

In my case, whichever daughter and I would trudge to the car, head to CVS, then Safeway, then Giant, etc., etc., etc. Of course, one or two items were always gone from the shelves, snapped up by more savvy moms than yours truly. My worried, rule-follower daughters always fretted about going to school the next day without EVERYTHING.

And then there were the dreaded FORMS. I swear, it seemed the school required a thousand pieces of paper filled out for each kid. I had one poor friend who had FIVE kids in the Arlington school system at the same time. She said she was up till midnight. 

The good news: gradually things began to change, thank heaven. By the time my last daughter was finishing elementary school, each teacher gave a classroom supply list to a PTA volunteer before the start of school. The volunteer organized a group of her colleagues to load supplies, at the school, in a paper bag for each kid in each class. The bags were available to buy at a nominal fee on the first day: a money-maker for the PTA and a stress-saver for the parents. 

Now it’s even easier, I hear. My daughter tells me the school sends an email, listing supplies and offering parents the chance to buy a “kit” for their student online; once purchased, it is created, and appears magically at the kid’s desk on the first day. 

The forms can be filled out online now, and even lunch money is handled remotely. Mom or Dad can pay for a week or a month at a time, and the kid just shows up and eats — a beneficiary of our cashless society. In more than one of these articles, this Old School type has decried “progress.” In this case, maybe it’s not such a bad thing.  

Carol McEwen is a writer for Stroll By The Bay, Mirimar Beach, Florida, and authored the weekly Old School column for the Arlington Sun Gazette/Gazette Leader. She may be reached at: carolwrites4fun@gmail.com.