School Starts Forever

In fall of 1982 Gordon started kindergarten at Hawthorne School, which had been my elementary school, once upon a time. (In fact, my first year of school--first grade-was the year the school opened.) On September 3, we bought a van so I could carpool with the other neighborhood ladies. Our carpool featured Gordon, Hyrum, Robbie, Justin Millar, Brian Sirrine, and Melissa Guthrie. I remember the other children, but Melissa escapes my memory entirely.

When Gordon was starting school, it was the fashion (and still is, for all I know) in the elementary grades to request a teacher you thought would be good for your child. I was above that sort of nonsense, I thought, not wanting to be a parent whose kids always had to be with the "in" teacher. A casual question, though, changed my mind rather quickly. Of the two kindergarten teachers, one was Mrs. Beinz, an excellent and experienced teacher who had taught some of my brothers. The other was considered to be mentally ill--seriously, on her way to a breakdown. I quickly requested Mrs. Beinz for Gordon, and was vastly relieved when he was in her class.

There was some question of whether or not we should start Gordon that year, since he was just five years old two days before the cut-off (September 1). Many of our contemporaries were holding back their boys with summer birthdays so they could mature a little more and/or be bigger for sports. But all his friends in the neighborhood were starting school--Hyrum Candland and Robbie Nielson, for starters, and he would have been crushed to stay behind a Whole. Year. And he was certainly ready, intellectually and emotionally, and how would I possibly keep him from being bored out of his mind for Another. Whole Year.

So Gordon was the youngest kid in his class, as was Laura, and Allison--and Stu too, more or less. But looking back, do you, who were the youngest, think we made the best call? Not that I think any of you have had ruined lives or anything, but looking back, would you do it differently? Or rather, would you do the same things with your children?