Don’t Expect Miracles from the School Bus

Half awake, perhaps clutching a cold Pop Tart or that last piece of toast; they tumble out the door onto the sidewalk or shoulder of the road. There they await the yellow bus that will convey them to school.
Sleepy moms or dads join some reluctant pupils as they try to make meaningful conversation with their offspring at that early hour. Single-word replies are often the norm. After not too many years, the very thought of having a parent accompany one to the bus becomes repulsive to a youngster.
That was I long ago, it seems, waiting on Dias Creek Road for the first sign of the bus as it lumbered on its appointed rounds. It was a communal time, because several other parents would also walk their children to the pickup point.
Much as we care about our children and claim to be concerned about their education, many still cling to the belief that it is the job of the schools to educate. They are but instruments that assist in the evolution of going from childhood to knowing, caring adults.
Regardless where a child attends school, whether in a “good” district or a “bad” district, administrators know it is the parents, or at least the adults at home, who make all the difference in a child’s education. Teachers alone are like hammers without boards or nails.
I find it odd that virtually every school district in this county has been the target of some Spout Off at one time or another.
Callers love to tear down the people who are tasked with teaching or griping about almost everything. Isn’t it amazing that from those same districts, to families who care, and who work with their children and teachers, the end product can be physicians, lawyers, architects and engineers?
Isn’t it simply amazing? Amazing, but beyond comprehension for those who still believe in “the magic school bus.”
What is the difference? Home life. With a nurturing environment, most children will strive to do their best, and time proves the product. Many judges, past and present, in this vicinage have been educated in the Wildwood School District.
Thanks to my grandchildren, who love books, I have become a regular patron of the Cape May County Library Court House branch. It’s the best aid to education, and all for less than the cost of three best sellers, that I would read once and shove in a box up in the attic.
For our tax dollars, we gain access to an entire collection of books and other information. If they don’t have it, they will secure it from distant libraries.
The library tax we pay is small in relation to what we get in return. Many have discovered that, and are turning to their library for all sorts of material, regardless of the Internet and all its may offer.
As I look at the cost of books, even small, children’s books, there are few that cost less than $20. Agreed, that may not be a lot of money to many, but to some families, a $20 book is simply out of the question. Yet, at the library, those books are yours free. What better deal can there be?
All it takes is time, perhaps a half hour to visit the library, let the youngsters fetch some books that interest them, and maybe one of myself, and we are home.
Those who do not have easy access may use the bookmobile or one of the branches. Those in municipalities without a county library branch have locally run libraries, and thus have similar access.
Back to those youngsters along the road awaiting the “magic bus” with their parents, how different are the things that today’s pupils “must have” than back in the dark ages of the 1950s and 1960s.
Metal lunch boxes were fashionable, but no longer.
Backpacks, some of which seem to need a counterweight on the front to balance the child, have largely replaced book straps or belts.
Calculators, operated by light or wafer-thin batteries, have replaced slide rules that, to this day, remain a mystery to me, although I have one somewhere among my treasures of antiquity.
Due to budget constraints, children are asked to bring their own pencils, pens, crayons, tablets, and composition books to school.
To this day, I could never figure out how one small tablet and one pencil were ever supposed to last us six weeks, but such was life back when rotary-dial telephones were commonplace, and air raid drills were common.
As money drains, who knows, we may even see a return to those “dinosaur days” when children, living less than two miles from school, either rode bicycles or walked to school. How quaint a concept, and how physically rewarding.
Such are the things that today’s pupil will not endure as they await that magic school bus early in the morning.
If we could pass on to them one thing about school, it should be to truly enjoy the days they have with their friends and teachers. Education isn’t confined to 12 or 13 years in the first segment and then two to four more years after high school.
Education is a thing that begins when we first open our eyes at birth and should never stop. Many around the globe will never enjoy a gift of school or education, so it ought not be taken for granted.
Parents, you play a bigger role than you can imagine in the scheme of education. Just being there in the morning and after school is more important than you realize.
Encourage your children. Don’t leave then off at the bus and expect magic. Intervene, learn their lingo, and ask questions. Be interested in their world, and the results will truly amaze you.