The Lesson of Pippi

 

   Pippi Longstocking is an amazing little girl. Her mother died in childbirth on her husband’s ship. When Pippi was nine her father was washed overboard. Pippi is convinced he made it to a South Seas island and is now king of the cannibals there. 

   Pippi decides she’s had enough of the sea and, with a suitcase full of gold coins in hand, she heads to the house in a small Swedish town her father had bought for his retirement. 

   Pippi has always wanted a horse so after arriving in the town she buys a horse with one of her gold coins. She keeps the horse on her front porch. 

  I forgot to mention that Pippi is incredibly strong. When she want to drink her morning coffee on the porch, she lifts her horse down into the yard. 

   I bring Pippi up because I am reading about Pippi to my two grandchildren every evening. I am staying a couple of weeks at my son’s house in Massachusetts so he can get some projects done around the house. The kids have started back to school. Isla is in first grade and goes to school two days and does the learning modules on the laptop the other three. Nash is in preschool and goes to the school four half-days a week. It’s a big deal for Isla especially. She hasn’t been in school since March and misses her friends. 

   Pippi has two friends her age who live next door to her house. The friends want Pippi to come to school with her. Pippi agrees. Her motivation is that she wants to get school vacations which she’s not getting now. 

   The teacher is very kind, but Pippi’s vociferous nature and crazy answers soon exhaust the teacher’s patience. Pippi decides she doesn’t need a vacation. The teacher says she can come back when she’s a little older. But Pippi never will. She already understands the workings of the world. You have to get kids when they’re young. 

  I think this is why nowadays there’s pre-school, and pre-pre-school. That, and so the parents can go to work and stay out of trouble themselves.