CRAZY DAY

   

  I showed up at my school today and saw no students.  "Is it Saturday?", I thought as I caught sight of a fellow teacher.  I asked her, "Where is everyone?" and she told me it was Crazy Day. That's what I call the day set aside for parents to take their kids to work.
    The thing is, they don't.  Many can't. Tomorrow we'll see a local story of a kid who spent the day watching his mother do dental surgery but most young students in Miami spent the day at home playing video games.  At best, 10 percent of my kids were with working parents.
   Crazy Day always catches me by surprise. I usually teach 165 kids on Thursdays. Today I had none in the morning and 12 in the afternoon.  I asked my dozen, "So why aren't you at work with your parents?" knowing full well that most employers do not not allow kids to accompany their parents on the job.  One told me, "I could go but it would be more boring than school" and another, "She stays home and cleans all day.  I didn't want to do that".
   When I taught in the inner city most students came to school because they could not join their parents on their jobs, and, there was no one to watch them should they stay home.  It was a "regular day".  
  At my West Kendall job site it was just another Crazy Day, cleaning up and teaching twelve kids.  I assume the folks that keep scheduling "Take Your Child to Work Day" pretended, once again, that the day was something it wasn't.