6 • September 2018 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. hung over the warm weath-


First Day of Kindergarten W


by Gabriel A. Fraire of Healdsburg, CA ~ gafraire@comcast.net


e were having a great sum- mer


but this giant cloud


ing them off to school was something I did not want to do. Who would I play with? And besides that, schools


require children to sit still for long periods of time while grown-up people say things at them. I never understood how that pattern was any good for anyone. Mostly, I think, I was just being selfish be- cause I loved hav- ing my daughters at home.


As each min-


er. I was dreading my daugh- ter’s first day of kindergar- ten. I may be different than many because I loved having my children home and send-


ute came closer toward hav- ing to take my daughter to kindergarten I became more and more of a wreck. I final- ly couldn’t handle the stress


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“Years later, I ran into my daughter’s kindergarten teacher and she told me...”


and my wife and I agreed it would be best if she took our daughter to school. We figured it wouldn’t do my daughter any good to see her father crying on her first day of kindergarten. I didn’t want to try and ex- plain my personal issues besides she needed to learn the social skills re- quired to survive in life and in school I knew my daughter would learn that. I was much bet-


ter my daughter’s


second year of school. I just locked her in the closet and refused to let her go. Actu- ally, the opposite was truer; I locked myself in a closet and


didn’t even watch her leave the house. Years later, I ran into


my daughter’s kindergarten teacher and she told me, “I had other parents cry when they dropped their chil- dren off for their first day of school. But you were the only one to write about it.” I smiled, shrugged and said, “I write what I feel.”


Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 45 years. He has written fiction and non-fiction books, plays, po- ems, music lyrics, and news articles. But, he writes about his children exclusively for the Upbeat Times.


one has learned in school.


Education is what remains aſter one has forgotten what


Albert Einstein Weird Facts & Trivia - 3


Kindergarten dates all the way back to 1779, when a couple of citizens in Strasbourg created a school to provide learning and enrichment to the young chil- dren of workers during the day. The idea soon spread world- wide as cities and countries realized the importance of caring for the youngest members of their population.


According to the Gesell Institute, ages in a single kindergarten class can range as much as 18 months, and include children anywhere from four to six years old!


In the last few million years, sea levels have risen and fallen by up to 660 feet. Scientists believe these are caused by temperature changes, as Ice Ages come and go. During Ice Ages, sea levels are low because large amounts of water are frozen. When the climate warms, the ice melts and sea levels rise. Today, sea levels look set to rise because of a warming climate. This will bring a risk of flooding to coasts which is already happening, espe- cially during King Tides.


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6 • September 2018 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~ Victor Hugo


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