A monumental event happened last week. It was life-changing and will affect so many people in the future. My grandson went to nursery for the first time. I say monumental because it’s one of those moments that parents always remember: the moment your child who you have been responsible for is handed over to someone else.

It is life-changing for him because it sets him on the path of formal education and a road he’ll be on for the next couple of decades of his life.

Many people are going to meet him in the future, and they’ll meet the sum of all the interactions he’s had to that point. His first day at nursery probably won’t become a core memory for him. But it will be one of the first experiences that shapes how he behaves in a group outside his family, what he expects from other people, and what they expect from him.

Most learning works like that. We remember far less of it than we imagine, but it still leaves something behind.