Why You Won't See Me Crying at the School Gate

Ella started nursery last week, and I'm using my first half day alone to write this.  Here is a photo of how I currently feel:

Here is the obligatory adorable uniform photo:

See?  Both really happy and excited.  However, I feel like maybe we are the only ones!  We sat at ballet and several of the mothers burst into tears just talking about how hard it was to let them go to school or nursery.  I see this as a common theme on my Facebook feed during both the American and British first weeks of school.

Y'all, I think I am missing some kind of nostalgic mothering gene...

How do I know that they can handle it if Ella is hurt or sad or misses me or needs to learn something? How do I let go of my tiny little person in a too-big school jumper? What milestones am I going to miss?  Who's going to make sure she is okay?  Is she going to get the individual attention that I've given her?

Here's how I know:

 

These amazing people are how I know.  These are very close to all of the teachers that I am friends with on Facebook.  They teach everything from Preschool to University and in between.  Many of them taught me.  There are several generations in multiple families, so good teaching must be genetic.  Or maybe there is just a love of people and learning passed down!

There are several photos of now-retired teachers who devoted their lives from age 19-60 on the craft of teaching.  At the end of posting, I realised that there are many husband and wife teams who have and do spend their lives together making a difference.  Many of these people teach AND do something else after school like music, sports, drama, clubs, church.  Many of these supposedly "retired" teachers are still teaching in other capacities, whether they realise it or not.  These people go to classes about teaching and spend their "spare" time getting more degrees to make them better teachers.

Do you know what is not pictured here?  People who don't care.  People who don't go the extra mile.  People who don't spend a large portion of their "extended vacation" every summer doing stuff to make their classrooms and lecture halls a better place.  People who regularly give up time with their families in order to help someone else's child succeed.

I grew up roller skating down the halls of a school where I would go on get my high school diploma.  My family is full of amazing teachers.  I've seen how the sausage of an education gets made.

And you know what?

My tiny little vulnerable girl is probably better off with Ms. D and Ms. R than she is with me.  Ms. R has about 20 years experience of caring and teaching on me.  Sure, if I wanted to homeschool, I could probably manage it, but why do that when I can entrust her to people who have spent their money, time, energy and lives preparing to educate her?

If you want to cry because your baby is getting bigger, or you personally aren't ready, I'm never gonna judge you.  But don't worry about your baby once they are in the school gates.  They are in good hands.