Listen for the School Bell

Are there still hand-held bells in schools? Probably not. Probably only in cathedral choirs.

At one time, a teacher would come out on the school steps and ring a bell to summon children to class. In the primary grades, we would form lines, two by two, holding hands. You would hear children say, "You're mine!" And the teacher would reproach them: "She is not yours. No one owns anyone else." To which, of course, an eight-year-old cynic might mutter, "Oh, yeah?" But there weren't a lot of eight-year-old cynics around.

On the first day of school, which never lasted very long, teachers would give students a list of the textbooks and desk supplies they were expected to bring the next day, and students would rush to the two or three stores where these items were available. There we would crowd the counters, eight and ten feet deep, pushing and shoving like people at a new smart phone introduction or a designer shoe sale.

There were also independent sales persons; i.e., students who had passed into the next grade, and were eager to flog their battered, ink-stained texts. Some would tell you the answers were written in the back, a major selling point.

Years ago, on the first day of school, CKNW would run announcements cautioning drivers to be careful, e.g.; "Hi, I'm Bill Hughes. I'll be watching out for your kids when I'm driving today. Please watch out for mine."

As September begins, we have always thought of children returning to class, their mixed eagerness and anxiousness. But this year, we began to think of the same emotions in teachers.

So watch out for teachers, too.