My primary school reports indicated that I was a consistent student who had some promise if he was to work harder, be neater and be more organised. I went to three primary schools – all Catholic. I have very fond memories. I remember drying stamps to support the missions, singing Highland songs, being rather horrid with butterflies, hanging off the monkey bars, lunches wrapped in greaseproof paper with homemade cakes and biscuits (and sometime homemade bread), playing rugby with my dad as coach, learning to read and write. I was never afraid of the Sisters (Mercy and Josephite). Justice was always quick and grudges were not held. I was never much trouble. Life was pretty care-free. There were tough kids at school who would occasionally give me a scare, but all in all, bullies were few and far between. Surprisingly no one noticed I couldn’t see well until I was midway through high school when I was finally bespectacled. It certainly explained why I liked sitting at the front of the class – I could see the board.
We were a pretty homogenous group. Many of us had larger families, most had stay-at -home mums (not mine!), we saw each other at church on Sundays and at my first school I was related to nearly everyone. TV only went for few hours every evening. It was an enchanting and enjoyable life – but we also ran with the punches. Life could be tough too. Parents didn’t fight your battles, you fought your own, you won or lost. If you lost, you just got on with it. You toughened up. Today we call it resilience.
Today’s kids are not as lucky as we were in 1960. My world was pretty black and white, good and evil, Catholic and Protestant. I didn’t have decisions to make day after day. My parents weren’t as well educated, wealthy, mobile, housed or entertained as well as they are today. Nor were we kids as sophisticated, world-aware, or as well-listened to as today’s children. We didn’t have to be taught how to cross roads, how to behave with the elderly, how to beware of strangers, heart disease, and the myriad things kids need to learn about today. We didn’t have integrated studies, computers or calculators. Paper was scarce and sacred. What we were taught we regurgitated for tests and we were scaled in letters and percentages and shown class averages.
Your children are going to be adults in a world which is going to be so different from my childhood and yours. Schools are rapidly changing. Not quickly enough for some, and too quickly for others. All this surrounds your child, they are bombarded by advertising, consumer goods, bigger and better everything. But to be resilient, they need you to be standing with them in this maelstrom of a postmodern world, guiding, giving wisdom, helping make good choices. Enjoy them. Love them. Make them strong.
1 comment:
It sounds like I grew up around the same time you did (grade school in the sixties; high school & college in the seventies?) In any event, I went to private Catholic schools for the first twelve years of my life and led a fairly sheltered existence with the Church just starting to emerge from the shadows of Vatican II.
The question I asked my teens last night at the dinner table was: Is there more Evil in the world today than in days/years gone by? In some ways it seems so. In other ways, it just seems we are more aware of it or it's more accessible because of/due to technology and mass communication.
Anyway, great articles! And if you're a member of a dying breed, so am I!
Blessings on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier! booklady
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