School Daze

Now that summer is over, I see parents walking their kids to school in the morning.  To be more accurate, it's usually the kid scurrying behind the parent trying to keep up. The parents look harried. The kids look like they're heading to their doom. 

Now I was one of those weird kids who loved school -- except for math class which I had no interest in and therefore no understanding of or is it the reverse.   I never actually skipped to school wearing a broad "yippee, I'm going to spend six hours with the nuns" grin, but I didn't look as though my hamster just died either. 

Is it because these kids are going to public school?  I'd probably not have a rosy outlook either if I was subjected to a backpack search and  metal detector scan even though I'm only in the third grade.  Perhaps they're wondering what mystery meat will be served in the cafeteria  and why the giant sixth grade bully wants their portion too. 

Maybe they're worried the teacher won't believe that the dog really did eat their homework or anxious that an asteroid will land in the classroom or nervous that they'll be the last kid picked for volleyball during gym.

Now that I think about it, these kids have good reason to be grim.  And this is without knowing that the quality of their education is far from A+.

All we had to worry about in elementary school was the Red Menace.  Atomic bombs.  Our innocent classmates kidnapped, brainwashed and adopted by a Russian family.   Yes, things were simpler then.