This is a memory that every kid shares, regardless of generation. The last day of school was a rush for all involved.
Kids loved it because it meant three months of freedom. Teachers loved it for the same reason. But kids had the additional bonus of going up a grade the next year. Of course the lucky teachers gained another year of tenure, where applicable. But the rest got a year closer to retirement. And even the staff that had to keep working, like maintenance, finally got to tackle jobs that required shutting down parts of the buildings.
So the last day of school was without a doubt a good deal for all involved individuals.
The school year would start with a resigned acceptance of circumstances. Summer was fun, often involving a real vacation and perhaps some weekend campouts and fishng trips, But the days had grown shorter, the air had turned cooler, and it was time to get back to the dreary business of studying, learning, and (my biggest challenge) behaving yourself.
But eventually we would settle into the routine. Thanksgiving would provide a big fat four-day break, Christmas and New Year's an even longer two-week hiatus, and, assuming we didn't have too many snow days, a spring break of a week.
Once you got those precious April days off behind you, it was a short jog to the freedom of summer. You walked to school with an extra spring in your step. The weather was warm, leaves were popping out on the trees, and everyone was in a better mood.
Soon, you were in the very merry month of May. You were taking end-of-year tests and getting more free time in class for your own personal use (as long as you were quiet, another big challenge for your webmaster). You were free to draw airplanes, wars, space ships, or any other objects of kids' artistic endeavors.
By the time I made it to junior high in the early 70's, I was going to Bentonville, Arkansas Middle School (NOT junior high, according to our principal!). There, I obtained a taste of a spring tradition in that small town (at least it was back then). That tradition was progressive squirt gun lenience.
Get caught with a squirt gun in September, it was three licks in the principal's office. But the same violation circa May the 5th would warrant a mere 100-word essay. And when school let out at the end of the month, your water-dispensing weapon was COMPLETELY LEGAL!
The only offense that would draw discipline was squirting the teacher. But some of the more light-hearted educators didn't even mind that. So after a day of joyful dowsings from fellow students while delivering as much return fire as possible, you finally loaded your tired but exuberant body onto the school bus and went home.
It's a shame that, as adults, we no longer have an annual explosion of joy like the last day of school. We could really use a day of unrestrained, innocent revelry every year.
Comments (4)
I've taught for the past 25 years and still get very hyped the last day.I just try not to show it.Party days and the last day of school are always an adventure.The kids know I'm going to cut them some slack.They need a little slack now and then.
Posted by Steve | October 6, 2007 5:24 PM
Posted on October 6, 2007 17:24
After school was out for a few days I actually began to miss it. Some kids got the Weekly Reader in the summer by mail. I always missed sharing it with my little classmates. To me the first day back at school was so exciting. Call me weird!
Posted by russell | March 12, 2008 3:01 PM
Posted on March 12, 2008 15:01
Ok, Russell, I'll call you weird, if you'll call me weird, also. The first six years of my education was spent in a school that conveniently happened to be across the street from where I still live. I loved the excitement and the pending freedom that the last day of school always held for all of us. BUT... the day after the last day, you would find me, by 8:30am, in the same classroom that I had just celebrated vacating! I loved school, and the teachers (my entire life I have enjoyed the company of my elders), so I was always that curious child who would win himself the role of "teacher's pet." So, of course, I was back at school to help the teacher pack up and clean out the classroom of all that we had accumulated during the year. Oh what fun it was to be there! The teacher's would all "let their hair down" a bit and be laughing and joking with one another in the hallways. An eerie and fun week that would be. Then, there arrived the Last Day of School, Part II, when the teachers were finished and left for the summer, also. I always dragged home with an assortment of chalk, poster paper, half empty glue bottles and other neat stuff. When summer flew to an end, my feet would drag like the other kids-- until the first bell of the school year rang, and Ding! I felt good about being back at my "other home!"
I eventually did spend some years teaching, and even had the opportunity to teach in the same classroom in which I had spent the third grade!
Posted by NCeddie | November 23, 2008 7:46 AM
Posted on November 23, 2008 07:46
I didn't like school much, but what ya going to do! You have to go! So last day was alwayd a treat! And we were bad! We would take all our papers, Black composition books and note book paper and throw them all in the creek near our home. And I did this well into highschool too! Loved those three month summer vacations, unless we had to do summer school?
Posted by Rivers End | October 11, 2009 10:19 PM
Posted on October 11, 2009 22:19