As summer draws to a close and thoughts of school slowly seep into most Brandon and Goodrich students? minds a mix of responses emerge. For some, it’s the excitement of changes and expectations the new school year will bring, for others it’s the ‘H-word? (homework), earlier bedtimes and a weekly routine.
Parents adjust too.
Schedules change, after school arrangements are made and summer plans are replaced by after school plans.
The changes from summer days to school days produces a host of new challenges for both parents and students. Specifically, the after school hours or the time of day when school is done and a parent or guardian arrives home becomes paramount. That lull in children’s daily routine when neither school officials nor parents supervise is sometimes a perilous, growing gap in the day when due to a variety of reasons students are often home alone.
Consider a 2000 survey conducted in the 5,300 student Carman-Ainsworth School District, located in the Genesee Intermediate School District.
The survey was distributed in schools to about 1,000 students in grades third through eighth. Carman-Ainsworth school officials asked students if there was a parent at home after school between 3 and 5 p.m. According to the results of the survey 77 percent of eighth-grade students, 72 percent of seventh-grade students and 60 percent of third-sixth grade students were home alone between those hours. Moreover, 38 percent of eighth grade students, 51 percent of seventh grade students and 29 percent of third-sixth graders were responsible for watching a brother, during that same time.
What the student did after school varied from eating, sleeping, homework or jumping on the Internet until a parent or guardian arrived home. Carman-Ainsworth, like other school districts, is seeking ways to curb the percentage of students home alone after school, including a grant from 21st Century Community Learning Center to fund a variety of activities..
If students in the Brandon and Goodrich school districts are anything like those in the Carman-Ainsworth school district as the new school year approaches they will be home alone for at least a few hours following a day of school.
Needless to say, $2 a gallon gasoline, escalating grocery prices and a 50 percent divorce rate makes single parent homes all too common. And things are unlikely to change.
We are living in unpredictable times. The terrors of Sept. 11, Columbine school massacre and the recent Russian hostage crisis ought to show us that we are highly susceptible to danger, during the school day and after. The only way that we can have the slightest peace of mind is equipping our children with the tools necessary to take care of themselves in the absence of a parent or guardian.
Emergency phone numbers, who can (or can’t) come in the house and a list of to-dos are just some of the suggestions for students after school. Teaching independence and responsibility for even a few hours can be a rather daunting task, yet skill that can save a life and prevent harm.
Assuredly parents can’t always be there given the life-styles of our present society and given the tragic events of the past the least parents can do it provide self reliance techniques.