Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Shock of the Old





















It's that time of year again: time to start promoting our annual Kid's Character event at the bookstore, this year featuring Olivia. As part of getting the word out, I always drop off posters at a nearby Catholic School, and I look forward to that visit every year.

It's like stepping into a time bubble. Modernity has been barred admittance. I don't think that the school building itself has changed significantly or been renovated since the 1950s. The children still wear uniforms and travel in rows. The teachers are permitted to dress modern, if conservatively, but the ladies minding the front desk all look as if they stepped out of old photographs.

The doors are kept locked and every time I'm buzzed through them I genuinely feel like I'm stepping out of the Doctor's TARDIS and into a past that is somehow remarkably alive. It's reassuring to know that some things don't change. For all I know they could be the same children, doomed forever to remain in third grade.

Would I send my kid there, if I had one? I don't know. I'm not convinced that the past is the best place to raise a child, having lived through the past once myself. But then, not being a Catholic, I don't think any kid of mine would be welcome there anyway.

In other "school news," check out what's going on in Tucson right now. 1984 is here.

-- Freder.

2 comments:

  1. First of all, Catholic schools are not restricted to the Catholics! They are "universal" that way. Secondly, I'm not sure the past is really that bad a place in which to learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic; especially with the added benefit of exposure to morals like "love thy neighbor as thy self" and "thou shalt not covet..." to name a few. If I had it to do over again, I might actually send my kids to Catholic school. But since I participated at our Catholic church's religious ed program, they (my kids) learned it from me twice over. We do the best we can.... I'm glad you enjoy the experience of being welcomed into the classic school!

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  2. A lovely comment. Anonymous. Thank you. I'm honestly not being judgmental. Just Fascinated by Things and Figuring Things Out.

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