ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Alana Sullivan, a first-year kindergarten teacher at the Harrington Elementary School in Lynn, was on hand for kindergarten orientation on Wednesday.
“I feel like it’s going to be a great year.”
With those words, 22-year-old teacher Alana Sullivan welcomed kindergartners to her Harrington Elementary School classroom on Wednesday in advance of Monday’s first day of school for its youngest students.
Sullivan began her teaching career on Wednesday, and promise and possibility are the guideposts she will keep an eye out for this year as she leads her students to knowledge.
A more seasoned educator, Harrington Principal Debra Ruggiero, on Wednesday said Sullivan and other teachers will rely on a third guidepost to help students learn. The word emblazoned on that one is “parents.”
The parents and grandparents assembled in Sullivan’s classroom listened as she talked about break time, bathroom rules and other nuts and bolts rituals required to make a school day productive.
Like Sullivan, most of the parents in room 115 nervously anticipated the school year’s start. The first day of school is much more than a new experience for parent and child. It is a doorway leading into that years-long process of socialization intended to make children functioning citizens and, if they are lucky, pursuers of knowledge.
In an age when public schools serve breakfast and teachers juggle the roles of educator and social worker, parents still have the final word on learning and discipline. The mother or father who takes even a passing interest in a child’s homework and reading assignments sends a message that education is important.
In a city like Lynn with a large number of English-as-a-second-language learners, reading is often a new experience for parents and children. Lynn is fortunate to have a host of organizations supporting parents with tutoring, mentoring, childcare and parental instruction, not to mention English language courses for adults.
But parents, as Ruggiero observed on Wednesday, are “a big part” of a child’s education. She sounded like she was simultaneously issuing a challenge and offering an invitation when she told Harrington parents, “We want you involved.”
Parents face lots of competition in their effort to focus children on school. Social media and extracurricular activities distract kids from learning. Many parents need a crash course in studying in order to help their children achieve in the classroom.
With that challenge in mind, public schools may need to offer or expand parent nights to give mothers, fathers, guardians and grandparents a chance to spend an hour in a classroom learning how to help their kids read, do homework and get organized.
Knowledge is built in the classroom. But the foundation for learning is the home.
