WITHOUT doubt there was many a child who went to bed on Tuesday night excited but with some trepidation.
The prospect of school in the morning would have been welcomed by many after an exceptionally long year-end break with the attendant boredom towards the end.
For others, especially the little ones, Big School had been an imaginary, scary prospect which was about to become reality.
In decades past the majority of children never saw the inside of a crèche or pre-primary school as so many mothers did not go to work outside the home.
For this reason most adults remember their first day of school, their first venture alone into the world, with vivid recollection.
The sobbing and hanging on to mom’s legs for dear life were soon forgotten when seasoned teachers distracted the heartbroken children with stories and games and crafts.
But times have changed, and the cost of living and the needs of families have forced most young mothers back into the workplace, leaving their babies in the care of child minders or at pre-schools and crèches. The result is that today’s children are far more resilient than generations of the past, and the tears which were shed on Wednesday morning were most probably those of the mothers.
School can be a hostile environment for some children, especially those who do not socialise easily, and it is hoped that bullying will receive the attention of schools this year so that the school environment becomes a place of learning and fun for all children.
But it is not only the playground where children are vulnerable. The journey to and from school, especially for children who do this without adult supervision, can be a dangerous time.
This week we published a story on ways to protect children who travel to and from school on their own, and the advice offered should be of benefit to all parents and be discussed with all pupils. Children need to be street smart to protect themselves.
On Tuesday morning a staff member was attacked with a stick at a local primary school and a sum of money was stolen.
This may be the beginning of the town’s scumbags seeing the start of the school year as a golden cash cow, and schools will need to take extra precautions to protect the staff, children and the school fees that are being paid at this time.
The easiest way to do this is for parents to deposit the fees into schools’ bank accounts or to use EFT (electronic funds transfer) to pay the bills. It is possible that these methods are already the rule, but if they are not, schools need to insist that no cash changes hands at the school office.
It is unfortunate that extreme measures need to be taken, but our schools and school children need protection from people who seek to exploit and harm our institutions of learning and our children.
But not everything is to be approached with caution. There is much on offer where children and parents can participate with abandon and say, truly, that schooldays were the best days of our lives.
Here’s to a productive, inspiring school year filled with learning, friends and fun and a matric class of KZN which leaves school at the end of 2015 without a whiff of scandal and their heads held high.
