Now, that alienation I mentioned…
At the orientation, no one asked about the children coming in the building on their first day of school. You know, when I was a kid and at most schools I’ve taught at so far, at least one parent would walk their child in the school and at the very least help the child get to the place they should be, in their class usually, I mean, it is the first day of Kindergarten forever…there will never be another first day of Kindergarten.
But, I had worked at this school one time when a lady was on maternity leave and it was at the beginning of the school year. I distinctively remember the teachers and other staff taking children by the hand and practically pushing the parents out the door. At the time I remember thinking that it was odd. Not odd necessarily in a bad way, just not nice. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I took Ditto Boy to meet his teacher this afternoon. I asked her if it would be ok if I walked him in on the first day. Ditto Boy is a socialite, he won’t need me after that first day. Well, since the first day is on Friday, he might ask me to go in with him Monday, but he is simply not that dependent on me. Anyway, her answer was yes, the first day was fine and that the other two kindergarten teachers had been telling their parents that they could walk their child in for a week. Then, they had their first staff meeting this morning and were told something entirely different.
The teachers were informed that the parents could come in on Friday with their child and on Monday but after that, they did not need to come into the building. Now, as I just said, Ditto Boy won’t need me, but it has always made me feel odd that someone would tell me not to come inside a place. I mean, what is going on that doesn’t need my eyes watching it?
There’s just so much to say about this, I keep blabbering on and on. So, where am I going with this? Where I am going with this rampage is parental involvement.
Parental involvement is the key to a child’s education. I do not know an educator anywhere that would argue with that. Not one.anywhere.!
However, every effort that I have made to talk with the staff (with the exception of Ditto Boy’s teacher) has been met with a real stand-offish attitude. People that I’ve known half of my life weren’t even welcoming last night or today (but have been in the past). I don’t get it.
I know it is very different from daycare. They don’t have to please me because I’m not a paying customer and I can go elsewhere. The fact of the matter is, I do have another option. I don’t know that it is necessarily a better school or that the staff would behave any differently, but I do know that the school bus for each school turns around at the corner of our house. If they were to happen to be in this area at the same time of morning, they couldn’t both turn around and go back to their necessary destination. So, I do have a choice.
This is a small town, my dad taught the receptionist one of his first years in education. Everyone knows everybody and their business. I didn’t think a lot about on particular teacher brushing me off last night, but then she did it again today. Then, last night when we were leaving the building I spoke to another staff person who didn’t even turn her head, just mumbled something I couldn’t understand. What is up?
Parental Involvement is preached everywhere you go. I preach it myself, but I mean it. And, so, here’s where some of the alienation comes in; right now what the education systems in our area are preaching to us is “PARENTAL INVOLEMENT = WELL BALANCED CHILD” when in reality what they mean is “IF YOU WILL PAY $100 FOR SUPPLIES, AND ANOTHER $100 IN FEES, WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU”.
I didn’t join the PTO. You want to know why? Because I wasn’t asked. The table was sitting at the front door. Three women were sitting at the table. Not one of these women said one word to me about PTO when we went inside. We even stood in that area for several minutes lingering to chat with people that normally are very chatty with me. They weren’t last night. Even Boy Genius remarked about the behavior. He said that most of them were looking at me like they had no clue who I was. I’m certainly not accustom to that around here. I mean it, everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everybody’s business. I’m telling you, odd is not really the strongest word I could come up with, but I have mono, remember, it makes me mentally confused. (You didn’t think I am going to write a post about something and leave out the mono detail did you?)
But, there is one thing that I am not confused about. First and foremost, I like Ditto Boy’s teacher. As luck would have it, I knew prior to meeting her last night and I knew I liked her. I didn’t really know her, but her aunt was my teacher’s aid the first year I taught and she went to the same high school that I did. I liked her demeanor a lot, I liked the way she approached her first meeting with the children last night and then today with Ditto Boy. So, I’m trying to take the good with the bad and let it all slide…you are going to help me right?
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