pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man

American school children will be enjoying the lazy days of summer for a couple of weeks.

Not so Mexican schoolchildren.   The days of "no more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks" are over.

Today was the start of school.  For the past few weeks, Mexican parents and their children have been lining up at Walmart, Soriana, and Office Depot to buy the paraphernalia of school days.

It was not always so.  I was in Barra de Navidad the other day -- along with a group of tourists keeping the gears of commerce greased.  And ran across this interesting tableaux.

The local baker had set up his cake-baking equipment outside of his shop.  Apparently, the children were about to learn what we called in the workers' compensation field "transferable skills."  In this case, how to bake sugar and flour into the type of treats that will fuel the nation's growing diabetes epidemic.

Health issues aside, they were having the time of their lives.  Nothing makes a kid feel better than to succeed at adult tasks.

Today they are back in school.  Learning how to be good citizens of the republic.  If all else fails, they can sell cakes.  And wear very cool hats.