Real School Supplies

Real School Supplies By Bill Pike draft started 8/20/24

For many years our church congregation has donated school supplies to the students and staff at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School in the city of Richmond. That same congregation also participates in the New Shoes For Back To School program coordinated by leaders at Third Street Bethel AME.

As students return to school, numerous houses of worship and non-profit organizations in the Richmond area work independently and collaboratively to meet assorted needs of students in our public schools. Too bad these organizations can’t ensure that all students have access to real life school supplies— like trauma free living, stable home life, no food insecurity, and can attend a school that is safe, properly staffed, and accredited.

My previous life as a public school educator, still nags at me with a reoccurring dream. In the dream, the end of the grading period has arrived. I open my grade book to find it empty. I haven’t assessed, quizzed, or tested my students. I’m in a panic. Then I awake and remember— I’m retired from the school business, no more grading papers and recording grades.

I suspect that teachers today have nightmarish dreams. How will they manage a constantly disruptive student? How to help students master basic skills with very little support from home? How to help a parent understand their student lacks social skills in interacting with classmates.

Despite being retired, I still think a lot about public education. With this start of the new school year, I wonder how many new teachers at the end of the first week think to themselves—“what have I gotten myself into?” I wonder how many of those same teachers will submit letters of resignation prior to December’s winter break?

Some days when I read headlines about book bans, AI, the Ten Commandments, cell phones, and worn out buildings, I wonder why in the world would anyone want to be a school superintendent? Do superintendents have lifelong supplies of Tums, Rolaids, and Prilosec on hand?

Today, everyone has an opinion about public education. Those disgruntled voices can come from politicians, school board members, and parents.

I recently met two friends for lunch. Each spent their careers working with students, parents, and teachers. One friend asked, “what was your greatest challenge working in a school?” Without any hesitation, our friend, a retired principal answered: “working with difficult parents.”

Unlike buying school supplies for students, a school principal at the beginning of the school year can’t order from Acme Education Supplies a box of remedies for working with difficult parents.

But that principal could be guided by these common sense supplies in working through tough situations with challenging parents: know your facts, listen carefully, tell the truth, don’t make excuses, don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and be sure to convey to the parent that you want to work collaboratively with them to solve the problem.

There is a lot of pressure inside a school building. Inside a school can be like being a relief pitcher in a baseball game. The pitcher is called in with his team clinging to a one run lead. It is the bottom of the ninth, the bases are loaded, and only one out is needed to win the game.

Some schools start the new school year with the bases loaded. Their pressure is grounded in the inability to meet the state’s Standards of Learning for accreditation. Being in that setting day after day, wears down the morale of faculty, staff, students, and the community.

And I always ask myself how much of the accreditation failure is grounded in our inability as a society to break malignant generational cycles related to inadequate housing, poor health care, unemployment, failed equality, and the often overlooked— erosion of our families?

With the opening week of school behind us, the fresh hope found in new supplies and shoes will begin to wear off.

And the question becomes, how do public school educators sustain hope for an entire school year?

In my 31 plus years in public education, I think the most important school supply can’t be purchased at a big box store. No, the most important school supply is within us—our hearts.

Something nudged the hearts of the church congregations and the non-profits to provide supplies and shoes for students.

What will pickup the hearts in a school when lousy days wipeout hope?

No doubt that adequate pay and benefits are important to educators.

But, at the end of the day, these women and men can find hope from simply being supported by the people in the communities that surround them.

Perhaps Aristotle said it best: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

Author’s note: If this post resonated with you, I encourage you to share it with anyone who works in a public school.