Amidst all the flurry of comments on social media yesterday regarding Day Without Immigrants, the one thread that caught my eye was a parent who asked two simple questions:
Who’s not sending their kids to school today?
What does this teach our children?
What ensued was generally a comedy of comments (it’s always helpful when people can keep a sense of humor) with an overwhelming number of parents stating they were sending their children to school. There was a clear disconnect between the intent of the Day and how it relates to denying children a day’s worth of education.
With respect to keeping children out of school it seemed there was an overabundance of ignorance on public display. How many knew school funding is based on attendance? It’s difficult to see the logic of how not being there helps to further the purpose of being educated. With education being the single most important external stepping stone to success–how does not being in school help with reinforcing the value of showing up to be educated?
Wouldn’t it be something if all the parents who opted to keep their children from school showed up to their school board meetings to articulate a call to action to improve their children’s education? How about a national day of, “Meet Your School Board Representative”. Or, “Show Up To a Board Meeting”. Or, “Write A Letter to Your Superintendent”. Yesterday was truly was a sight to behold. For all the media attention and supposed solidarity, what was meaningfully accomplished? The very population the Day is supposed to help seemed to unwittingly contribute to the losing of school funding, particularly those in struggling school districts, where every single penny counts. What does this teach our children?
