V's Version

As I worked in Pk's classrooom today (yes, this radical lesbian feminist is both a soccer mom AND a 4th grade classroom helper), I reflected on two things: My reaction to Dani's observation that she has changed her entire single life to fit the schedules of our family life and my burning question of what happens to the children whose parents do not do this?

There I was, in a classroom of 32 children in one of the best arts-oriented public schools in the county, with FOUR other parents on this Monday morning, helping in many ways - with computer work, with sorting and filing the homework, with the dull paperwork and recordkeeping and the essential hugging of children as they passed, with small reading groups and signing up to help at the Harvest Festival...WHAT do the teachers in larger classrooms in larger schools do when there are no parent helpers? I see the children at Pk's school who are falling through the cracks before my very eyes and multiply them by all the children in all the other schools who have parents so absorbed in survival or themselves that they do not have time to put the needs of children first.

The children must talk amongst themselves about this because Pk tells us on a fairly regular basis that he is grateful for the attention that we pay him. He says he realizes that most kids don't get to do all that he does, that many do not get the help he does with his homework (I probably spend more hours on Pk and his education than I do on any other one thing while I am awake.) But what of those children who do not get this attention? When I put it into the context that we live in one of the (if not the) most wealthy societies on the planet - well, it's just overwhelming. If our parents here let the children fall through the cracks - what of the children who have wars going on around them? What of the children who walk 5 miles a day to get water? What of the children who are seen and not heard? What does it say about the future of our planet when children are alienated, neglected and worse from family and community, from personal and global responsibility?

I took Pk to see US vs Lennon last night. I saw it myself last week and decided that it was essential for him to see it. It's not that the documentary itself is so very great - the cinemetography, the obvious Ono bias and the complete lack of some pertinant facts left me with many questions. But the ideology is essential. Non-violent revolution is essential. Gahndi, MLK, Corretta Scott-King, Lennon, Ono - they are on the path I want to walk. I know that I am in the minority of parents who would consider this essential to a child's education. And that I AM in the minority is frightening. Are we doomed to raise a generation of children who will repeat the mistakes of the past? Am I shouting into the wind?

And speaking of shouting into the wind - we did take Pk to the Krissy Keefer (for Congress) fundraiser and I am glad that we did. Todd Chretien (for Senate) helped me to see that what they are doing now (running in the Green Party with an anti-war platform) is just laying the foundation for the abolition of the two party system. Do I connect with Krissy Keefer herself? No. But I respect what she is doing tremendously. And, despite what he claims, I found Todd to be a decent square dancer.