Having done news photography for going on 15 years now — and spending the last five years as the father of a school-aged child — not many mornings are quite as exhilarating as the first day of school.
Through the chaos of parents and kids trying to get to their classes or lockers, the gamut of emotions is bottomless.
Foremost is the thick air of excitement as students see their new classrooms and reconnect with friends they missed over the summer. Wafting through that excitement is also a little bit of apprehension in a new surrounding, or the sadness of saying goodbye to parents for the day.
Sometimes, the outward emotions of the adults even outweigh those of the kids.
Overall, a fresh start and feeling of growth gives nearly everyone a boost of happy. Social media is flooded with families announcing their student’s next year of ventures, and even some teachers announcing their milestones in the education field.
As I prepared Monday night for the Tuesday morning ahead, I sat back and considered what I would write about this week.
“Write about your first day of school experiences when you were a kid,” my wife Jordan urged.
“I feel like I should, but I’m not sure how?” I replied.
The thing is, things look and feel incredibly different in this community compared to mine in the 1990s and early 2000s. From grades 2-12, I attended the Little Rock School District in Arkansas, including two elementary schools (though the second was only for fifth grade), the historic Dunbar Middle School and the even more historic Central High School.
To my recollection, we didn’t have anything like Stop, Drop and Go, nor did our parents get to walk us in to the classroom on our first days.
What I remember is catching the bus at about 7 a.m. and enduring a 30-45 minute ride downtown, then being directed by a staffer or teacher to one of many groups of kids in the cafeteria, with our teacher — who we were all meeting for the first time — corralled us down a hallway to our class.
When I entered sixth grade at Dunbar, we had an orientation, mostly explaining how our class schedule would work.
We also had freshman orientation at Central, but no amount of time orientating a class of about 800 could acclimate any of us to navigating the 150,000 square feet that make up the two city blocks of building.
Though we did learn quickly the third floor was the seniors’ hunting ground for lost freshmen, so move quickly if you have a class there. In such a large setting, with a student body of near 2,500, we had a steep learning curve.
Cassville, on the other hand, has a totally different vibe.
We did not start the first day with a welcome assembly with class games. We settled for breaking down syllabi and even starting lessons.
I’m sure some of that goes on at Cassville, too, but the overall atmosphere is a Central-student-body-size percent more welcoming than anything I knew at that age. Our school districts, teachers and staff do an amazing job of setting our students off on the right foot on a day where emotions can take a hefty toll.
Though I can’t help to miss where I came from, it’s a greater feeling to know where our kids are going.
From all of us at the Cassville Democrat, we wish a happy, educational, milestone-making year of growth for all the students, teachers and parents in Barry County. Have an amazing year!
Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/publisher since 2023. He was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers in 2017, and he is a two-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847 2610 or ktroutman@cassville- democrat.com.
