I happily affirm that I love school. I loved going to school. I love that our children are old enough to go to school. I know that not everyone, including some people in my household, have the same experience or love for school, but this time of year always fills me with new energy and hope. 
Five questions, then, about school.
- What was your favorite thing about school?
- Who was your most memorable teacher?
- With whom did you sit at lunch?
- What is/was your favorite school supply?
- What do you think “kids these days” are missing out on?
You may answer in the blog comments, on the facebook post, or post a link to your very own blog post (it’s not complicated; just copy and paste the address of the particular post).
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Monica Thompson Smith is a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, serving as a pulpit supply preacher in South Central Texas. She is a contributor to There’s a Woman in the Pulpit.
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RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.
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RevGalBlogPals 
I played… with a difference… https://mywindowongodsworld.com/2016/08/26/friday-five-back-to-school/
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Love it! I replied on your blog post.
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1. What was your favorite thing about school?
Learning new stuff. I never quite got the curiosity and love of learning drummed out of me like a lot of kids apparently do. No, I never had any use for tedious busywork, but any time I could learn something new, I was happy.
2. Who was your most memorable teacher?
My high school American government teacher, Patrick Henry (yes, really). He pushed us hard, but we learned a ton. We also had a chemistry teacher, Mr. Bobek, who was a little bit absent-minded and always wore a lab coat with a few holes in it where he’d gotten a little too close to a lit Bunsen burner. At the end of the year a friend and I gave him a new lab coat as a gift; she painted on it in place of the burn holes. He taught us essentially college-level chemistry, so when a friend of mine was failing chemistry in college and needed a little help, I sat in on the class and understood everything that was being taught.
3. With whom did you sit at lunch?
In grade school we lived a block from the school, so I usually went home for lunch, and sat with my mom and dad and my sister. Now and then we would need to stay at school for lunch (hot lunches were served starting when I was in third grade), but the lunchroom folks told us where to sit. When I did eat lunch at school, in junior high and the first year or so of high school, I had a small group of friends I sat with. One of them, Angie, had thick glasses and was a bit of a space cadet (yes, it was the ’80s), so she’d often come out of the line and stand there looking around, trying to find us, and oftentimes we were right in front of her.
4. What is/was your favorite school supply?
Automatic pencils. In high school (they weren’t actually allowed in elementary school for some reason) I had a favorite brand that had padded barrels in a variety of colors. Nowadays I’m all about a Pentel P205 drafting pencil. They’re not cheap, and I probably have a couple dozen of them.
5. What do you think “kids these days” are missing out on?
Unstructured time. I’m sort of in the camp that believes assigned homework tends to drown curiosity and love of learning in a sea of tedium, at least for younger kids. And if they’re already involved in sports or something else that they have to attend practice for, homework takes that much more unstructured time away from kids and keeps them from learning how to keep themselves occupied without a rigid schedule. Yes, if a kid has an assignment they were working on in class that they didn’t finish, let them take it home; but otherwise, I think kids are better off using that time playing, reading for enjoyment, hanging out with their family without the stress and battles that happen when parents are needing to remind kids to do their homework and supervising their actual doing it. (We never had homework until fourth grade, and it was almost always of the “take home what you didn’t get done in class” sort, at least until junior high; at that point, we sometimes had projects we had to work on outside of class time, or the history teacher would send us out to find examples of Greek-style architecture in our community, or we’d be asked to talk to our parents or grandparents about something, or something like that.)
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I always was grateful for the un-structured time when I was not in school. I did not do sports and on occasion music things kept me after school. Riding a school bus for an hour was also a good experience. We were always the first ones on and last ones off…our neighbor drove the bus!
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2. Patrick Henry cracks me up.
4. They aren’t allowed at my kids’ elementary school either. Perplexing.
5. Amen
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I was so glad that my kids did not have homework till middle school!
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Thanks Monica. Here is mine.
https://theedgeishere.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/its-that-time/
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Thanks for playing! I’m commenting on your post!
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http://marybethbutler.typepad.com/terrapin_station/2016/08/friday-five-back-to-school.html Here!
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Thanks for playing! I already commented on your blog!
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I played – 3x in 1!
https://maryrobincraig.com/2016/08/26/friday-five-back-to-school-edition/
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Thank you! I’ll check it out on your blog!
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What was your favourite thing about school? The holidays
Who was your most memorable teacher? I think the headmistress, Phyllis Evans; it cannot have been easy to mentor schoolgirls in the 1960s, and although she had her faults, she did a great job.
With whom did you sit at lunch? We had a ticket system; you sat at the place designated by your ticket.
What is/was your favourite school supply? I don’t understand this question.
What do you think “kids these days” are missing out on? Freedom to “play out”. But in many ways their lives are infinitely better.
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My girls are thrilled that this new school offers two times for recess instead of only one. I think they agree with your last answer! Thanks for playing.
(P.S. Sorry, if “school supply” is a cultural term–it means notebooks, pencils, paper, etc that one needs to purchase for use at school)
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such a fave topic! Thanks, Monica! At first I thought I’d play here in the comments, but decided I needed to showcase one of the school bus pics I took this week,so here’s my play: http://www.desertspiritsfire.com/2016/08/back-to-school-5.html
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Thanks, I’ll check it out!
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