1st day of school memories

[Hermod]

I remember feeling uncomfortable with being decked out in a long-sleeved white shirt and a tie, and being glad as hell that I had an older brother who would be, except for class-time, accompanying me.
"Immaculate Heart of Mary" nuns, my ass. We all knew that IHM stood for "I Hate Men."
And, of course you all know why they are called "nuns."

The public schools "back in the day" had a lot of elderly, spinster teachers named Miss ______ who took out on the boys all of their frustrations on the men who had "missed" them

Noisy, smelly boys were not favorites of older, single women.

That being said, you have to admire the poor and lower middle class Catholic families who indentured their daughters to a life of poverty to enable Catholic children to have a Catholic education. Years ago, secular education had a significant Calvinist flavor.

[Ravine]

My gratitude to the IHM nuns, for the education they passed to me in grades 1-6.5 [[a little bit of an issue arose, mid-way through 7th grade,) is boundless.
It was a fucking joke, fer chrissakes.

But, as one can see from Jcole's post, let's not get too carried away with the Saintly Handmaidens of Christ Doing A Tough & Thankless Job theme, either; and, since we're discussing it, while I am never disposed toward blaming any entire group for the behavior of any single [[har!!) one of its members [[although the absence of members may have played into the matter, double-har!!,) I have never quite forgotten being physically accosted, and accused of an act which I did not willfully commit, one morning as I-- not realizing that my safety was at risk-- sleepily scuffled toward the school building.
I had no problem dealing with numerous playground fistfights & wrestling matches, but it's kinda difficult to act defensively when it's a nun who is attacking you.
But-- and I cannot state this strongly enough-- they, as a group, were generally outstandingly excellent, and beyond compare, as primary/elementary teachers.