Claire McArthur
We already lived through the best years of our lives and we didn’t even know it. Elementary school was the shit. Think about it, your teachers LOVED kids so much. You see your friends becoming elementary school teachers now and while some definitely have that teaching gene, most just have an incredible love for children. So, as a student in elementary school, you’re loved. My History of Christianity prof last year, definitely did not love me. Here’s a few other things I miss about elementary school, besides being loved by my teachers…
Recess
Obviously, recess was the deal breaker. It’s something the world teases you with until it yanks it away from you a mere 8 years after giving it to you. I know, life just isn’t fair sometimes. Everything worth talking about in class always happened at recess. Whether it was a grade eight boy talking to you, scoring the winning goal at field soccer or meeting up with your friends in the other class in your grade, everything important happened at recess. It was also a time of economics. Trading was constantly happening during recess, whether you were trading Dunkaroos for a Fruit Roll Up (idiot, nothing is better than a Dunkaroo) or trading ten Pogs for a slammer, the bartering economy was always alive and healthy on the playground.
Math Class
Math class was sick in elementary school. If you were doing adding or subtracting, you knew that the teacher was going to pull out Skittles and since I was a fat little third grade child, this was always the highlight and probably why I did so well in grade three math. Then you got to use the red symmetry mirrors, the ones you used for flips, slides and turns. They were so dope. I remember making PERFECT butterflies (no, this had nothing to do with math) except for that small space in the middle that you had to connect by hand–such a hassle. I killed elementary school math but as soon as the candy stopped, my marks dropped. Bummer.
Heads-Up Seven-Up
I didn’t mind French class, mostly because I was good at it and I like shit I’m good at–obviously. So every day in French class didn’t kill me like it did some of my classmates, but the days my classmates most looked forward to in French class was Heads-Up Seven-Up. I of course had a cheat to this–look at the person’s shoes when your head is down–and then if you’re the one choosing you have to stand behind them and hit their back, not their head and never with your nail if you’re a girl. My cheats made the game more tolerable for me because I was always bored by this game. However, what I wouldn’t give now in order to have a giant game of Heads-Up Seven-Up back in my first year psych class–maybe on a little larger scale though.
Field Trips
Field Trips were always the Best. Days. Ever. There was just so much to look forward to doing! First, you obviously had to find your bus partner then sit as close to the back of the bus as possible. On the way to the trip site you had to do everything wrong without getting caught. One time, I kid you not, we were throwing skittles out the window of the bus and we hit a cop car. The cop car pulled over the bus and the cop came in and yelled at us. Scariest/ Funniest moment of my life–actually. Since I’m from Brantford we often went to Niagara Falls, Toronto and Wonderland. This was a very big deal for us non-city kids and longer bus rides meant more time to talk to the boy sitting behind you.
TV Shows
No, it’s not that at my school we got to watch television shows in class. I wish! It was that all the TV shows were catered to the elementary school schedule. Coming home knowing that if you didn’t stop and talk after class you could easily make it home for Art Attack. I think I told myself every single time that I would make one of the crafts–I never did. It did take me awhile to understand that PVA glue was just normal white glue. But who didn’t get tripped up by that?! Then there was Magic School Bus, Arthur, Kratt’s Kreatures… just so many good shows that I never missed and got to watch before my parents came home from work and made me do my homework. Wah.
I love Richmond Row. I love the Spoke bagels. I haven’t missed a JBR’s Wednesday yet–no, I’m not embarrassed by this fact. I love learning about stuff I actually like. But if given the choice, I would give up all these things to go back to elementary school…Okay, maybe not JBRs Wednesdays.
