Why Would You Do This To Him?
On the school’s email list, I got the following email from another middle school parent:
I was hoping we had some word on the Summer School activities at the middle school this summer. Last year was the first time in the 13 years I have been in this area that we did not offer any summer courses for students. I sent my son to another middle school for Math Prep and to the community college for other classes. I sit on the PTA board and despite asking a lot, we have not gotten any information on how the middle school is handling sign up for this summer or if there will be classes. Does anyone have plans on sending their student to a different school who is offering Summer Courses?
My gut-level instinct was to write back with the following response:
The warm weather has just begun and you are already looking to the public school system to keep your child confined indoors for ANOTHER three months? Does your child really need to take more math preparation classes? Does he have incredibly special needs? Because if he doesn’t, you are dooming him to suffer for the entirety of summer when he should be outdoors swimming and riding bikes and playing in the sunshine!
Worse yet, your child is only a few short years away from leaving home and never coming back. He may or may not be headed to college – but he will definitely want to get away from you as soon as is humanly possible. Maybe you are afraid to leave him alone all day while you go off to work. Okay, I get that. But don’t you see the value in allowing him the freedom to enjoy SOME unsupervised time? Unless your child is a juvenile delinquent and can’t be trusted, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO HIM? It’s like sending him to prison for the summer! Has it ever occurred to you to just hang out with him this summer instead?
It was my gut instinct to write back, to defend this child’s well-being, to do something – anything – to keep her from doing this awful thing to her own flesh and blood.
I wrote it, but I didn’t send it. Instead, I plunked it into a blog post and kept my mouth shut.
Parents are allowed to do whatever they think is best for their kids. I just totally disagree with this one.