WHAT THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IS TEACHING ME - PART 3: YOUR VOICE MATTERS...

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I continue to learn so much as I immerse into every opportunity I have in becoming part of my kids' public school experience.  I am blessed to be part of a school that has an awesome school, great staff, and caring parents.  Of course, there are challenges, too.  One of them being that the drop off and pick up traffic is often, for a lack of words, quite hectic, chaotic and even dangerous.

I don't know what caused me to care about this to the point of putting words into action but on a random day, I just decided to write an email to our city councillor.  Note:  I had never even met this guy but on this random day, I had gotten a random email newsletter from him reporting on changes to traffic signs in an adjacent school.  So I clicked 'reply' and wrote him about my concerns about the school.  I shared with him these were concerns that had been voiced by parents in our school council but that I was writing him for advice as a concerned parent.

To my surprise I got a reply from the councillor almost right away and he asked if I would be ok to meet with him.  I was shocked but encouraged.  I notified some of the parents in council and our principal and AGAIN, I was shocked and encouraged to hear from our principal, who was going to make an effort to join me at the meeting.  School council also asked me to relay their concerns.

So off we went to meet with the city councillor.  We shared our concerns and gave him some suggestions to perhaps lessen the dangers of the situation.  I felt completely intimidated and out of place, and honestly, I didn't think much would come out of it.  I mean, we parents talk about civil responsibility and the importance of voicing out our opinions to our kids.  We talk about not developing entitled kids including becoming entitled to freedom.  But, I for one, had never really 'spoken up' this way.  I had, sad to say, and aside from exercising my voting rights, never really exercised civil responsibilities to this extent.

Again, to my surprise, I continued hearing back from the councillor as the weeks went by, as he would report to us who he had spoken to in the city.  Long story short?  We just heard back and, after going through a few city departments and completing an assessment/survey, the city has decided to send a crossing guard in the new school year, and have submitted a request that enforcement be sent to monitor traffic regularly.

Will it solve all the problems?  Probably not, but it will help.

And once again, my kids' school teaches me one more thing - our voice matters.

I am sure this series on what the public school system is teaching me will continue on...you would be surprised at how much school can teach you...if and only if, you choose to go in as a learner and take in all the lessons it has to offer us to become better parents, neighbours, friends, teammates and citizens instead of going in with a critical mind, heart and voice.

Let the learning continue......



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