Friday, October 05, 2007

It's Not Magic

Yesterday I headed over to Big Brother's high school to help process orders for their magazine sale fundraiser. I hate fundraisers like this, but it's a way I can help during the school day, which is the best time for me to volunteer.

It was nice to meet some other moms, since I know very few parents of kids in the high school. We had some down time, and it was a chance to discuss things about our kids, and the school, and sports, just all kinds of things.

One mom was telling a horror story about a soccer game her daughter had recently played, where someone on the opposing team caused an injury to her daughter and the opposing fans were yelling, "Hit her again!"

That conversation quickly degenerated into a denigration of the other school, with statements like:
"Well, after all, look where they draw their students from."
"I had to go in there one time and there were about 5 pregnant girls sitting outside the office."

At that point I had to jump into the discussion. I let them know that for many years I have been a "homebound tutor" for several area schools including Big Brother's high school. I've taught pregnant students before, and held their newborn babies while they took notes or completed tests. Some of these girls were from our school. A Catholic school.

Of course, they brushed off my comments. They were not interested in hearing about that.

Do they think that this school, because it's a Catholic school, is naturally immune from teen pregnancy, discipline problems, and drugs? Because if that's what they believe, if they leave it all up to the school, then they're lying down on the job. And those problems will never go away.

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