The other day when my daughter Himi came home from school, she grumbled at me about an assignment that her class had received from their teacher. It concerned the upcoming school entrance ceremonies for the new Grade One students, and it seems that her class had been selected to be 'helpers' for those new students in their first day at school.

Why was Himi grumbling? Because she and her classmates (they will then be in Grade Six) will have to go to school on a day that would normally be a holiday for them, and spend the morning chaperoning the little kids around the school. They will have to show them where their classroom is, where the toilets are, and how to find the gymnasium for the ceremony. She thinks this will be boring.

The little newcomers will all be dressed in their best clothes, and although they will be eager for this new adventure, they will also be quite nervous. Perhaps Himi forgets just how apprehensive she was five years ago, when it was her turn to be a 'shin ichi-nensei'. And I guess she forgets just how helpful and kind the 'big kids' were to her on that big day.

So I tried to remind her about how she had felt at that time, and how important the contact with the older students had been. What if they had stayed home because it was 'boring'? She would have been lost!

I think she understood me, because she is now ready to go and 'do her part'. But actually, I think the real reason for her change of heart is that she remembered something else that happened when she was being shown around the school that day. Those older students told her the school story about a 'ghost' living in the toilets ... and now Himi is eager to pass it on to the new generation!