Back to school

Yesterday was "day with a student" day at my daughter's high school. I was really appreciative of the opportunity to be involved in her education. They should provide more such opportunities. They basically shortened all the class schedules so the whole thing was done by 12:30 - it's much easier to get half the day off work than the whole day.

I found two things sad:
1. There was such a sad parent turnout - in some classes I was one of only 3 to 5 parents - just a little over 10%. Of course my daughter and her friend Martha joked about hiding the letters. Teenage years are usually when parents perpetually embarass their offspring. But we know the reason parents didn't come - it just was too much. I know some of them have worse situations than me and really struggle to make ends meet, but most of the Cadillac Escalade crowd wouldn't have such a good excuse.
2. The way students behave. Some of them just don't belong in school. I think the thing I was proudest of with my daughter was to see how she made friends amongst others who are serious about going on to college. Sadly, that was far too few of the students.

She has done so well and I am so proud of her. I want to see her keep moving forward and get admitted to a good university next year. UCSD, Columbia, Yale, Princeton..