A Short Story from SmartMom

Back to School

The third-grade classroom filled up quickly with the buzz of cheerful voices. John was showing Mike the cast he had gotten from a biking accident. Laura, whose hair was bleached from the sun, was admiring Kelly's new shoes. Gloria slid behind the group at the door and found her way to her desk in the back corner.

The classroom had a fresh, well-scrubbed look. All of the chalk on the ledge of the chalkboard was unbroken, and the erasers were clean. The tissue box on the teacher's desk had not yet been opened. Every desk had a name written on a paper ruler in Teacher's Cursive; the desks, of course, were arranged alphabetically.

"I hoped that we would be sitting together," Samantha said to Gloria. "We're always in the back. I like having a 'T' last name."

"Yes, but I wouldn't want a 'Z.' Greg has been last on the list every year."

Mrs. Dalton stepped to the board and called for everyone's attention. She had the reputation at school for demanding a lot of work, but most kids liked her anyway, because she never yelled and was fond of field trips. She did not have to raise her voice to cut off the last whispered conversations. "Welcome, everybody. I hope everyone is ready for the third grade. We will be doing many, many things this year, and with everybody's help, it will be a great year."

There were only a few new faces in the room; most of the class had been together since kindergarten and had long-standing alliances and feuds. Ada scanned the faces of the new people and wondered which of them might be friendly; her closest friend at the school had moved to California over the summer. Military families always had to move at a bad time. Ada thought that the one who was taking notes seemed a little intense. Maybe the one next to her, the one with the glasses, would be nicer.

Mrs. Dalton had finished her discussion of classroom discipline and was moving on to the homework part of her opening statement: "This is the third grade, people, so that means 30 minutes of homework every night. Plus 20 minutes of reading. Library doesn't start until next week, so I have books available to borrow if there is nothing interesting to read at home. Everybody needs a book by Friday; we will have free reading every Friday afternoon."

Somebody in the front asked a question about what type of book it should be. Mrs. Dalton replied firmly, "It has to be a chapter book with more words than pictures. That means no comics, no graphic novels, and nothing under 70 pages." The questioner persisted; he had meant fiction or non-fiction. Samantha and Gloria rolled their eyes at each other; Andrew always asked questions meant to make him look more clever than the rest of them, and he was always angling to talk about history.

Mrs. Dalton continued, "We will have a book report every month. With all of the reading time, this should not be problem."

Jackie raised her hand, "Can they be typed?" Jackie couldn't wait for things to be typed. She always asked that question.

Mrs. Dalton shook her head no. "They will be handwritten, and we will work on them in class."

Henry raised his hand. "When is the first one due?" Ada could just imagine him rushing home to find the book tonight. She thought about the last book report last year; she had been proud of the drawing on the cover, but it had taken so long! Now they had eight book reports to look forward to.

Mrs. Dalton had moved on to her discussion of math. "We will be doing multiplication this year, and I cannot emphasize enough how important flash cards will be. Start with addition review."

Samantha whispered to Gloria, "I hate flash cards." Gloria nodded sympathetically.

Mrs. Dalton was showing the new Social Studies book. "We have a new book this year, but we will still have the fifty-state test. In fact, we will have a quiz tomorrow on the Northeast." At this, the classroom erupted: "Tomorrow?" "Nobody told me!" "We're not ready!"

Andrew, for once, asked the question everybody wanted answered: "Will it count?"

Mrs. Dalton calmly replied, "Mr. Stephens, you have nothing to worry about. Your children have been reading the chapter on the Northeast for a week; they will do fine. Now, Mrs. Greene, if you could hand around the chaperon sign-up sheet; we have a field trip in two weeks to visit the space exhibit at the science museum."

Gloria saw Andrew write his name at the top of the chaperon sign-up sheet, and she turned to Samantha as the other parents lined up to talk to Mrs. Dalton, "I'm glad I don't have to go to third grade anymore. I think these kids have harder work than we did when we were kids."

Samantha replied, "Are you kidding? Did you see how many book reports we have to do? It's going to take forever to get them done?"

Gloria patted her friend on the back, "At least we have the field trips."