(no subject)

[ewx]

I don't think I remember my first day at school but I do have memories from the first year (actually called the pre-first year). I remember tracing round letters in the learning-to-write lessons; when writing something, leaving a gap between the vertical and horizontal of a capital T to see what would happen, and having Mrs Heywood display it to the whole class saying never to do that (without saying who did it, which I thought was nice of her); A4-on-its-side exercise books with blue covers; the way a long line of writing slipped down the page rather than being a straight horizontal line; a nasty boy called Lee; a girl crying because she had to wear boy's socks (I don't however remember why she needed a change of socks); a brightly lit classroom; being told off on a next day for leaving before Mrs Heywood had spotted my Mum outside and saying I could go, and not remembering this at all; taking home letters from school; not "getting" the standard way of sitting cross-legged; deciding to staying silent during prayers; getting bored when writing and doing very light scribbles on the same page (I don't remember being told off for this but I'm sure it happened).

Comments

not "getting" the standard way of sitting cross-legged

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Sitting cross-legged *hurt* for many years; more or less until I stopped ahving to do it. Benedict does it naturally, though.

[gerald_duck]

I remember my first day at school. It wasn't a day, just an afternoon. Either my mum explained and I didn't understand or, more likely, my mum didn't explain - I recall it being presented as just another nursery or one o'clock club, or whatever, but it was clearly a larger and more important place. I wasn't scared or confused, just a little apprehensive.

To start with, presumably to carry on the nursery conceit and get kids used to school life, we were just painting, messing with bricks, etc. I recall this not interesting me very much, though I was amused by the tactile properties of the aprons kids had to wear for painting; maybe my pervy fabric interests began earlier than I realised.

The main thing I got out of those first three years was longer-term friendships, and more developed interactions with other kids. Pre-school, I'd been to at least three different playgroups, so didn't get to know anyone much. The work baffled me - I didn't understand why we were being asked to do all this simple stuff, when there were so many more interesting possibilities.

I also found out that some people treated God and Santa Claus as real. I've understood the concepts of fiction, of fairy tales, and of legend for as long as I can recall, and automatically treated them as being in this category. I got told off for telling people Santa Claus wasn't real, but nobody ever told me off for saying God wasn't.

The school's hall was a huge place, or so it seemed to me. The roof was supported by metal girders, which had stretched hexagonal holes in them. Whenever I was bored in assembly, which was often, I'd contemplate the pleasing shape of the lines of holes.

The toilets were small. I realised this was for our benefit, because we were small, but also thought it was pretty stupid since we all had to learn to use normal-sized toilets at home, anyway. I wondered where the teachers went to the loo. I assumed there were private lavatories for the teachers attached to the staff room, but as the star pupil I was once allowed in there, and I couldn't see any. This mystery still baffles me, almost three decades later.

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. In infant class we had lots of copying-down to do when learning to write and, finding it pretty boring, I tried some creative ways to write (including with zigzag lines) which, it turned out, weren't exactly appreciated for their originality.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

My main memories from my first year at school are of being taught to read and write (which my mum had taught me to do already anyway) having constant earache and being sent home repeatedly because of it, and being bullied. Mind you, I was bullied even at playgroup before I went to school, so it wasn't really a surprise. I remember thinking, My god, I have to get through thirteen years of this before they let me go!

[rejs.livejournal.com]

I don't remember much about my first day, to be honest. But I spent my first term (the summer before I turned 5) going in mornings-only, except for one day when my mum couldn't collect me until the afternoon and so I stayed all day. I got really confused by the putting chairs-on-tables thing.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

We had the half-day thing for a bit too.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

I remember distinctly having an awful lot of trouble learning to spell because. The order of the u and the a and the presence of the final e were quite a problem :) I had a big blue sheet of card which seemed far too large to manage - it must have been A4, in retrospect - with columns on it headed by words to practise writing.

I don't remember my first day but I remember a lot of snatches of my first year. THe first time I was away through being ill, and how strange it was to come back and find everyone else was doing things I didn't know about and the teacher telling them to explain it to me. Sticking my hand up and saying 'I'm bored!' and getting a resounding telling-off involving the phrase working my fingers to the bone in return ;)

I also remember asking my mum while we were walking past playgroup one day why I had to go to school, and telling her I didn't want to :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

You mean it's not "'cos"?