Why I love my daughter's school

I joined several of the PTO committees at Lily’s school. So far I have been working two days per week at the school. Jeff keeps asking if I am getting paid. No. On Wednesday I work with some other moms doing special projects for the teachers. We wrote letters at the top of each page of composition books, we sorted all the packs of construction paper by color. We collated and stapled papers. We picked up projects and dropped them off to the classrooms. This is supposed to save the teacher’s time; make their life easier so they don’t have to take so much work home with them.

What I noticed was that all the teachers seem to be very happy. We worked in their lunch room, so we got a chance to visit with them too. And walking around the school dropping off completed projects I got to see the inner workings of the school. Having another daughter who is a senior means that I have spent a lot of time in elementary schools over the years. I have never seen a school like this before. Where everyone seems to be happy to be there. While the purpose of a school is academics, I think the environment is also a key component to the success of children. But, how do you measure the quality of a schools environment?

I saw Lily once walking down the hall. She was walking in a line, smiling. I can’t tell you how nice it is to know that Lily is there in such a lovely place.

After working for five hours doing slave labor I had lunch with Lily. The school allows parents to come and have lunch with their kids. We had a great time eating lunch together. I met her friends. I got to talk to her assistant teacher and she is such a sweet, kind lady. She was in charge of two classes of kids who were eating lunch. She was everywhere at once. Opening milks, passing out napkins, being kind. All the kids are well behaved at this school too. When I taught pre-school I never managed to keep all the kids happy and in line over lunch. I think that a big part of the equation is when kids come to school knowing manners already it is different than when wild children come to school and you have to try and teach 20 kids manners all at the same time.

The next day, I wasn’t helping at the school and I didn’t have lunch with Lily. I didn’t know it at the time, but Lily was expecting me to be there. When she arrived at lunch she started to cry when I wasn’t there. I did join her for lunch on Friday, and that is when everyone told me how upset she was on Thursday. Even when she came home Thursday there was no indication that she had been so upset. Except her behavior was horrid that afternoon and evening. Poor Lily. I guess she cried and cried that she wanted her mom. She didn’t want anyone else, she wanted her mom. I felt so bad. At home my normally independent too busy for hugs and cuddles girl is a little bit more loving. She even wants to hold my hand to walk from room to room at home. Which is nice because I really need all the extra hugs too.