Lugging backpacks, wiping away tears, high-fiving friends not seen in a while, children across New York’s five boroughs flooded into freshly cleaned and decorated classrooms as the nation’s largest school system marked the first day of the academic year.
Arriving by bus, subway, car and on foot, about 1.1 million children filled the city’s 1,700 schools on a cheerfully bright Monday morning. Whether the weather helped brighten moods was hard to tell. For the older children, the rituals were mostly familiar â€" lining up with classmates, shoving overstuffed school bags into lockers and making it to their first class on time.
For younger children, kindergartners and first graders in particular, the first day could a bit more foreboding â€" a reluctant, perhaps weepy goodbye with mom or dad and then suddenly finding themselves amid a group of strangers who were now their classmates.
But whatever the circumstances, it is almost a cliché that the first day of school is punctuated by a sense of optimism and of possibility.
