For the students and teachers of Warren County who reluctantly made their way back to the classroom on Tuesday, I feel you. It's been 32 years since I last trod the halls of a Warren County school as a student, and I have no children in school, so school being in session really doesn't affect my day-to-day life. 

That doesn't change the feeling of existential dread I still experience each summer the first time I walk into Walmart and discover back-to-school displays in a place of prominence. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate school, and I was a good student. I just loved the freedom which summer brought and lamented the return to a structure which dominated my days and, thanks to homework, many of my nights. So, even now over three decades removed from the constraints of elementary, junior high and senior high school, the reminder that school is returning triggers a sense of unease.

Despite that feeling, I have a great admiration for the men and women of our school system who do everything within their power to ensure the children of Warren County get the best education possible. As the child of two long-time employees of the Warren County School System, I know well the sacrifices and hard work educators put in, not just during the school day, but after hours and even over the summer. 

Keeping the attention of students has always been a huge challenge for teachers. I can't imagine the struggles they face now in a world where there are an increasingly large number of distractions competing for the focus of pupils. 

One of the biggest news items of this barely underway school year is the prohibition of phones or other personal electronic devices during the course of the school day. Students are required to check their phones in at the beginning of the day and are not allowed access to them until all classes are dismissed. This makes me question why someone would even want to bring a phone to school with them at all. It seems leaving it at home or in the car would remove the hassle of the check-in/check-out process. But also, I realize that I come from a far different time. 

At the risk of sounding like an old man saying, "back in my day ...," it was my junior year of college before I ever got a mobile phone, and it was far from "smart." It was a bag phone which required you to unzip it and extend an antenna which made you feel like you were constructing a small radio tower. You would then pull out a full-sized phone receiver attached to the bag with an honest-to-goodness phone cord. To further illustrate how much things have changed, during my senior year of high school our health class was taken to the area which is now the baseball field at Warren County Middle School, where we were handed shotguns and proceeded to shoot skeet as part of a hunter safety course.

Schools and the issues both students and teachers face have drastically changed in what seems (at least to me) to be a relatively short amount of time. One thing which hasn't changed, however, is the importance of education. I salute all the students and teachers who have made their return, however begrudgingly it may have been, to begin a new year. I hope it's a great one.

Standard Managing Editor Seth Wright can be reached at editor@southernstandard.com