August 27, 2008 08:30 pm
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By Mike Pound
Globe columnist
mpound@joplinglobe.com
I counted about 60 parents sitting in the small school gymnasium/lunchroom Tuesday night.
I guess that was a pretty good turnout, but I don’t know. It’s hard to say, really. The elementary school, by today’s standards, is sort of small. All told, a little more than 200 kids attend the school. So I guess 60 parents, in today’s world, is a pretty good turnout for an after-school event. But again, I don’t know.
Part of me wonders why there weren’t more parents at the event. Part of me wonders why all the parents of the 200-plus kids who attend the school weren’t there Tuesday night.
My wife and I have been going to after-school events at our daughter’s elementary school for almost six years now. Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing the same parents at the events. During those first few after-school events we attended, I felt bad for the teachers and administrators at our daughter’s school. After one such event, I asked a teacher if the low turnout bothered her. She said it used to, but over the years she had come to grips with the fact that not every parent of every child can or will take the time to make every after-school event.
The meeting Tuesday night at my daughter’s school was part of an effort to connect with parents. It was a chance for teachers to meet with parents in an informal setting. It was a chance to talk about what is going on in the school and to suggest ways parents can help their children make it through another academic year.
As part of the meeting, the staff brought in a speaker who shared her thoughts on raising kids. Basically, what the speaker told the parents was to spend time with their children. To take an interest in them. To show them that they care about them, that they are proud of them, that they love them.
It was good advice. But as I looked at the parents gathered in the small gymnasium/lunchroom of the small school, I couldn’t help but wonder if the speaker wasn’t telling Eisenhower about the war. It seemed to me that the fact that the parents were in the small gymnasium/lunchroom showed that they are taking an interest in their children, that they care about them, that they are proud of them and that they love them.
But it also occurred to me that it was unfair to assume that the parents who didn’t attend the meeting Tuesday night don’t care about their children. Or that they aren’t proud of them or that they don’t love them.
My wife and I are lucky in a lot of ways. Mainly, we are lucky that we are in a position to make most of our daughter’s school-related events. Not all parents are so lucky. Heck, my parents weren’t so lucky. I have six brothers and sisters. My dad was a career military guy, and my mom was sort of busy, what with the seven kids and all. So there were many times when my parents couldn’t make all of our school-related events. They made most of them, but they couldn’t make all of them. But we never got the impression that they didn’t care about us or that they weren’t interested in us.
But still, I found myself Tuesday night wishing that more parents had been able to attend the after-school event in the small gymnasium/lunchroom. And in a perfect world, I might have gotten my wish. But as we are constantly told, we don’t live in a perfect world. So we do what we can. We make as many school-related events as we can, and we feel bad for those parents who can’t make them. And we hope they can make the next one.
We do our best to let our kids now that we care about them. That we are proud of them. That we love them.
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