Reminiscing About School Days

Our August issue looks at the way endings and beginnings are intertwined. Derek Askey talks with Suzanne Kelly about green burial, a practice that allows the human body to decompose and literally return to the earth. In his poem “Better Yet” Jim Moore imagines going back to the day before he was born, to be, as he puts it “about to be.” And Sun senior editor Andrew Snee reflects on the sale of the Sun office building and how the magazine is made now.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about seasonality and cycles. This time of year the summer is winding down, parents and children are gearing up for school, and before long, holiday decorations will be in the stores. (Who am I kidding? They’re already in some.) I miss the long cycle of the school year, the structure of the quarterly report card, the freedom of summer vacation. But most of all I miss the routine. One year and then the next: the same but different. The end and the new start.

I’m not heading back to school this year (or any time soon), so I rummaged around in The Sun archive for some pieces that could bring back that first-day feeling.

Take care and read well,
Staci Kleinmaier, Assistant Editor

Poetry

Truant

By Margaret Hasse June 2017

I skipped a college chemistry class to eat lunch on the quad with a friend. It was the first warm day of spring, and even though I lost points off the final exam because of my absence, I didn’t regret my decision. In her poem “Truant” Margaret Hasse describes the simple joy and lasting effect of skipping school.

The Sun Interview

School’s Out

By Ellen Becker September 1995

Shortly after John Taylor Gatto was named New York State Teacher of the Year, he publicly resigned from his teaching position. The award brought too much attention, making his job impossible. He said, “I did not want attention focused on me because on a daily basis I was breaking laws, let alone breaking school rules.” In this interview with Ellen Becker, Gatto explains his unconventional thinking about teaching.

Fiction

Girls

By Jennie Litt June 1998

A lesbian teacher starts a new job at a religious all-girls school, vows not to utter the words “Fascism of Straight Culture,” and nearly loses her job after speaking of uteruses with a student. This story by Jennie Litt, written in the form of letters to the narrator’s former girlfriend, had me hooked from the start.

Readers Write

High School

By Our Readers July 2016

Standing up to bullies, Catholic finishing school, smoking in the bathroom—our Readers Write on “High School” may bring back memories.

Essays, Memoirs & True Stories

Homework

By Jon Remmerde December 1993

Not every school experience takes place in a classroom. Jon Remmerde’s essay “Homework” gives a peek into the homeschool experience. School, he writes, “is the structured part of . . . education. . . . But education also includes all that happens outside of school.”