Even before school starts next week, I have found myself slowing down to 15 mph in school zones. No matter how old we get, September always feels like school, because that’s what it was for our early years and, for those who became parents, it happened all over again.

So when you travel Federal Street or Route 27 or wherever you drive past a school, you, too, may have been in school mode, thinking about the school zone speed limits. Now you are ready for the real thing, when the reasons to slow down, the children, are right there on the sidewalk or stumbling errantly off it, in play or distraction, on their way, with siblings or friends or solo, to their school day.

Bus stops are as important to take care in. Notice the school bus road signs and keep an eye out for children being children, stepping into the road; and for a school bus with lights flashing.

It is as simple as staying alert and as hard as you make it, by doing anything distracting, just for a second. So do not.

Traveling the bus routes and school zones is a daily test, as serious as any a driver faces. Pass it with flying colors, at 15 mph, and your eyes where they should be, for every second.

Week’s positive parting thought: May the students and staff have a wonderful year of classes, minus the cohorts and remote days this time, be glad for the sports, too, and enjoy the nearest to a normal year we can safely get.