Knowledge Day, 1 September 2010
A first-of-September greeting, and the moment in the ceremony that gives the whole thing away.
A good first day of school to every pupil, and to the teachers waiting in the yard.
There is a moment in this ceremony that I look for every year. The smallest first-year pupil is lifted onto the shoulder of one of the oldest, given a bell, and carried around the yard ringing it.
Everything about the day is in that arrangement. The youngest is the one who matters today. The oldest is the one who carries them. And the bell — the thing that will govern the child's next eleven years — is put into their own hand on the first morning.
Whoever designed that understood ceremony better than most people who write them.
A good year to everyone starting one today.
Share this analysis
Comments