Dear Parents,
I had planned a completely different topic for this week’s
newsletter, but recent emails from parents and my own observations have caused
me to shift gears.
I love carline duty. I love being one of the first people
your daughter sees in the morning before she begins her day. I love having the
opportunity to see how your daughter is coming into school. Most of the time,
girls are joyfully jumping out of the car and running into school, or waiting
for a friend who is in the car behind so that they can walk into their
classroom together. Sometimes girls get out of their car or off the bus a
little more slowly, head down, yawning or, on rare occasions, crying. I love
that I have the opportunity to check in with just about every single student
before she starts her day, and I value being able to give a teacher a
heads-up if a girl isn’t herself as she makes her way into the building. While I am almost always outside in the
morning, I love being a part of the end-of-day carline as well. In both the
morning and the afternoon, I so appreciate the good humor of you, the parents,
when the line is moving a little slower than usual.
Over the past two weeks, I watched a driver “cut the line”
and pull into the very front of carline, ahead of cars that were waiting all the
way out to Conestoga Ave. I heard tales
from parents of other drivers cursing each other in line or behaving in threatening
ways to each other because they were apparently unhappy with the way carline
was working that day. I observed two near-accidents due to parents who appeared
to be more focused on their cell phone conversations than picking up their
daughters. I’m not sure why the past two
weeks seems to have been filled with behaviors such as the ones listed (Is it
a full moon? That’s usually the question we teachers first ask when children
are a little rammy!).
I shared my observations with a group of students. They
shared worries for their own parents who talk on the cell or text while
driving. I asked them what they would
say to the grown-ups involved in some of the situations I describe above. Their answer was simple. They said, “It’s not
okay to treat each other that way at The Agnes Irwin School. You’re supposed to be kind.”
Enough said. Have a great weekend.
- Donna