The Schoolyard of the Mind

Written by author Harry Bruce, “Dreaded Bell in the Schoolyard of the Mind” is a short story about one’s point of view regarding back to school fatigue and how Labour Day is a prelude to the agony of it all.

After reading the first paragraph of this story, I thought as if the author and I shared some common feelings about returning to school. His character expresses the fact that the Labour Day holiday is a reminder of what awaits him in the next ten months of his life. It’s the death of friendships, the ending of good times, the closure of camps, the last of sunny picnics, it’s the boring, terrifying feeling that summer is over and school is starting again.

The return to school is a difficult sometime frustrating time, which involves getting school supplies, new clothes and the frightening thought of what will happen throughout the day of just being in school. However, students returning back to school back many years ago had circumstances a little more extreme than us, the students of today. They had the fear of The Strap and of course having very stern teachers.

I believe the author of this story was writing about his prior experiences in school being a student himself, and though times were tougher back when he was in class, things have now changed over time. Students this day and age have to concentrate more on their school marks and what college or university they’re going to, and it’s not just that, it’s the fact that even being a grade A student isn’t always enough these days. You have to have connections or at least some very close family or friends that have ways of getting you where you would like to go. Seeing how school is a persons way of training and educating for the upcoming jobs and careers of their future, it is understood that school today is a very stressful task as well as all the peer pressuring that takes place of just being a child or teenager. These reasons have me to believe school in this day in age can be a very scary thing if not even more so than when Harry Bruce was a student himself, back in a time where a strapping punishment was aloud by the law.

I think the author wrote this story for two reasons, the first being it’s a great read of wisdom and comparison throughout. Finally the second reason could very well be that before Bruce’s writing days are over, he probably