Kindergarten Through The Kaleidoscope

Kindergarten...the first major turning point in life, or at least in our socialization as human beings living in a society. Young children accustomed to doing as they please without a care in the world discover that life will not always be so. Behaviors must be modified, our fellow beings must be taken into account (those with siblings fare better on that one), and life as we know it will now be fraught with expectations. Such a huge transition, one would think, would leave indelible memories. For me, not so much, just wispy, dreamlike images, like the pensieve from Harry Potter

My younger sister is a kindergarten teacher. She has hilarious and endearing stories to tell of her encounters with children of that age. Like the little boy who tentatively hopped on the bus on day one, then off again at the end of the day to announce loudly to any and all concerned, "Well that's enough of THAT s**t!!" She is a master at bringing them along without breaking their spirits, and I love to watch them run up to her in later years squealing "Miss Barb, Miss Barb" for big hugs. I wish I could remember my teacher a bit better.

First, my conflict of interest disclosure: I must confess that I didn't actually attend kindergarten. Because of my late-in-the-year birthday (November), I started first grade at age 5. I had to attend private school for that year, because the public system had strict cutoffs, but my mom thought I was too old for kindergarten. So these are technically first-grade memories, although in a very kindergarten-like environment.

So what memories float back to me from that long-ago idyllic time?

I was a very curious kid and not shy about exploring my environment. Often that worked out poorly! With a whole class to watch, my teacher couldn't keep a constant eye on each of us, even the trouble-makers like me. One vivid memory was that there was a cage outside the school that contained a few squirrels. Just regular eastern gray squirrels. I was intrigued by them, and one day stuck in my finger to poke one and was immediately bitten. I didn't tell anyone of course, so at some level I must have known I shouldn't have done that. But they were cute and furry. Must not have been as many lawyers around in those days (I can see the TV spots nowadays: "Did your child attend xxx school? Were they bitten by wild animals being kept as 'pets'? YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION!!!")

I also remember the day our class went for a walk and it started to rain. Our teacher quickly herded us under the awning of the kindergarten building. I was standing next to the door, which had this cool pecking-bird door knocker. Totally intrigued, I started pulling the string to see how it worked as the teacher futilely tried to yank my hand away. Guess she didn't want to bother the class inside, but thanks to me, they were soon all out running around in the rain with us. Oh well, chalk up another social faux pas. 

Funny how most of my memories seem to revolve around things I did "wrong" or got in trouble for. But the most vivid memory, although I didn't understand it at the time, was one where I did something right that probably impacted me for the rest of my life. In order to acquaint us with numbers, our teacher periodically handed out mimeographed sheets (no Xerox in the olden days!) that had 100 blank spaces in rows of ten forming a perfect square. We were supposed to fill in the numbers one by one when we had nothing else to work on. After the first one, I was completely bored, so started to amuse myself by filling them in in my own fashion. Some rows I filled in up and down by tens (8,18,28,38,48), others I did on the diagonal (11, 22, 33, 44, etc.). This way I could whip through one in no time without dying of tedium. I was half way through one of these, with numbers going every which way when my teacher stopped by my desk and said "Let me borrow your paper for a moment". I have no idea what she did with it, but it was clear that she was impressed enough with my work to single it out, and that felt great. To this day, I remain both a perpetual student (love that rush of aceing the test) and a "number person". Sadly we can't be good at everything. I can't remember names to save my life, lol, not good in this business!! And there isn't an artistic bone in my body. Thankfully, after all that early socialization I find I work best with a partner or team, each bringing our strengths to the table. And of course, holding hands crossing the street!

Photo Credits: Miss Barb's Kindergarten Planting Patch (x2) by yours truly;

16-05-05_1447 by pppspics and Show and Tell - Explaining the rain game by woodleywonderworks, both from Flickr via Creative Commons License