It’s hard not to wax nostalgic at the beginning of the school year. Here are a few things you didn’t particularly care to know:

(1) I come from a family heavily involved in the education process. My parents were teachers. Lots of aunts and uncles and cousins were teachers. My oldest sister is a teacher. My other sister taught one year as an adjunct professor (like I am now); she now works as a proofreader for the S.A.T. test. My wife is now a teacher. My kids aren’t teachers yet, but they are students, which counts.

(2) I used to love buying school supplies. Did anyone else out there used to have to get a cigar box to keep their stuff in at school? Or remember Big Chief tablets? I remember always being excited to see what size Crayola box we were supposed to buy that year. As a kid, I really longed for the 128-color box. Or at least a big enough one to include a built-in sharpener.

(3) I kept all of my papers from 1st grade. Thought I was going to do it all the way through, but grew out of that. (fortunately) Still, it’s interesting to go back and see those old papers.

(4) I went to an experimental school in elementary school then again for junior high (no, we didn’t have middle school. It was junior high. Get over it. And cut the remarks about the experimental schools, too) My elementary didn’t have class rooms, we had “pods.” We had Independent Study Time (I.S.T.) during the day, which worked great for the nerds motivated students like me, but not so well for those who weren’t into reading on their own. In junior high, we each had different schedules and had to write out a daily schedule, including where we would be during our I.S.T.

(5) A friend in high school proposed that we go to a boarding school to better prepare ourselves for college. (He’s now a rich, famous doctor, and I’m wondering if I should have accepted his proposal) I replied that my goal was to be a youth minister, so the things I was doing at my home church were my best preparation for college. Hmmm…

OK, that’s enough of boring you to tears. If you’ve read this far, I’ll hope you’ll join me in a prayer for all those involved in the educational process. Teachers, students, administrators, parents… may we all glorify God during this school year.

(photo by Andrei Niemimäki)