With Labor Day come and gone, and the first days of a new school year in the bag, many parents find themselves wistfully recalling their most vivid school memories. The things most parents remembered most fondly have nothing to do with classes. (Sorry, teachers!)
Smuckers — yep, the jam company — ran a survey of 2,000 parents of school-aged kids. Many parents shared that they remembered the suspect cafeteria food, the nervousness of unlocking a locker for the first time and getting lost on the first day of high school. Passing notes in class and trading snacks with friends were also fondly recalled.
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But the biggest memories were of more mundane things — and interestingly, things that their kids will likely not get to experience. The most common: packing a brown bag lunch. And in that lunch? A PB & J sandwich said more than 50 percent of survey respondents. Today, with peanut allergies on the rise, many school districts have strict no-nut policies in effect, so PB&J’s are a thing of the past … at least when it comes to munching at school.
Another big memory: learning to write in cursive. Ahhh … the good old days. Today cursive is no longer taught in most schools because … computers. While it’s a matter of some debate, most educators feel it’s not worth teaching kids to write in cursive when they will literally never use it again.
Amazingly, nearly 77 percent of parents in the poll said their school days were the best years of their lives and they have fond memories of the back-to-school season.