Bulgarian Schools - First Day Back

Today is 15th September, it's the first day back at school in Bulgaria as the weekend saw many children back in the town of Yambol after many spending the whole summer with their respective Baba and Diado (Grandma and Grandpa) on the farms in the villages. And by all accounts having got feedback from many, loved every minute of it.

It was a word of warning from our own Baba who was crushing grapes by hand in the big barrel this morning as I set out to drive. “Be careful,” she said. “There are lots of children walking to school this morning,” as another vine stalk was taken out and discarded from the barrel.

True to her words the town was swarming with children, most carrying bunches of flowers. It is tradition that the first day back, the children present flowers to their new teacher. It is quite strange watching the elder boys walking the streets with flowers in their hands, in the UK they would be called ‘Pansies’, but here nothing of the kind, this is normal.

The first day is a day where the children get a talk from their teacher and head teacher. This particular school day only lasts a few hours as they are walking their way back home flowerless at around 10:00 this morning. Many parents of the younger children are in on the talk.

My work place is opposite a school, which has been inactive for months. It suddenly came back to life this morning on this unusually cold September day. It is really nice to have the area and the building full of activity again with children talking and playing sensibly during their break time. It is especially heart warming to see such respectful well-behaved children in this part of the world.

Bulgarian Schools - Fashion Houses?

Those of you in Bulgaria today and up early you will have noticed something very different to the normal quiet Bulgarian streets of the summer months.

From 7:00 onwards this morning there were swarms of children making their way to school! They actually started the new school year on the previous Saturday which was a hangover from the working day in lieu form the previous long weekend public holiday.

Looking around this morning the childrens destination felt more like fashion houses than schools. With no mandatory school uniform in force, the trends of dress were spectacular to say the least. From where I'm looking the Bulgarian fashion is in good hands with the youth of today.

Colourful and interesting as it is watching the children catwalk to school, this is a big financial strain on parents who are subjected to the cry of wants from very fashion conscious children.

This all comes from various sources of direct and indirect advertising solely geared up for these impressionable ages groups. Because Bulgaria is still very slow to pick up laws on high moral grounds this may the be reason why the country haven't considered the introduction of school uniform based on discrimination of the poorer families who wouldn't be able afford to keep up with the latest fashion. This creates an unacceptable instance where there are those who have and those who don't a situation intolerable in the eyes of the modern western world.

Somehow though I don't think school uniforms will come into play in school at any time in Bulgaria. After all they had 50 years of uniform clad children pre-1990 and there's no going but with the taste of fashion freedom now firmly in place. And certainly the moral thinking behind the 'have' and 'have not' society in Bulgaria is fully accepted as what goes on here not without prejudice I might add - but that's how it is in real life.