Last year when I wrote columns and did radio and TV shows about how things have changed for kids since I grew up in Winthrop, I sure didn’t anticipate the chaos that teachers, parents and kids are experiencing today.

Whatever the plan that your local school comes up with, there will be lots of problems and challenges. How are parents, if they’re both working, going to handle a system in which half the time their kids will be expected to learn at home? I suppose high school kids will be OK staying home alone, but certainly not elementary school students. And we know that lots of Maine families do not have computer access.

I read a news story a while ago that, with strict new limits on the number of kids who can ride on the school bus, what once took one trip to get all the kids to school, might now take as many as eight trips. That certainly won’t work. It would take all day to get all the kids to school. And I doubt that many school bus drivers would agree to spend all day shuttling kids to school.

And can you really imagine kids wearing masks all day, and staying six feet from their friends and other students? Masks will not work for kids who wear glasses, because their glasses will fog up.

How are teachers going to be able to teach half their kids in school, plus teach the other half students while they’re at home?

All the other new requirements and restrictions will also be difficult, from taking the kids’ temperatures to keeping their hands and everything else clean and wiped down (school bathrooms are small).

And can you imagine what will happen when one student — or a teacher — comes to school with the virus? Plus we must also be concerned about an outbreak of the flu, because lots of kids have not gotten a flu shot this year.

Well, I suppose it’s easy for me to raise the alarm, but I must say I really admire teachers. My wife Linda taught first grade for many years in Mount Vernon, and she loved her job and the kids. I love it when a young adult walks up to us and tells Linda she was their favorite teacher. But today, Linda is very relieved that she’s not teaching now.

Whatever your local school system comes up with, please be sure to support and thank the teachers.

Well, let me finish this column with some great school memories. I walked a mile to school, including through the downtown, starting when I was 4, and no one worried about me. Everyone knew me.

I spent lots of time in the woods — and it disappoints me that so few kids go into the woods today. I encourage you to take your kids on a hike in the Ezra Smith Wildlife Conservation Area in Mount Vernon. It’s the woodlot Linda and I donated to the Kennebec Land Trust. They’ve done a great job creating trails, and one trail, thanks to our library, includes an awesome story walk for kids.

When I was in high school, I could play all sports plus play in the band. When my basketball team went to the locker room at halftime, I walked over and played in the band. Kids sure can’t do that today. Many specialize in a single sport.

When I was 12, I had three jobs: mowing lawns, selling my 4-H vegetables at a table in front of my dad’s store, and working in the store. One summer as a teenager, I worked in Carlton Woolen Mill mixing chemicals they dipped the wool in and driving a front end loader. Today Maine law allows 15- and 16 year-olds to work, with strict guidelines. For example, they can work the cash register in a bakery, but only if everything is baked in a different room. Don’t they know kids go into the kitchen at home?

I’ve written before about how, in elementary school, we kids would have knives and we’d play knife games at recess. And in high school I’d bring my shotgun to school, so I could hunt after school in the orchard up the street. Today having a gun in school is a felony. And I feel so sad that kids today have to go through drills in case someone tries to shoot up their school.

Well, if you feel it’s safe, give a kid a hug today, and let them know you stand with them in these trying times.

 

George Smith can be reached at 34 Blake Hill Road, Mount Vernon 04352, or georgesmithmaine@gmail.com. Read more of Smith’s writings at www.georgesmithmaine.com.

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