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Back to School

By Jerry Griswold

The morning before his fourth day in kindergarten, my son Colin said he wouldn’t be going. He had tried school, he explained, and “it wasn’t working out.” Very much like eating broccoli, he saw this education business as voluntary and a taste you either acquired or didn’t. He hadn’t. As his parents, we were amused but also flummoxed: How to explain that schooling, like gravity, was not really optional?

Mandatory schooling, we sometimes forget, is a recent phenomenon and only some 150 years old. We can glimpse the uneasy transition to this state of affairs in older children’s books. Angered by the disciplining of one of her daughters, Marmee in Little Women storms into the classroom and tells the teacher (in so many words) that for her child (to quote the Alice Cooper song) “school’s out forever.” Then there is Tom Sawyer who plays hooky so frequently that his companion Huckleberry Finn envies him; Huck doesn’t have the chance to do that since he doesn’t go to school at all.

Nowadays, however, mandatory education is such a fixed part of our lives that it even shapes our calendars. As if school schedules were as natural and physical as the change of seasons, July marks the beginning of back-to-school sales as excited and anxious students line up supplies and new clothes for the beginning in September. Of course, soon thereafter, pupils start looking forward to Christmas holidays, spring break, and summer vacation.

With the advent of mandatory schooling also came the “school story,” a genre as old as Tom Brown’s Schooldays and as recent as the Harry Potter stories. In these, and in the many books in between, educators seem to come in two types: the Dedicated Teacher (or Mr. Chips) and the evil Classroom Tyrant. But if the truth be known, every educator is something of both since they constantly wrestle with the issue of being both kindly and demanding.

My favorite work on this topic is a picturebook by Harry Allard and James Marshall: Miss Nelson is Missing! Miss Nelson is kindhearted, so her pupils take advantage of her and misbehave. Then one day, a substitute teacher arrives and Miss Viola Swamp is a disciplinarian who gets the job done but in such an unloving way that the students begin to miss Miss Nelson. Without spoiling the ending, let me simply say that the Misses Nelson and Swamp seem to live in the same house, a place where disguises and wigs are abundant.

Besides Dedicated Teachers and Classroom Tyrants, other familiar features in the school story include: the wish to “fit in,” the fear of being an outsider, bullies, special friendships, school sports, misbehavior, truancy, nerds, homework, and the like. You can find a catalog of these in the Harry Potter books. But there are two other features which seem to me to make J. K. Rowling’s stories especially appealing to readers who are also students.

When my daughter and her friends were in junior high, their favorite film was “Grease” even though that musical recounted school life decades before their own, in the mythic Happy Days of the 1950s. From this we can conclude that fictional schools are always more interesting than the real kind, and such is obviously the case with Harry Potter and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The other compelling feature of Rowling’s books concerns the general powerlessness of the young in schools. Richard Brautigan once wrote, “My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James for all the time they stole from me.” It is certainly appealing, then, for a student to read a story where a young person in school is not a helpless victim but an individual with extraordinary, even supernatural powers–and in this, Harry Potter shares something with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Very much to that point, let me add that my son did go to kindergarten that morning after we struck a bargain: that he could carry his Luke Skywalker action figure in his pocket.

School Stories

Miss Nelson is Missing!
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: Harry Allard Illustrator: James Marshall
Houghton Mifflin, $5.95 (Paperback)

Harry Potter Paperback Boxed Set (Books 1-5)
Ages: 9 - 12 yrs.
By: J. K. Rowling Illustrator: Mary GranPré
Scholastic, $40.93 (Paperbacks, boxed set)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
Ages: 9 - 12 yrs.
By: J. K. Rowling Illustrator: Mary GranPré
Scholastic, $29.99 (Hardback)

Contributor note:
Jerry Griswold has spent half his life as a student and the other half as a teacher. He is a literature professor at San Diego State University and a volunteer in elementary schools.

Back to School Books
Going back to school can be both exciting and daunting for children of all ages - and even dogs, aliens, and aardvarks. With the help of a few endearing characters starring in these first "class" romps, the coming school days are sure to be filled with learning and a healthy dose of laughter.

The Good Sense of Nonsense Six Best Counting Books Spike Jonzes’ Movie “Where the Wild Things Are” Mysteries for Young Adults Immigration Novels for Teens Mamas, Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys (and Cowgirls) Browse All Articles >>	You are in: Reading \| Back to School Back to School By Jerry Griswold The morning before his fourth day in kindergarten, my son Colin said he wouldn’t be going. He had tried school, he explained, and “it wasn’t working out.” Very much like eating broccoli, he saw this education business as voluntary and a taste you either acquired or didn’t. He hadn’t. As his parents, we were amused but also flummoxed: How to explain that schooling, like gravity, was not really optional? Mandatory schooling, we sometimes forget, is a recent phenomenon and only some 150 years old. We can glimpse the uneasy transition to this state of affairs in older children’s books. Angered by the disciplining of one of her daughters, Marmee in Little Women storms into the classroom and tells the teacher (in so many words) that for her child (to quote the Alice Cooper song) “school’s out forever.” Then there is Tom Sawyer who plays hooky so frequently that his companion Huckleberry Finn envies him; Huck doesn’t have the chance to do that since he doesn’t go to school at all. Nowadays, however, mandatory education is such a fixed part of our lives that it even shapes our calendars. As if school schedules were as natural and physical as the change of seasons, July marks the beginning of back-to-school sales as excited and anxious students line up supplies and new clothes for the beginning in September. Of course, soon thereafter, pupils start looking forward to Christmas holidays, spring break, and summer vacation. With the advent of mandatory schooling also came the “school story,” a genre as old as Tom Brown’s Schooldays and as recent as the Harry Potter stories. In these, and in the many books in between, educators seem to come in two types: the Dedicated Teacher (or Mr. Chips) and the evil Classroom Tyrant. But if the truth be known, every educator is something of both since they constantly wrestle with the issue of being both kindly and demanding. My favorite work on this topic is a picturebook by Harry Allard and James Marshall: Miss Nelson is Missing! Miss Nelson is kindhearted, so her pupils take advantage of her and misbehave. Then one day, a substitute teacher arrives and Miss Viola Swamp is a disciplinarian who gets the job done but in such an unloving way that the students begin to miss Miss Nelson. Without spoiling the ending, let me simply say that the Misses Nelson and Swamp seem to live in the same house, a place where disguises and wigs are abundant. Besides Dedicated Teachers and Classroom Tyrants, other familiar features in the school story include: the wish to “fit in,” the fear of being an outsider, bullies, special friendships, school sports, misbehavior, truancy, nerds, homework, and the like. You can find a catalog of these in the Harry Potter books. But there are two other features which seem to me to make J. K. Rowling’s stories especially appealing to readers who are also students. When my daughter and her friends were in junior high, their favorite film was “Grease” even though that musical recounted school life decades before their own, in the mythic Happy Days of the 1950s. From this we can conclude that fictional schools are always more interesting than the real kind, and such is obviously the case with Harry Potter and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The other compelling feature of Rowling’s books concerns the general powerlessness of the young in schools. Richard Brautigan once wrote, “My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James for all the time they stole from me.” It is certainly appealing, then, for a student to read a story where a young person in school is not a helpless victim but an individual with extraordinary, even supernatural powers–and in this, Harry Potter shares something with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Very much to that point, let me add that my son did go to kindergarten that morning after we struck a bargain: that he could carry his Luke Skywalker action figure in his pocket. School Stories Miss Nelson is Missing! Ages: 4 - 8 yrs. By: Harry Allard Illustrator: James Marshall Houghton Mifflin, $5.95 (Paperback) Harry Potter Paperback Boxed Set (Books 1-5) Ages: 9 - 12 yrs. By: J. K. Rowling Illustrator: Mary GranPré Scholastic, $40.93 (Paperbacks, boxed set) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) Ages: 9 - 12 yrs. By: J. K. Rowling Illustrator: Mary GranPré Scholastic, $29.99 (Hardback) Contributor note: Jerry Griswold has spent half his life as a student and the other half as a teacher. He is a literature professor at San Diego State University and a volunteer in elementary schools. Back to School Books Going back to school can be both exciting and daunting for children of all ages - and even dogs, aliens, and aardvarks. With the help of a few endearing characters starring in these first "class" romps, the coming school days are sure to be filled with learning and a healthy dose of laughter.	Sign Up Parents' Choice news & features delivered to your inbox. Sign Up Now >>