I HAVE FOLDED into the Irish School Run and will be adding to the soundtrack of young Mia's life with audio clips I'm recording about going to school.
Today was my first day on the School Run and I encountered a ghost of myself. Back when I was five, I had to work through an incident of bullying (before the term was engrained in the minds of teachers). In my case, it was over crayons. Jack told me that only girls liked red crayons. He told me boys liked black crayons. I disagreed and although the details are murky, all 64 crayons ended up on the floor and both sets of parents ended up in the vestibule of the convent to explain what they knew about the situation.
I survived and grew. In young Mia's case, there are little group dynamics emerging on the playground before the school doors open. I'm watching her encounter a situation where girls two years her senior are blocking her from using the Hopscotch squares. "Sharing is caring," I've told her. When she sees rude and opposite behaviour, she's a little upset but like me and the crayons, she's well able to pick herself up.
Bernie Goldbach is trying to jump start a journal about primary school days.
