SENIORS ONLY: What is it that stands out of your going to school for the first time?

Question

How do you remember Kindergarten, or first grade? What kind
of a school did you go to? And describe how you got to school.

Answer 1

Those were all wonderful stories!

I remember that my first kindergarten teacher was old (at least 60) and she seemed to hate us kids. She treated us like a regiment of soldiers, who had to follow orders or pay the consequences!

Once, when we were having story time, I needed to go to the bathroom very badly. I raised my hand and asked to go, and SHE WOULDN'T LET ME! I couldn't believe it. She said that the NEW rules were that there was a certain potty time (we had our own washroom right off the classroom) and everyone would have to wait for that time instead of disrupting the class by leaving early. But I REALLY HAD to go!

So I braved her wrath and told her that I really had to go NOW and that she just HAD to let me! (I had been out of diapers since just after my first birthday, my Mom said.) She absolutely refused. I tried and tried and tried to hold it...but finally the pressure became too much for me and the urine just squeezed out.

Have you ever felt the pain of being suspended by one arm while someone drags you somewhere, screaming and shouting at you and shaking you at the same time? Well, she scared me so badly that I was screaming my head off. I really don't remember what happened after that. I think my brain has blocked out whatever it was as too painful to remember.

But I DO know that after having a substitute kindergarten teacher until Christmas time, we finally got a new permanent teacher who was young and fun and all the kids loved her.

Answer 2

I went to a little two story school where there were two grades in every room. There wasn't kindergarten back then. We had no cafeteria so we warmed our cans of Campbell's soup on the radiators. We could just take off and go to things like the State Fair with no note from parents necessary. We only
needed to tell the teacher why we weren't at school the previous day. I rode the school bus to school and children of every age rode the same buses. I remember the very first week of school I kept staring at the " big kids", (eighth graders) and thinking that I couldn't wait until I was big like them and my feet would reach the floor instead of just reaching the end of the seat.

Answer 3

I remember kindergarten as being "hard". Of course, I was only four years old when I started school, since my birthday was in November and school started in September. Nowadays, they don't let kids younger than five start kindergarten. The reason I thought it was difficult, was that I was slightly immature compared to the other kids, some of whom were almost six. I hated games with balls, because I couldn't catch them. I didn't like playing with clay because it got stuck in my fingers. I didn't color with crayons very well -- couldn't stay in the lines. It's a wonder I ever passed kindergarten....LOL! I think the teacher passed me because she didn't want me for another year. Some of the bigger kids bullied me on the way home from school. I was always the shortest one in the class. In the wintertime, I walked eight blocks to school, no matter how cold or snowy it was, and never even felt the cold. The winters were more severe back then, and the snowdrifts were higher than my head. But I eventually made it through 8th grade and high school, and graduated. I made junior honor society, but the only subject I ever had to repeat was algebra. I hated it. I guess that's much more memorabilia than you asked for, but thanks for bringing up the subject.

Answer 4

I started out in first grade. I remember having to speak slowly to my teacher because my parents were Norwegian immigrants and I had a slight Scandinavian accent at the time. It was in a blue-collar, working class neighborhood of Brooklyn at the time. The school is still there, but the neighborhood is now upper middle class. The link below tells a little bit about it.

Answer 5

I walked a mile to and from school in Kindergarten. It was a small school in a small town and I got to play the triangle. I had not been socialized with other children much and I stayed to myself most of the time. Kids are cruel at times.

Answer 6

Hey, I'm only 59. We had electricity in 1954, even in Mississippi. 72 miles to the west was New Orleans, LA & 72 miles to the east was Mobile, AL
Mrs. Taylor was the kindergarten teacher, I didn't like her & I refused to go back, so my Gramma's maid home schooled me with her kids.Someone in the family always drove us to school.
I didn't want to go to the first grade either, Mrs. Beeman was the teacher. I cried the first day & at noon, my Uncle picked me up from school.The few things that stick out in my mind about 1st grade is that I hated it and I even ate some poison ivy one time to stay out of school.
2nd grade teacher was Miss Dawkins, 3rd grade teacher was Miss Clark, 4th grade teacher was Miss McShane, 6th grade teacher was Mrs. Kittle. ( an old bat)
Then I was sent to private schools from 7th through the 11th and then back to public school. I hated each & every second of it.
And finally, a dream come true. I got viral pneumonia in my Senior year & was offerred a chance to take the GED. WOW.!!!
Perfect...No more school.
Yea! Team!
Years later, I went back to school & got my degrees & went on with my life.

Answer 7

I do remember my first day of school. First grade. I was somewhat disappointed, because for some reason, I thought it was going to be like going to the Picture Show.
My first grade teacher turned out to be the same first grade teacher my Dad had. Of course, she was young and single when Dad had her (she remembered him well..lol).
We lived in town, about seven blocks from school. My Dad had to have the car, so we walked to and from school most of the time.
My best memory is having a teacher who made learning fun. My worst is the cafeteria mashed potatoes. That's been M>ANY years ago.

Answer 8

We didn't have Kindergarten, it started at first grade. I don't remember the first day, but I do remember my oldest sister driving us to school. She was about 10 at the time.

Answer 9

I had gone to nursery school since my mom worked. I started 1st grade in Chicago at a public school. The first day I was traumatized because apparently some man was trying to get over the fence and got impaled on it and the iron bar was through his chest. All the police came and it was a bloody mess where he was. It really scared me to death, then at recess there was a swing and I got too close and got kicked in the mouth. It was not a good day

Answer 10

I didn't go to kindergarden. I went to first and second grade in a 2 story school with 3 classrooms on each floor. The cafeteria was in the basement. It was called the primary grades. Third, forth, and fifth grade was elementary. We never had to pay book rental and they gave us paper, pencils, crayons, glue, etc. I hated first grade. My teacher was an old witch that looked much like Margaret Hamilton in the Wizard of Oz. Except she was built like Barbara Bush. My Uncle drove our School Bus. He walked me in to my room on the first day. Oh this brings tears. I hope he knew how much that meant to me !!! I never misbehaved on the bus. All he had to do was look at me in that mirror !!!! lol