La Rentrée

Leaving the house early this morning to get my errands done before the temperature climbed I saw the kids leaving for the first day of school. Most had new square book bags on their backs, although some were obviously left over from last year. It is La Rentrée. I know in each of those bookbags there is a rectangle pencil case filled with ink pens and multi-colored inks, a white liquid ink coverer, a ruler and a couple of pencils and erasers.

Notebooks, not blue lined but with quadrangles would be in there too, one for each subject. The kids do all their work in the notebooks and neatness counts. Teachers write notes to parents, and parents have to sign the notes with their own comments.

During the day the quiet is strange after a summer of children’s voices, but once it is five o’clock when school gets out, their voices will once again float through my window from the street below. What a welcome sign of life that is.

In Canton Vaud the kids went back to two weeks ago, forcing some parents to reduce their August holidays. There was no change in the school hours, despite complaints from many parents, who resent that if they have three children in one school the starting hours, coming home for lunch, going back and coming home again can be different for all three meaning 12 separate times. A working mother must have household help to make sure their children have someone to watch them and run back and forth with the many trips. However, as one friend living in St. Cergue found out when she tried to start a school canteen, so her children wouldn’t interrupt her writing day, many mothers want to see their children at noon time and like knowing they are giving them a good meal with quality family time. There is something to be said for both.