Back to School : Voices

What was your first day of school like?

“I would say excited, hopeful and eager. That was Marquez Elementary in the Pacific Palisades. I just remember a lot of colors and a lot of energy and a lot of movement and noise and fresh air. The air used to be cleaner back then. I think I just had an eagerness to be given new things. I do not remember taking naps in kindergarten. I do remember a dedicated teacher, parent involvement, and I remember arts, crafts and music. I remember small classes.”

David Tokofsky, member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

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“That was back in Omaha. I don’t know if I remember that far back. I remember when I was in the later grades. I remember one thing about one of my teachers. She was very strict. When we didn’t hold our hand in the proper way when we wrote, she would rap our knuckles with a ruler. She was our eighth-grade teacher. We lived quite far away, about six blocks. It was all uphill and it was especially tough in the winter when it snowed.”

Harry Gamble, 96, of Studio City, a volunteer at Dixie Canyon Elementary School.

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“My first day of school I was 4 1/2. We didn’t live in California until I was 6 years old. We were in New York (Oyster Bay, Long Island). At 4 1/2 years you can just imagine being that young and going off to school. I can remember my sisters taking me by either hand. I was so afraid that they were going to take me there and leave me, because it seemed so far away walking to school. When I got there, I spilled a whole glass of orange juice on myself. I spent the whole day worrying about what would happen when I got home. . . . It must have worked out OK. I don’t remember any huge punishments.”

Paula Boland, state assemblywoman.

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“What I do remember was I was a stutterer and I was frightened to say anything. I basically sat and listened and ended up in the wrong class. Looking back, it was probably very similar to children who don’t speak the language and are unable to communicate. I remember school being a very threatening and very scary place. Slowly, when I began to get more control over my speech, I was able to get much more of a benefit. I think it helped me . . . I never gave up on myself. I was able to benefit from my education. That really helped me to believe that teachers can make a difference and this was what I wanted to be doing.”

Norman Isaacs, principal at Millikan Middle School, Sherman Oaks.

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“I’m sure my first day of kindergarten was a major excitement. I had been eager to go to school for years--to be like my sister, three years older than I, who had already entered second grade. My mother had been more lenient than usual when we went shopping for school, allowing me to pick out clothes I liked. So, I had new everything--dress, shoes, socks, lunch box--and felt so grown up. My mother took my sister and I to school and met my teacher, whose name I can’t remember now, but she had blue hair and was very old. She was nice . . . I wasn’t homesick for a second! At the end of the day I was disappointed, however, because I realized that we hadn’t learned anything; all we did was play! “

Blenda Wilson, president of Cal State Northridge (e-mail interview).

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“I remember it was a little scary at first, meeting new people I didn’t know yet. The teachers were kind of nice and kind of strict at the same time. I actually liked it, though. It’s a lot of fun. People were nice. We did some songs and stuff and played with toys.”

Becki Johnson, 13, of West Hills, a student at Lewis Carroll Academy of Arts in Woodland Hills.

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“People crying. My friends were crying. I wasn’t because my mom told me what to expect. . . . I like math. I like adding things. I don’t like reading things.”

Christopher Aitken, 8, a fourth-grader at Lassen Elementary in North Hills.