I can still recall the emotional gumbo that the first days of each school year used to fill me with: the excitement of seeing my old schoolmates and curiosity about the new faces, and of course, getting my first impression of that new teacher standing before us all. I’d cross my fingers in hopes this new instructor would be one that I liked.
All of my senses were indulged as well. I remember the rough feel of the brown paper as we scissored it into covers for our textbooks. The smell of a new box of crayons. (Speaking of smells, we put our school supplies into old cigar boxes with their wonderful fragrance.)
Ears filled with the excited chatter of students’ voices in the cafeteria. Then there was the taste, sometimes good and sometimes bad, of that cafeteria food - cooked on the premises in those days, with an aroma that drifted throughout the school. My fingers were often crossed that hamburgers were on that day’s menu.
This school year also begins with plenty of reasons to cross our fingers.
Fingers are crossed that students will have a successful year. Fingers are crossed that teachers will get the compensation they deserve for guiding our children through successful school years. Fingers are crossed that the adults who are their role models will provide them with homes where education is valued. Fingers are crossed that our courts and our legislators (and whoever our governor is) will do their part financially to upright the listing ship of Kansas education.
Good luck, students, teachers, staffs and politicians. It can’t be easy to write with all those fingers crossed.
