Open House

Each fall public schools open their doors to curious parents and let them get a snapshot of their child's day-to-day life. If you were a teacher like me, this would make you nervous, in a healthy way, because it holds your work to a different light than you're accustomed; it's not the principal checking in on you but some one who (hopefully) has an even loftier interest in your student.

Each year I walk away from the experience happy that it happened. The parents, sometimes as anxious as the teacher - the father's arms behind his back, the mother adjusting her purse - show such a high degree of hopes for their child. They are concerned, and even worried, since it seems like so many more things can go wrong at school for kids these days than right. They are in the middle of letting their child go out and come of age in the world. I try to always keep this in mind when I'm at school.

Because some day it will be me!