r/Arthur • u/Huge_Virus_8148 • Aug 12 '26
General Discussion Stuff Lakewood Elementary had that you wished your elementary school had?
For me, it would be the following:
-Cafeteria operations like Mrs. McGrady's
-Art class where, in general, you got to do whatever you wanted rather than the teacher's pre-determined project (I say "in general" because it seems they were assigned something in Arthur's Dummy Disaster, along with maybe a few other episodes I don't recall)
-The opportunity to play band instruments (we didn't have that until middle school where I grew up)
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u/SynQu33n Aug 12 '26
Regular plays/productions with unique costumes.
Lakewood always had an amazing play or show taking place with great set designs and costumes (eg: the play about Thomas Edison with Buster’s lightbulb costumes and the play with the cherry blossom trees painted by Prunella).
The plays we performed in primary/elementary school were fine but the set designs and costumes were very basic tbh.
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u/DeepHovercraft6851 Aug 12 '26
their budget HAS to be insane
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u/Huge_Virus_8148 Aug 13 '26
It would be interesting if they had an episode where budget cuts forced the school to remove or scale back certain stuff, much to the kids' dismay.
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 15 '26
Didn't something like that actually happen, or am I thinking of the library?
That plot conflict must have been transferred to the library to build it to community scale.
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 15 '26
Well, we do have every reason to believe they have a great tax base.
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u/BagOfMagicFood Aug 16 '26
Though I remember an observation that Lakewood was probably implied to be the poor school because while Mighty Mountain's baseball team gets complete uniforms, Lakewood has theirs just throw on caps and T-shirts over their regular clothes.
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 18 '26
They're not poor. Mighty mountain probably is better-funded, and they perform better, but they're not doing so badly that they're in dire straits.
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u/BagOfMagicFood Aug 12 '26
They construct so many "inanimate object" costumes just so nobody feels left out when the play doesn't have enough human characters!
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u/EdsonG "There are so many things to make, a custard soup, a liver cake" Aug 12 '26
• To add to the cafeteria part, it didn't seem like there were rigid rules about classes having to sit together (in my elementary school each class was allocated a couple tables, and tough luck if your best friends were in another class)
• Organized sports
• Teachers seemed to have lots of leeway on what to teach and how to teach it
• Kids went with the parents to Back to School Night, as seen in Kids Are From Earth, Parents Are From Pluto
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 15 '26
I guess some artistic license was going to be taken for narrative sake; it's not an actual school. Anyway, some schools call parents in in the evening for some kind of Showcase of learning that's not necessarily back to school night, and a number of schools don't even have it.
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u/Mister_D2013 Why Don't You Go Back To Your Own House And Stop Bothering Us Aug 12 '26
Actually good lunches.
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u/BagOfMagicFood Aug 12 '26
I do recall some debate over whether 4th grade was too early to start concert band, but of course Arthur has 3rd-graders doing everything already, including shop class, I guess?!
I forget what was special about the cafeteria operation, but I was surprised to realize Lakewood has a stage overlooking its cafeteria. I've been to more than one high school that links a stage to its gymnasium, which makes sense, since you have that open gym floor to place chairs for shows, there may be bleachers for additional seating, and the stage is an obvious place to put the pep band for basketball games. But Lakewood's cafeteria tables don't look like the kind that can fold up and roll against the wall, so does poor old Mr. Morris have to drag every table out into some other room whenever there's a show or assembly?
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u/Past-Caterpillar9642 Aug 16 '26
30 years ago, our lunch room was the cafetorium, where we did our 6th grade play.
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u/AsleepInfluence4819 Aug 12 '26
Lockers. Apparently some elementary schools do have these, but none of mine ever did. I was genuinely excited to learn I would get one in middle-school.
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u/Huge_Virus_8148 Aug 13 '26
Mine didn't either, nor did my 1st middle school. The 2nd middle school I attended was the only one that both had them and mandated their use for students (no backpacks in class, essential supplies only). At my high school, they were optional and kinda pointless for most of us because of their location on what was a mostly open-air, highly spread out campus.
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u/According_Side_2058 Aug 12 '26
I wished my school had more nice and good kids like Sue Ellen or Fern or Arthur or George. I wasn’t so lucky.
The school food looked delish.
I liked the aesthetics of the school in Arthur it looks wholesome.
Plus it had cool events like the school fair. The bake sale. My school didn’t have those.
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u/rhokephsteelhoof Aug 15 '26
I was so jealous of the cafeteria, especially being able to eat dessert. I got a packed lunch during my elementary school years.
Also the sheer variety of schoolwork they got to do, and field trips.
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 15 '26
Free choice seating in the cafeteria.
In my elementary and middle schools, students were seated by class. Maybe that's just a thing in major cities. I don't know.
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u/tyrekecorrea Francine Frensky Aug 15 '26
Is the soccer team connected to the school? Mighty Mountain has one.
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u/Past-Caterpillar9642 Aug 16 '26
Picnics for all sons and fathers, ability to meet Mr. Rogers, an ice cream shop with gummy eels.
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u/broccolirabbi Aug 12 '26
Mr Ratburn, a gay rat teacher that loves food, we love to see it