September

So, it's back to fifth grade for me.

I've got to say, the first weeks of fifth grade are way less intense than the first weeks of first grade. No tears, for one thing...no moms hovering in the hallway on the first day, anxious to see if their little ones have made it safely to their desks...calm. But I have to say, I miss some of the fanfare of the first day of first grade. It's all so new. The desks are fascinating (Imagine what you could put in there!), the books are so mysterious (Open the math book to page twelve? Which one's the math book? Which one's a twelve?), and everyone - even the smartest kid in the room - is just a little bit terrified.

Fifth graders are so good at this school stuff. This is a golden year. They're the oldest, the wisest, the kids who know where the bathroom is and which is the shortest route to the gym. And it's been a while since they were befuddled by twelve. Those for whom some things are a struggle have figured out a lot of coping strategies by now, and even the helicopteriest of parents is content to settle most things over the phone. School has become familiar territory - the place, if it's not totally inappropriate for a school conversation, where everybody knows your name.

When I was wandering the long, dark hallways of my own middle school career, I'd sometimes sing that song to myself:

Makin' your way in the word today takes everything you got,
Takin' a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot,
Wouldn't you like to get away?
You wanna go where people know, our troubles are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

Except, I'd sing "where nobody knows your name."

Because middle school is about feeling like the eyes of the world are always on you, and you're stuck there, with everyone looking at you, while you go through the time in life when you feel the ugliest and the most awkward. Maybe, if nobody knew you, you'd slip past their notice more easily...an anonymous girl in wierd pants is so much easier to forget than one with a name.

And my fifth graders are standing on the cusp of that, about to take that leap into adulthood. Leap isn't exactly the right word. It implies a quick trip. On any great quest, though, you have to slog through some nasty territory to get to wherever it is you're going, and adolescence is like the Mines of Moria.

It's hard not to want to somehow snatch them back from that...turn them around and tell them to take the mountain pass instead...

But all I can do is make sure they've packed everything they need, or as much as I can convince them to carry: take your good cooking pot, remember to pack a strong rope, bring a towel.

And, hey, pack a good book! Don't you think that Samwise and Frodo would have been even more lost if they hadn't been able to sit by the fire and tell the familiar tales of their childhood? Didn't Hermione find something good in the Hogwarts library every time she looked? Doesn't every hitchhiker turn now and again to his Guide to the Galaxy?

The right book can make even the most hopeless landscape seem promising.

Fifth grade is a good time to start choosing the books that will comfort you as you make your way through your own personal fire swamp. Admit it. There are books you've been reading since you were ten, and those are the books that you love. I know my students won't necessarily find the same books I did in the same way. But I envy each one the first time they meet the characters who will see them through.

So, celebrate the back-to-school season by rereading one of those touchstone books. Ride in a wagon with Matthew Cuthbert. Use your great brain to scam the neighbor kids into doing your chores. Crack that egg in your lunchbox on your head. Resurect Nefertiti in a vacant lot.

That's what September is for.