Ponderings

The days are getting shorter and there is the briefest hint of a chill in the night air. The back to school sales are winding down and the tension in my house is on the rise. In just two short weeks we are back to school.

Technically it’s my kids that go back to school. I’m not an official student on any campus. But in our family reality, school is a family affair. One of my responsibilities is to make sure the kids have clothes and supplies. Although generally speaking I am an avid shopper, the endless black hole of back to school shopping is daunting. Then my partner and I carefully working out schedules to make sure we get each kid where they need to be. Together we shuttle the kids to the practices that have already begun, write the checks to coaches and tutors, and sort through the endless requests for volunteer time and money that are now arriving.

Studies show that parental involvement is crucial to kids’ success in school. My children often hold that card over my head. And though there are delightful exceptions to every rule, I’ve yet to find a study that affirms the slacker parent. I assure you that I am still searching. With two children in two schools with two very different sets of academic, emotional and social needs, I find it absolutely impossible to be the June Cleaver of parental involvement. Sometimes my introverted self just wants to hide, other times the proud mom rises to the fore.

Full face to the parental demands of school age children, I find myself facing a cruel irony. The national educational reform legislation, Leave No Child Behind, is now moving into a new phase of implementation. Students in schools that have failed to perform will now be given a choice to attend other schools. These students range in age from 5 to 18 (give or take). A huge number of these students don’t even yet read and certainly don’t know about this law. Even if they did, students themselves are minors. It is the parents, not the students, who will be given choice. But what of the child who’s parent is not able or willing to advocate for them? What happens to the success of a child who’s parent can’t or won’t be involved? How are we to Leave No Child Behind if the legislative muscle rests in parental control? The cruel irony is that the child most vulnerable is left behind. Again.

Them that’s got shall get
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
- Billie Holiday