It’s months like this that make me happy I’m not a parent, especially of a student just entering Grade 1.
Think about all the questions you would have been asked already this month (and may still be asked).
It starts with the little one getting so excited for Grade 1 that on Monday, September 5, they’re up good and early, all set to go to school like a big kid this year. No more of that pre-school stuff. This year, I’m going to a grade that’s got an actual number on it.
Then your parents try to explain the concept of Labour Day to you, and why you aren’t actually going to school today.
Sigh. OK, I made it all summer, I can go one more day before I go to school.
Tuesday morning, up bright and early again, and this time you’re informed that yes, you are going to school. Yay! You go to school, excited to walk through the halls to your classroom. You meet your teacher, get to see some friends you may not have seen over the summer, and then you’re told to pack up, the hour of school on the first day is over.
Now you’re starting to get confused. When you were in pre-school you were at the school for more than an hour each day.
But if that’s the way the old people want to do it, fine.
You come back Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and you’re getting into a routine.
Then you come back for all five days the next week, and you’re thinking you’ve got this routine down pretty good.
Friday, you’re told that the following Monday, you won’t have school because it’s the Queen’s funeral. Now you have to ask your adults questions about what a queen is, what a funeral is, and why it all means you can’t go to school.
OK, so now you’re back to only four days of school in a week. That’s OK, we’re going to get back to that five-days-a-week pretty quick.
Except the next week (which we’re in now), you don’t have school on Friday because of National Truth and Reconciliation Day. Good luck to parents explaining that concept to a six-year-old.
And now on Monday, October 3, you don’t have school because the teachers’ non-Instructional day, which had been scheduled for September 19, when you didn’t have school because of the Queen’s funeral (see above), is today. And you ask about what non-instructional days are, and start to wonder if it would be easier to check on what days you’re actually going to school.
We’re not quite finished though. Monday, October 10, is Thanksgiving, which means another four-day week.
And the thing some Grade 1 students will be most thankful for is that they can get back to five-day weeks at school.