Lesson 1: Childhood Memories- School Days

We are now going to look specifically at your school days.

This will be divided into two sections- primary and secondary.
 
Can you remember your first day of school? This may even be your earliest childhood memory. If you can’t remember, the likelihood is that you simply accepted this new stage in your life and nothing too eventful happened. If you do remember, it is most likely due to the fact that it was very exciting or traumatic. This may have been the first time you had separated from your mother. If you are the oldest child in the family, you were ‘paving the way’ into the unknown which can be very frightening for a young child. Perhaps you had a bad experience with your teacher or another classmate. Maybe there is a funny story to relate.
 
There are three particular aspects of your school years I want you to think about:

1. The factual information- such as the name of the school and the years you attended, and even how far it was from home (how did you get to school?)

2. Descriptions- the layout of the school, the layout of the classroom, class size, school uniform, school discipline, school carnivals

3. Emotions- how you felt about being at school, getting along with teachers/peers, favourite subjects? Did you love school, did you hate school?

 
Schooling is very different today. Chat to your children or grandchildren about their experiences at school and then write about how your experiences differed. Once again you are recording history. What did you do in school that students don’t do today? Here are a few memories I have from my primary school years- sang “God Save the Queen” each morning, drank warm milk, I had a small brown school case (not sure how I fitted everything in there!).  What about what you did at lunch time. Fads come and go in the playground- hopscotch, knuckles, marbles, yo yos, trading cards. The Monkey Bars were notorious for breaking bones, but we enjoyed climbing and swinging from them, a pleasure children don’t experience today.
 
What stories can you share about your school days- funny or awkward moments?
 
Did you change schools? When and where did you go. How did you feel?
 
Did you attend school in another country? Describe the differences.
 
When did you finish school? Were there any celebrations? How did you feel?
 

Whilst you were in school did you have a part time job? For many of us this was in the days when shops were only open until 1pm on Saturday and were closed on Sunday. How old were you? Where did you work? What did you do? How much did you get paid? Did you spend this money on anything specific?
 

We will talk about tertiary education next week.