Journal #1- Chapters 1-3 from the perspective of Jem

Jem’s Journal
Focusing on chapter 2

It was a week till school started, which I was not happy for but every kid wants to get a good education, well most do. Dill had originally left us in the early September. I was always thinking of how the school year would start off. I wonder what scout thinks about it to, she is always up in her little tree-house doing different things that I have always wanted to know about.

The last week of summer had gone by so fast it was already the first day of school. Atticus had volunteered me to take scout to her classes which I usually thought was a parents job but it was alright. We had gone to school a little earlier than usual just to show scout her new classes. She was going into 1st and I was finally going into 5th grade. I had to make sure that I had explained to her to not bother me during school hours. No older brother wants to be bothered by his little sister during class. I told her that it was different at school and its just different, things she wouldn’t really understand. Things that I really don’t want to explain to her.

I was sitting in my own classroom always thinking of what Scout might do during class. Usually she isn’t one to just sit there and listen to the boring lessons of her teacher. It was the first day of school starting up again. The first day of school was always the same, learning the teachers name and them trying to learn ours. Our teacher got right to work on this day there was no time to waste in their mind; they never want to get behind. This I was not so eccentric about, but who is. I had always wondered why they even start us working right away on the first day, I guess it’s because they think we lose our whole entire memory over the summer vacation. That always irked me that some kids were so dumb when the came back. This only happens with certain kids who do absolutely nothing over summer vacation who have no lives.

It was about recess time in our school and I went over to go see how scout was doing, she did not make it seem like it was so good. She seem to have hated her teacher Ms. Caroline and told her not to read which I thought was great for a 1st grader but apparently not to her, and the same with writing. I told her that it was alright and to go back to her classes. She had asked me earlier about the Cunningham’s and if we were ever going to even get that poor. I really had no answer for her, so we had asked Atticus if we were poor he said that we are but not as poor as the Cunningham’s. I was relieved in a way but felt bad for the Cunningham family and how they live.
After I was done thinking of why she would even ask such a thing I had gone back to my studies in school and went back to my reading and writing as I was supposed to. Although I was always thinking of how my sister is during class I had to get back to working and move on.