Remember when school started the Tuesday or Wednesday after Labor Day? Remember when you took the kids shopping for shoes the week before–so they wouldn’t outgrow their new footwear before school started? Remember when the kids scanned the school lunch menu and decided they preferred a bag lunch from home? And most of all — remember when there were no backpacks that weighed down your child’s young shoulders?
Okay, I’m old. Even my kids are old because they can remember it all as well. Now, their kids, that’s a different story. They have ipads and smart phones and computers, as well as books. They might take a class presented on the computer at home. They all return to school in August, some even early August. (Of course, they do get more or longer vacations during the year. That may be all to the good, actually.) I’ve even read about schools that decide the bag lunch isn’t adequate and throw it out. Ah, me. A group of us old ladies got together a couple of weeks ago and agreed that we wouldn’t want to be raising out children now.
But, of course, every old generation looks askance at the young upstarts. Everything is new, and they wouldn’t want it any other way. Look at the amazing things our children and grandchildren are learning–and doing. Even we old fogies are catching up with the times. And, for sure, if our youngsters kept to the twentieth century ways, they’d be completely lost in a year or two.
How lost would they be if they started the way I did? Maybe you learned to read from a Dick and Jane book too. I did, and, believe it or not, so did my oldest daughter. I was amazed when she brought her book home to show us. There it was. “See Dick run. See Jane run.” All year long she studied from that book, just as I did. And, at the end of the book and the end of the year came the story I loved. “Dark Pony.”
So, in honor of the past, the book I want to mention today is We Play (Read With Dick and Jane) It is even available! (There are others listed, but they are unavailable.)
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