IÂ’m bout to get on my soapbox here so for those of you who donÂ’t read long posts keep moving.
fficeffice" />
As some of you may remember, I volunteered at the elementary school my daughter attended as a technology helper. HTRN [give him some love!] hooked me up with a video card I needed to aid the art teacher, I helped set up a computer lab, etc. etc. I learned to work with a less-than-stellar county employee, learned to obey the county rules, and so on.

But IÂ’m the only one. I was the only DAD who stepped up to help. In six years! My neighborhood just apparently lacks the tech-saavy. And now that we home school, my elementary school has no one.

But at least they have a working lab with recent gear. Title I schools – more than 80% of the kids on free lunch. I imagine they never had nobody. The real have-nots of our story.

But how do the richer half live?

My lil buddy Rich just started kindergarten at Upington-Smyth Elementary [the names have been changed to protect intellectual property rights ]. Upington is a public school in the same county as my old elementary, same county as that Title I school.

Now IÂ’ve eaten lunch with RichÂ’s daddy once a week for a decade. HeÂ’s my homeboy. A future pallbearer if I went for that burial stuff. And so I encouraged him to seek out UpingtonÂ’s CTSS [Computer Technology Support Specialist] and see what help they needed.

Turns out the rich live very different.

The Upington PTA has a technology committee! Multiple dads! Yeah – apparently it is not against the law for more than one D.A.D. to show up at a PTA meeting [sarcasm].

And the Upington technology committee got tired of the CTSS, the county and all the BS rules. So they got permission to install a parallel universe! They not only installed their own lab – they installed their own CAT-5, their own routers, their own servers in their own racks and pay for an ISP independent of the county.

So there are lots of lessons here:

1] Even elementary schools in the same county can provide widely different experiences. Imagine the comparisons between private and public schools in the same area. Or geographically different schools.

2] How many parents will step up is key.

3] Money talks.

4] The rules donÂ’t apply to everyone especially the rich.

5] Equality may not be achievable – unless you enact some draconian system like the hatchet, ax, and saw of Rush’s “The Trees”.

I donÂ’t have the answers here. IÂ’m not even sure IÂ’ve formulated the right questions.

-MF

We just built a new elementary school here in Jacksonville Fl.
All classrooms got networked iMacs (2 per classroom) , $2k panasonic projector, entertainment center including dvd player, surround sound etc. Teacher is equipped with mac laptops, can be connected to projector of course.
School also got computer lab with prolly 40 iMacs, theres a TV-studio where you can broadcast to the classrooms, professional with chroma green walls, studio lighting etc, control room etc...
The school is smackfull of cat6,fiber(schoolboard would not allow cat6 in longer runs than 295ft - and of course we had to certify it all),WAP, coax- RG-11 with a hard aluminum shield, looks like conduit... going thru the whole school- to change over to RG-6 to the classrooms, nothing, and i mean nothing allowed to be free aired, cable tray with 6 inch separation between coax and cat6, hard piped from cabletray to locations- no j-hooks here...

I Tell you what - school has changed since i was a kid, and i didn't have a single hot teacher, in this school,they're everywhere....

Yessir, money does talk, and it talks loudly. However, I think you hit the nail on the head with lesson #2. The key is how many parents will step up to the plate and lend a hand to their children's education.

Now, I understand that in less wealthy communities the parents may not be as readily available for volunteer work (e.g. having to work several jobs and therefore ending up with less freetime), but in my opinion there is really no excuse for not showing at least a little bit of interest in your child's education.

Monsignor, I applaud you for taking time out of your schedule and helping out. You gave those kids something they would have otherwise never received. Big time pat on the back.

(Little off topic, but not too far) I think there is a direct correlation between a child's performance in school and how involved its parents are. No hard facts to back that up, just observation, but I doubt that I'm too far off the mark.

Not knocking anyone at all, just saying that I think parents should be well involved; the child- and the rest of the family- will be better for it.

MF,

All a can say is at least YOU stepped up and helped out Better one than NONE Bro.