Random Observations on a Parent Involvement Conference

Prefatory Remark: Everyone can agree that Parent Involvement in our children’s education is good. Not everyone can agree on what it means.

Disclaimer 1: For better or worse, I am an Involved Parent (IP). I am a Room Mom, I cut out lamination and staple booklets sometimes, I once hot-glued 120 student-made paper meters, end-to-end around the school using three extension cords and a rickety stepladder, I do small-group work with kids twice a week, I help out in the library once a week, and at random school events throughout the year, I am a member of the PTO, I ask the Sonars about their days until I’m sure they feel smothered, I nag encourage them about their schoolwork, I promote involvement in extra-curricular activities, and encourage them to have a broader world view. I don’t expect everyone to do the things I do (especially the gluing), but I like to do what I do.

Disclaimer 2: I don’t cave to tantrums or whining. 

Yesterday I attended a Parent Involvement Conference that gathered more than six-hundred IPs from surrounding school districts to hear professional presentations on issues relevant to educating and parenting our children. This year’s topics were Nutrition, College Preparedness, Bullying, and Childhood Brain Cancer. The conference was fun and informative and I would happily go back next year.

A few observations, in no particular order:

1. Encouraging parents to make better food choices for our families over a magnificent spread of donuts, pastry, and orange juice, followed by an outrageously delicious and abundant barbecue lunch is, um, odd.

2. Cotton’s barbecue in Robstown, Texas is awesome. I’m still partial to Mac’s in Gregory because it’s more local, but I would not turn down another slice of that melt-in-your-mouth brisket. (Yes, I know that has nothing to do with education. Sh.)

3. Getting a child ready for college and the workplace today is incredibly daunting. On top of getting good grades, the number of tasks to manage during high school to maximize college opportunity looks like a full-time job. The video on Globalization was interesting. I begin to understand why some people outsource it.

4. On nutrition, I feel like we need to have more backbone with our children. We are the adults. We are the ones who can make informed nutrition about their choices. We need to learn about healthier choices, teach our children about those choices. We won’t always be there telling them what is good to eat or not, so we need to arm them with information that empowers them to take care of themselves.

5. I had a fabulous time hanging out with my friend Magali. We almost stumbled into a safety conference full of farmers, but I’m sure we would have had fun at that one too.

6. Take tissues. You never know when you might encounter harrowing statistics about childhood suicide and cancer. And no parent can listen to the loss of another parent without empathizing and feeling their fear very close to our hearts. I have a theory that the most caustic and critical among us are the first to succumb to sobbing. 

7. Bullying sucks. I like The Bloggess’ recent advice on Bullying. In addition to NOT FEEDING THE TROLLS we need to build up our children’s resilience and arm them with the self-worth, knowledge, and skills to resist being bullies, being bullied, or being an unhelpful bystander. Be a good witness in life and Cultivate Compassion in all you do.

8. A room full of parents (mostly moms, with a liberal dash of grandmothers, in this case) can get really rowdy when you ask them to show a little spirit. Next year I’ll be armed with noisemakers. And earplugs. Seriously.

9. The lead male singer of the mariachi band that entertained us during lunch was incredibly flirty. Combine a flirty vocalist with some rowdy moms and you might be asking for trouble.

10. I felt like there was an 800 pound purple gorilla in the room: the looming cuts in the Texas Education budget. The atmosphere of the conference was meant to uplift. I imagine that the organizers of the conference would like to try to keep the conference apolitical. But man, it would be hard for me, if I were one of the educators up there, not to take the mic and say, “Hey, the budget’s being gutted and we’re about to be covered in gore. Call your school boards, call your representatives, send Governor Perry an umbrella.”