There was a time in Southern Maryland when students saw clear harbingers that summer was ending and school was looming. First and foremost, the end of August into Labor Day brought the tobacco harvest. The cutting, spearing and hanging of the plant to cure for market was another step in that back-breaking, labor-intensive work.

Also, in a pre-cable, pre-streaming time when there were only four television stations you could pull in with an external antenna, at least two of those channels carried the annual Jerry Lewis telethon. It meant the next day was back to pencils, books and teachers.

And, after multiple years of disruption to nearly every single part of our lives — including schools — the pandemic, while still ongoing, seems to be in the rearview mirror for schools in the region as they prepare to open later this month.

It’s always a time for fresh starts, and for teachers and staff to rediscover, as they do each year, why they remain in this profession. All of these talented and caring people are engaged in enormously important work that shapes the lives of young people.

It’s also a time for fresh starts for students, and we specifically are thinking of how unique the experiences will be for kindergarteners, sixth graders and freshmen starting in a new school this year.

Since March 2020, the closing of schools impacted so many lives in our community. It impacted teachers and school faculty who had to essentially create an entirely new way of teaching; it impacted students and their ability to learn and grow socially; it impacted parents who had to learn a juggling act for working and helping their kids with virtual learning from their homes.

COVID-19 changed the education system, and hopefully the tools learned during the virtual time will be stepping stones to more visionary ways to teach.

Life has changed a lot over the last couple years, indeed, lives will change again over the next nine months of the school year. Eyes will be opened, social skills developed, content learned, steps to independence and maturity they will need in their adult lives will be mastered.

In short, students will be getting an education.

What happens in these public schools, and in the private schools that educate hundreds of other children, will also plant seeds for much of what will happen in Southern Maryland after they graduate and begin to contribute to and influence the life of this community.

These counties’ public schools toss together an eclectic mix of students. There are the relative newcomers whose parents are here because of work associated with one of the region’s military bases or other professional opportunities. Others with deeper roots in Southern Maryland are boarding buses whose drivers once ferried their mothers and fathers to the very same school.

And, speaking of school buses, commuters and others on the road need to be ready for increased traffic in the coming weeks, and remember to always follow the rules of the road for stopped buses. Public schools start in St. Mary’s next Wednesday on Aug. 24, in Charles on Monday, Aug. 29, and in Calvert the following day, Aug. 30.

All of the region’s students and educators will soon gather in schools, and their influence starts now. They will be contributing, most of them positively, to the work and growth that will take place in classrooms in the months ahead.

So students, let’s get ready to open those books and get cracking. It’s almost time to start setting the morning alarm again, and there’ll be homework soon — and that’s all a good thing.

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