Dear LPG, 

I have thought of a challenge that might interest some readers.

Like many grandparents, I take charge of my grandson each weekday morning and get him to school. He is just six, and although I have got entirely used to the noise when we get to the playground and work hard to encourage him to get going in the mornings with reminders of what he and his school friends will be doing on the day, I do not doubt that many parents and grandparents will, just like me, note that the last look on some of those little faces as they turn to step through the building’s entrance doors each morning, is a look of regret. However, he seems perfectly happy when I pick him up in the evening.

It takes me back to when I was at school, and although things have changed since then, I remember it never being my favourite place to be either, and the one thing we have in common is that there appears to be no quantifiable reason for not wanting to go.  

Their parents are often the ones with no time on their hands. While we grandparents are busy too, whether that walk, drive, or bus ride to school takes a couple of minutes or a quarter of an hour, we sometimes have that time to talk to them about why they leave us looking so negative in the mornings yet seem so much happier when we pick them up. I think that it is an excellent opportunity to remind them that we were once young too, and talking about our experiences brings back many that would otherwise be forgotten.  

Stories of when we were at school and how much better it is now can be one way forward. I tell him that our teachers were much less approachable than theirs appear today, but I wonder if it seems that way because time distorts memories, and there has been so much time since our grandparents went to school.

I remember us children seeing our teachers as quite scary people but, looking back, I realise what a hard job teaching must have been for them and, having been the best friend of a teacher, who has often been on the other end of the telephone when she needed someone to tell her vocational troubles to, I can see it all from both sides.

I wonder how many of us remember our teachers and how they shaped our lives. The odd morning story about our school days can make theirs seem more positive. I hope reading what I have written helps you to think back and remember the worst and best teachers you ever had and focus for a moment on one positive thing that they did for you…

GJ, Penge

LPG adds some information about the official version of today’s celebration…

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