It’s back to school time – if not today, then soon enough

Never mind that the maple leaves haven’t begun to turn in Millwood or that zucchini is still coming on strong. It may still be warm enough to swim at Boulder Beach, but summer is over in the West Valley School District.

That’s right, classes start today. So if you wear black and orange, put down your game controllers and start packing lunches.

Gonzaga Prep starts today, too.

Oh, stop moping, all you Eagles and Bullpups. It could be worse: Deer Park and Freeman are already starting their second day of school.

And the rest of you, stop gloating. Your first-day jitters will come soon enough.

For the record: Spokane, Mead, Cheney, Medical Lake, Nine Mile Falls and Liberty all start Tuesday. East Valley and Riverside go back on Wednesday.

It’s yet another week before Central Valley heads back to class.

Acronym of the week

The placement of a modifier can be an important thing.

For instance, is an English teacher one who teaches the language? Or is it any teacher from England?

Perhaps it’s to avoid such confusion that the group to which many teachers belong is called the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). We would think they’d want to avoid that second preposition, but we don’t teach English.

And what about the NCTM? Did organizers of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics worry that someone might think they were from a place called Math?

Number of the week

180 – School days in a year. Deer Park and Freeman, you can celebrate having already knocked one off!