A few days ago I experienced my 29th first-day-of-school at The Circle School, and I imagined what a child’s first first day might be like…

It’s your first day at The Circle School and you are Alice down the rabbit hole. You are in a strange new world: fascinating, mysterious, confusing, but somehow the most wonderful thing. You signed in, like someone told you, copying the numbers from the clock with lots of people and noise all around you. You put your lunchbox on a shelf where other people were putting theirs while someone said helpful stuff that you didn’t understand but said you did. Then two kids took you around the school and talked fast while you nodded a lot. But what were they talking about? Then you found yourself alone. You found yourself lost. Someone asked who are you looking for and you mumbled something and walked away. Later you met someone and joined a group, and stayed with them for a long time. An adult came in and you thought they were going to tell you what to do but they didn’t. They just said hi and asked you how is it going? Later someone said it was chore time and you sprayed and wiped some doorknobs. A big kid looked at the doorknobs and said okay, you’re checked. And then it dawned on you. They are treating you like a regular person, like they don’t know you are a kid, five years old. It was a strange feeling but very nice, the most wonderful thing really. And at the end of the day it was nice to go home, a relief sort of, and tomorrow you want to come back.