Welcoming a Fresh School Year
The new school year is about to begin, and everything is new.
New backpacks – brightly decorated with themes of “Inside Out” characters, Swiftie devotion or Minecraft and Legos – are carefully filled with new notebooks, their covers fresh and crisp, edges sharp, each sheet smooth and pristine.
Tucked alongside are new crayons, rainbows of bright and cheery colors standing in neat rows, tips still pointy and wrappers unpeeled, in a clean box that still has its flap.
New pencils, too, in that familiar yellow and stamped with the ubiquitous No. 2, sharpened to impressive points, pink erasers unmarred.
Bottles of white glue with the orange cap that (for now) keeps the glue flowing freely, pump bottles of zingy hand sanitizer, boxes of tissue that will be shared with the class throughout the year – all the other accessories optimistic teachers have requested on their school supply lists – everything is present and accounted for.
Closets and dresser drawers have been purged of last year’s tired, worn-out styles and filled with a fresh wardrobe for a fresh school year: T-shirts in bright colors, fabrics unwrinkled, unstretched, unstained. Jeans still stiff with newness. Sneakers with unscuffed soles stand by, laces still plastic-tipped and Velcro free of lint and fuzz.
Of course there must now also be new routines, or perhaps a return to old routines that have been discarded and forgotten over the summer months.
With all good intentions, there are designated, predetermined times for bath, bedtime, breakfast. Homework will be completed promptly and willingly, backpacks will be placed by the door, children will shuffle into place at the corner by the recommended five minutes before the bus arrives.
Online registration has been completed, jumpstarts and orientations attended, lunch money accounts loaded, classroom assignments confirmed.
Last-minute tears and fears are soothed and subdued, and everything is new and ready for the new school year.
Soon enough, these bright beginnings will fade, as all things eventually do.
Pencils are lost by the dozens. Those that survive are worn to nubs, points dulled, erasers worn down to the metal ring. Crayons are broken, wrappers peeled off, and the yellow somehow always leaves a smear of blue behind. Writing paper is crumpled and curled at the corners, and never tears smoothly from the notebook.
Velcro straps flap loose; shoelaces are limp and dirty. Shirts are stained with silent testaments to spaghetti day in the cafeteria.
But a truly successful school year has nothing to do with new pencils or new clothes.
Kids learn when they are challenged to work harder and do more than they might otherwise have done.
Kids learn when their “wrong” answers are guided through an evaluation process that leads to greater understanding.
Kids learn when they are encouraged to try something new, discovering talents and interests that had previously lain dormant.
Kids learn when parents and teachers work together to set expectations and examples of kindness.
Those are the lessons that lead to success at home, in the classroom … and in life.
