The bell

Here it is. The end of Summer. The time, for us, when our oldest, our five year old enters the System. I wasn't there for the drop off, but I did go and pick her up. I was told to wait outside a set of steel mesh gates while the teacher escorted the group down a series of halls in formation. After they reached the exit, the teacher dutifully waited for each one of her charges to be picked up by a parent.
This whole process was understandably a huge deal. Still, I felt kind of embarrassed for giving my little ape a big hug and picking her up. That was until I noticed that a lot of the parents were there with huge camera rigs and some of them even had flowers. I looked at the faces of the little kids after the first day of school and a couple of them looked really tired but they all had a kind of exuberance that kids have when they meet a challenge and come out ok. Some of the hovering moms looked like they'd been crying for days. A lot of these young, soft parents had a look of almost guilt that they'd put their little darlngs in the belly of the beast. It was kind of weird.
I am glad,though, that we spent a day and all night waiting in line to get her transferred to this
school. This is a group of parents that, for all their faults, are going to be deeply engaged in helping their kids squeeze every drop of knowledge and fun that they can from their first years of education. I guess we all have a little growing up to do.