Going to high school

or secondary school this year is going to be different for many students in this state. They will be starting a year earlier than most of those who went before them.

It was one of the peculiarities of education in this state that primary school ended at the end of year seven, not year six. The move to end it at the end of year six was long overdue. By the time they were going into year eight many of those students are far more mature than my generation was. They need to be. The world is a different place.

I started school when I was four. Back then you started school in the year you turned five or soon after. My birthday comes at the very end of the year. I was actually barely four when I started school. 

The decision to send me to school was undoubtedly made by mother. She had my toddler brother and four month old Middle Cat to look after at home. There were days when she would be called very early in the morning and asked if she could do a day's relief teaching as well. That meant asking the woman who cared for my siblings to be available as well. It was all part of living in a tiny country community.  I don't quite know how my parents managed all of this but obviously it was easier to be rid of worrying about what to do with me. I could read. I went to school.

Of course that meant I went through school being a great deal younger than everyone else in each class I was in. It wouldn't happen now.  It would not be allowed to happen now. In the dim, distant past it happened because nobody had any other way of handling children like me in circumstances like that.  It was not ideal. 

Now delays to starting school are more common. I went to "kindergarten" for a while. From memory it was for just a couple of hours a week.  I did not like it. School was different. I was not fond of it but I was allowed to read there - rather than have someone read to me. I was allowed to write stories in my daily diary. I could do the sums and more.  Now most children go to "preschool" and they do a lot of what I did at home and that other children did when starting school. My parents were teachers. They educated me from the day I was born. 

I wonder now how those students going into year seven will feel next year. Will it be something like it was for me when I started school? They will be the very junior fish in the big pond high school. There will be some sharks circling.  

While the structure of the days might change somewhat for children in rural area schools it is not going to be so different for them. They will be going to the same school with the same friends and often many of the same teachers. In the city though it will mean a new school and perhaps new friends. My great-niece in another state is going to a new school, a "selective" high school. She is considered to be mathematically able and likes the subject. The school will allow her to pursue that interest, if she wants to. But she will be the only girl from her school to go there. Is she nervous about it? Yes, but in a healthy sort of way. 

Most students here though will head off to their new school with some students they  already know. If they are mature enough they will have each other for support. Good teachers are going to be aware of that - and the need for it.

But I think I am glad I am not one of those students. I am not sure what the future holds for them - and I am not sure I would want to find out. It's going to be more difficult for them than it was for us.