When I become frustrated and overwhelmed at these responsibilities, after I've torn apart the house for the fifth time looking for a $7 dollar library book that is preventing my distraught daughter from checking out more books from the school's library, I take myself firmly in hand and remind myself how incredibly fortunate I am not to have to add budget, transportation, food scarcity, home stability, or a lack of employment to the list of details that I have to worry over. Imagine being a broke, homeless single mom, madly filling out state assistance paperwork on top of everything else.
My empathy for the situation of the majority of parents in the U.S. notwithstanding, I am APALLED by the media's crucifixion of the Utah school that "shamed" students who were not paying for their lunches. What about empathy for the food service workers, likely barely over minimum wage, likely without health insurance or retirement, who are under pressure from their employers to balance their till at the end of the day? Part of me wants to callously slap people in the face with "way to teach kids to expect a handout!" Or, "I thought you said that there's no such thing as a free lunch."
I will admit that my beloved grandmother was the Lunch Lady of our local elementary school/jr. high for 20 years, including all of the years that I attended that school. I will admit that I have a very strong bias toward the support staff of any school, as anyone with any brains knows the people who REALLY run the building are the Secretary and the Lunch Lady. My bias is reinforced by witnessing first-hand the amount of money that I personally saw leave my grandmother's purse and go into her till to cover students who did not have the money to cover their lunches or the parents to sign the paperwork to have it covered.
This issue in Utah may have been simply alleviated by changing the location of the register so that balances could be checked BEFORE students have their lunches but would people still be outraged by children denied lunch altogether? But wait, according to the news, all of the kids were provided with milk and fruit regardless of their ability to pay. With the unhealthy, pre-packaged, sugar-filled modern school lunches, those kids are probably better off anyway.
What gets me on all of this is how quickly people jump onto the "schools are the bad guy" bandwagon. I am extremely irritated with the seeming assumption by people in our country that those working in the field of education are out to harm kids. Teachers are bad, principals are bad, now even the lunch lady!
How full of diabolic sociopaths our public education system must be that these monsters would go through such rigorous training to put up with such low pay and grief in order to bide their time, waiting for an opportunity to humiliate your child! Weird!
I would ask that parents and taxpayers, in general, PLEASE consider the following:
1. Most people, the VAST majority of people, who work in education, from the district superintendent to the lunch lady to the bus driver, care about and do not want to harm kids. Give them the benefit of the doubt! Please!
2. Be involved in the school as much as you are able. Public schools are infrastructure. JUST like our roads, our government is obligated to provide them, police them, and maintain them but if you drive negligently, the road is hardly responsible when you and your family die in a fiery crash. Drive safe. Wear your seatbelt. Fill out your paperwork. Make sure they do their homework. Pay the library fine. Be involved!
3. Be a problem solver rather than a problem creator. If you and your child have irreconcilable differences with your school, figure out a way to help your overburdened, underfunded public school improve for the benefit of ALL the children in your community. Whining about the "unfair treatment" of your child simply stretches resources further, hurting everyone. If you have to remove your child from a local public school for one reason or another, fine. Do it. I am currently homeschooling my 10th grader as the name of my blog implies. But don't automatically assume that the issues your child is having is a problem for EVERY child. See numbers 1 & 2. Spend some time investigating the situation before you freak out.
Like any public institution, our schools are not perfect. But, in my experience (K-27th Grade graduate of public schools, 3 kids, Master's in Teaching, substitute teacher) public schools are constantly working toward perfection. Can you say the same about yourself? Be part of the solution.
