Letter to the Editor: Ferndale Parent Explains Why She Chooses Ferndale Schools

When I went to school to drop off cupcakes for my son’s birthday, I caught a glimpse of why I love our schools. There was a group of three people seated in the hallway on elementary school chairs, the kind that rise about 12 inches from the ground. The two little people sat upright, square-shouldered, in rapt attention to the third. A volunteer father drilled them with math flashcards, with all six-foot something of him folded impossibly into the little chair across from the little boys. All three were totally engaged in their interaction, to the point of not seeing me pass  -- cupcakes and all.

This portrait is compelling for me on two different levels: One is that it epitomizes the value of having parents in the schools. Parental involvement is a cornerstone of the curricula at our school and attracts families who are willing to volunteer substantial time to engage in the education of their own children and their children’s classmates, extending to virtually the whole school. The positive results are myriad, not the least of which is that the parents know the kids and the kids know the parents. And when I use the word “know,” I mean that my neighbor can tell me how my son’s reading is coming along, or what math concept might be troubling to him, or what really happened during recess. And when I see a kid at the park who looks lost or is hurt, I can look around for the parents and I know their faces and probably their names.

The second reason that the portrait of the “folded man with children” stays with me is more complex. The dad is black and the two boys he was teaching are white. Our school is racially diverse and straddles some of the most socio-economically polarized cities in the United States. Those students in the hallway were receiving more than math facts. For kids, school is their intimate view of government and the first institution with which they will interact. School administration and teachers are the second levels of authority (after parents/family) with which they will engage.  School is at least a large sub-part of their community perspective. The presence of that father, brought to them by the school, communicates to the children that the school, government, authority and community value this volunteer and that they should too.

The lesson’s subtle inclusion of an important subtext about race, equality and learning is why my kids go to Ferndale Schools. True integration: working together as equals to reach our goals.

Darcie R. Brault is a lawyer whose three boys go to John F. Kennedy.

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