First Day of Pre-School
September 3, 2008
Given that most of the posts lately have been political in nature, I thought I would bring in a family topic. Today is my baby’s first day of pre-school and she was absolutely thrilled! The other kids were happy, too. And the mothers? We all stood in the back trying to keep ourselves together. Most of us are stay at home moms and this is a big first step for US!
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Thanks for the breath of fresh air! Are you going to be OK without her? :) She’s such a fun daughter!
Our daughter’s first day of pre-school was yesterday. It was fun watching her excitement and listening to her stories about her day. Good times.
Awwww :)
Congratulations for her, and you too! :)
My experience is at a slightly different place — yesterday was my baby’s first day of kindergarten. The kindergarten teacher sent each child a personal invitation to attend kindergarten — so my daughter was especially excited to go.
Beware of schooling. Seriously.
Ah, nice! Congrats. My experience of my first day to school was different. I was not thrilled. I even cried and remember grabbing my mom’s leg while I was on the floor because I didn’t want her to leave.
Two of my four daughters are in school. I am astounded by how much they learn and how quickly. I’ve teared up both times sending them off to school. I am so thankful for our teachers that dedicate themselves to nurturing and educating our young. When done well, they provide a marvelous gift. The best part is when they learn to read and you get to begin sharing your favorite books. Those books lead to others. All the books lead to tremendous conversations. Next thing you know you’re reading Abbot Vonier’s reflections on the eucharist together….okay, maybe not yet.
Shhesh, it amazes me how posters here will insert their fears/causes. Thanks, Sam Rocha.
Indeed it was one of the best days of my younger son’s life when he started preschool. No apologies here for the fact that it was one of my better days too.
There was a little boy who was sent of to a nondenominational Christian nursery school, in the days before preschool was invented, because his mother was pregnant, with twins, as it turned out. This was the only reason he ever learned “Jesus Loves Me,” which was not sung in Catholic schools.
One day the little boy was playing a game in a big circle with all the other students and teachers, and it became apparent that part of the game required snapping one’s fingers, which the little boy did not knew how to do. He quietly slipped out of the circle, but one of the teachers, possibly Vera Lichtenberg, who never said “I” but always “Vera” (as in “Vera brought something to show you today!”) saw the boy and rashly and coldheartedly punished him for dropping out by making him stand in the corner. He was deeply wounded by the injustice of it, and he cried and cried. Fiinally one of the other teachers asked me — I mean him, the little boy — what was wrong, and he said tearfully, “I don’t know how to snap my fingers!” And she was very kind, and taught him how.
When his father came to pick him up, the little boy said to his father (and older sister, who was in the car), “Look! I can snap my fingers.” And though still a little teary eyed, he was beginning to feel better, even though his father didn’t seem all that impressed.
And as the years, and then the decades passed, the little boy almost got over it.
Lesson: Teach your children to snap their fingers before sending them off to school.
“Are you going to be OK without her” Good question, Katerina. i didn’t quite know what to do with my free time. I didn’t think I would be the weepy type, but there I was, joining the masses. :)
And thank you for the compliment, she IS a fun kiddo.
SAF: If the dangers of compulsory schooling (especially in the US) is an arbitrary fear/cause of mine, then it might be inappropriate. However, if you care to look into it, compulsory schooling has a long track record of being a state-sponsored socialization (regardless of where it happens). You are partially right, as much of my research is spent looking at this, but I think you would be convinced, as I am, of the danger of schooling if you took a more generous stance.
All that aside, it is a neat thing to go through life changes and phases such as these, I have children of my own and these moments should be cherished, I think, but not to the point that we become too unaware of what is happening…
Sam, thank you for the kind tone of your response. I have two children in public schools and am not unaware of the socialization you mention. However, the objectionable aspects of compulsory schooling have varied with the changing times (wider culture), and I cannot agree that compulsory education is itself the problem.
Respectfully,
SAF
SAF, understood, compulsory schooling isn’t “itself” the problem, however, the original motives that have changed only in becoming more deliberate (e.g. increasing federalization and so on) are quite sinister. For more see any credible historical account of the 1830′s common school movement headed by Horace Mann. For the record, I attended public schools from 7-12 grades, and at times I was educated there too. The fervent tone to my postings is that my career-choice is precisely in attending to much of this discussion theoretically, historically, and from a policy view as well. Sorry you had to bump into such an ideologue here at VN.
Best,
Sam