Thousands upon thousands of brand new school students started their first experience of 'big school' last week and this week. My 5 year old grand-son was one of them.
There are many school new starts, not only the Kindies, bit consider the following list of first days:
Primary to high school
Immigrants first day
Starting at a new school
Placed in a new class
All of these situations are fraught with anticipation. There are pre-start days often the year before for new starters. There are introduction days for immigrant children and for the Kindies in most schools there is a buddy system. This is a student some years older who the littlies can go to for help or reassurance.
Strange as it may seem, I can recall my first day at school, North Mackay State School. Moreover before going to school, I remember my little sister and I being read in the afternoon by our mother as we were waiting for my elder brother arriving home from school in a northern Mackay suburb of Andergrove. It was always with much anticipation to listen to his daily encounters.
None of us wore shoes to school in the mid 50s unless we were going into town or to the doctor or dentist. That is a very clear memory of my first day of school. We were issued with a slate and slate pencil and almost immediately we began to copy the letters of the alphabet onto our slates. All of us, it seemed to me, were bright eyed and keen as mustard.
Primary to high school
This is a major cultural change for many students unless they are in some Queensland rural centres where they have "High Up" schools which house all the students from the Kindies to Year 12 in the one school complex. On a Country Town Tour some years ago I spoke at Calen State School which precisely one of these. Calen is between Mackay and Proserpine.
There are major differences between primary and high school is that students no longer have one teacher. There is a separate teacher for each subject in high school. This is an instance of understanding 'specialisation'. There is a Maths teacher, an English teacher, a Science teacher and so on. Even sport (PE) has its own teacher.
Another difference are the intake of students. High schools have a much broader scope than a local primary school. Where I went to high school at Narrabundah in Canberra (before it became a college) I was expecting to see my friends from Red Hills Primary. To my somewhat amazement there were kids in my first year of high school from all the surrounding primary schools.
Sports became much more of a focus in that first year of high school and it became a big deal at the end of the year to receive a sport trophy as it was a class result ribbon. High school opens up a whole new world including the science lab and those astonishing Bunsen burners.
Immigrants
Imagine the fearful hearts of all those new immigrant children on their first day, some with little English and thrust into a new world environment, very different more often than not to their home life.
In some situations a different language is spoken at home. Very different moral, family, society values. School is a one way ticket to another experience, and it means a host of variant things to each of them.
Down the track these students find themselves living in two very different worlds, the one from home and the one at school which requires values that differ and often conflict with that of home. It can be drama plus.
Starting at a new school
Some of our children experienced this, first from Wallacia in Sydney to Moruya on the south coast of New South Wales. Then 14 years later, one of them went from Moruya to South Tweed (Tweed Heads) starting fresh in Year 10.
These experiences are far more common for children whose parents are in the military, the corporate world, the mining industry, teaching, higher education, missionaries, ministers. transport (air, rail, trucking) for parents go where the work is or where promotions are offered. Sometimes it means to other countries.
All these children need to establish methodologies to settle in, find new friends, adjust to teaching and educational methodologies and school cultures. It took our fourth (third daughter) a little time to settle in where she found a good group of friends. We watched them develop, graduate, go onto college or university or the work force.
Placed in a new class
This dilemma is associated with the friendships and bonds a student has become accustomed. They might have been in the same English or Maths class for 2-3 years and then shifted by the school to another class.
This happens a great deal. It is not only academic results determine such moves, maybe the students disrupted the class way too much by their chatter and social agendas.
Whatever the reasons, that first day, whether it be as a Kindi, to a high school, a new immigrant, into a different class, there is one inherent drama which they all face – giving an account of their first day to mum ! Moreover mum and dad want to know everything, every word spoken and heard, what was new and exciting and scary.
Strange, becoming a follower of Jesus is like that too ! There are all the same hallmarks, and moreover there is someone to talk to - about it all.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
