Did you ever notice that there are some rules your teachers told you when you were younger that you cannot get out of your head know and looking back they just sound ridiculous? Maybe it's because we are older and we know right from wrong, look both ways before you cross a street, etc.
But here are something of the random rules from my childhood that I just thought of right now.
1. Don't go passed "the tree" or all the way across the playground behind the Cunniff at recess.
I can specifically remember there was a tree and could point it out if I was there and it was really so all the teachers and lunch ladies could keep an eye on us and didn't have to worry about any "runners." Also the far side of the Cunniff field was "off limits" because it was "too far." But yet that was the best part. There was this small tree that had a low branch sticking out where you could sit and talk with your friends.
2. Don't run/walk up the grass hill in front of the school
Another arbitrary rule at the Cunniff that in my six years years there I never figured out why we couldn't walk across the grass. It was easier. But then again when you think of it, if over 300 kids ran across the grass it would terrible - almost like the hill in front of the Lowell. The grass in front of the Cunniff still looks in good shape considering all the elements.
3. Don't cut through the cemetery
I'd used walk home from school with a friends and can remember being told not to cut through the cemetery despite other kids cutting through to get home quicker. Never really understood this rule then and still don't 15 years later.
4. You couldn't enter school before the "proper"time when you were in middle or elementary school
I can see not allowing the young kids in the building before eight but middle school kids. Isn't that the age when you are trying to give them a tad bit more responsibility? Maybe let them in so if they need to meet up with a teacher before school they can do so? But also I do see many teachers are probably prepping for the day, running around the school making photocopies and they don't want to accidentally bump into any students.
5. The purpose of "two-by-two's" while walking to "Move Up" Day at the high school or on the Washington, D.C. trip in middle school
Was it really that hard to count the kids? Couldn't you just do it by homeroom? "Ok, Mr. Cedrone are your 22 students all here?" "Why yes they are." It wasn't bad at first but then it got to be really tiresome and drawn out. We were walking "two-by-two" to dinner and the game room at the hotel, which was literally across the parking lot. We were in eighth grade I think we all knew how to cross a street at that point in our lives.
6. Slides are for going down not up
Really? I find myself saying this to kids now but really what's the problem with going up the slide? If there is no one waiting to come down and if you're paying attention there should not be any major reason why you can't go up the slide.
7. Don't jump off the swing/don't twist in the swing.
Another two things I say now and have heard on the tot lots around Watertown while growing up. Twisting is fun that is why all kids like to do it. Heck I even twisted in the swing. I know some people think that kids' hair or finger can get caught in the chains but that never happened to me, not once. I've also jumped off the swing. It's not something I encourage because sometimes it doesn't feel so good when you land hard on your feet - or if you're unlucky your butt - but you learn from your mistakes. Let them twist!
8. Remember how in middle school you could only go to your locker at certain times of the day and if you needed something you had to take it with you if were not able to get back to your locker during one of those three "special" times during the day. Like the lockers would all freeze shut between second and third period or fifth and six. Looking back on it, it was because they didn't want to crowd the hallways and were probably trying to teach us to be efficient with our time and take the books we needed for not just the class we were going to then but the next class afterward.
9. Not walking on the cat-walk to go to music
I was always taught in my geometry class that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line but yet when I tried to get to band practice in high school I had to take the long way because Mrs. Connors would always scream from the gym below to "get off the cat-walk." I thought that's what the cat-walk was there for, to get to the music department quickly that way none of us would be late say if we were coming from science on the other side of the building.
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