ABC - Always Be Closing
It was another beautiful Southern California morning.
I stay a little longer on Fridays after dropping Nate and Kiara at Elementary School. Fridays are assembly day and I like to listen in to hear what is going on and to briefly recapture my childhood, when things were a little simpler and purer than they are today.
Each assembly starts with the Pledge of Allegiance and Miss Miller singing God Bless America, followed by announcements and sometimes awards.
Room 22 - “Most Enthusiastic Reader”
Room 17 - “Best Helper”
This Friday was a little different. After Miss Miller finished, the Principal told us that we would be hearing from Mrs. Hazard who was the head of fund raising for the Parents Teachers Association (PTA).
“Good morning everybody”.
“Good morning Mrs. Hazard”.
“What a beautiful morning. And you are all so well behaved. Today, I’d like to talk to you about our fund raising drive that you all have been helping with.”
The fundraising drive to which Mrs. Hazard was referring was already the 3rd fundraising event of the year and we were only in September. If you live in California and have kids then you probably can put fundraising on your resume. To be in a school or join any organization with your kids is almost a guarantee that you’ll need to hit up your family, friends, and neighbors to buy chocolate, wrapping paper, books, candy, etc.
Don’t get me wrong. I realize that our taxes don’t cover the cost of the 49th best school system in the country. And the PTAs are trying to help by raising funds. But I just don’t feel comfortable leaving boxes of chocolate with little signs in the printer room at work. Or guilting my in-laws into buying something new every other week. I feel awkward when a “friend of the family” invites us over for dinner and we find ourselves at a multi-level marketing recruitment event for ionized water. (This actually happened to us). And I’d feel like one of those MLM people if I were to hit up my friends and family every other week for a new donation. As a result, Joyce and I usually end up buying something ourselves. And that is that.
“How many of you have already sold something?”, Mrs. Hazard asked.
About half the hands went up. I looked over at Kiara as she slumped noticeably and put her head down in shame.
“Very good. Now how many of you have sold 10 or more items”.
About 20 or so hands stayed up.
“Excellent. Please come up after assembly and I will enter your name into a special drawing”.
Kiara slumped a little more.
“I’ll be back here on Tuesday and any one who has sold 10 or more items will also be entered in the drawing. Now, remember, we have only 1 more week left. So go out there and SELL, SELL, SELL!!”
I was about to bust an artery. Was I listening to someone in the PTA or Alec Baldwin in Glengary Glenross?
I had half a mind to confront Mrs. Hazard on the spot, but making a scene in front of the kids and the moms did not seem like a good idea. Plus, I probably had to think this through. Maybe I was over-reacting. After all, life is about selling yourself, so Kiara might as well start as soon as possible. After all, no sense coddling a 2nd grader, right???
Later that day I asked Kiara about what had occurred and how she felt.
“I’m going to get in trouble”, she said.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t sell anything”.
She was almost in tears.
Am I wrong and am I making too much out of this? Should I just encourage and help my daughter to sell some wrapping paper to the neighbors.
Or did Mrs. Hazard step over the line?
What do you think?
harry the ASIC giy
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October 7th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I think it’s criminal that the 7th largest economy (CA is slipping every year it seems) has to turn children into unwilling sales people of rubbish to cover fundamental education costs.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:19 am
For a government to be able to spend nearly a trillion dollars over 7 years on war and then raise just about the same amount in a long week to patch up the financial industry but still have to resort to 8 year-olds selling cookies to buy books is incredible. And this election is “close” because….?
October 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am
We’ve gone through this so many times with our daughter - and we’ve always had the same response, so that she always new we backed her up: don’t give it a second thought. True, there have been times where we’ve kicked in $25-30 just to buy her out, but usually because there was some other condition attached. But we were steadfast in our contention that under no circumstances were we ever sending our child door to door selling xmas wrapping paper…
JAMES: There is something wrong w/ the way that California’s schools spend the money they’re given - we spend more per child, and have some of the lowest test scores. I think it might in part be caused by a certain portion of the population within the state that doesn’t pay taxes, and are always in catch-up mode in school due to a language issue… with but seriously, are you going to blame this on Bush and the war??
October 7th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hello John,
If CA is spending more per child then it would appear that tax collection would not be the issue, but how those funds are allocated. Alternatively CA has unique challenges that require more spending or greater efficiency. Either way, if you have children being shamed into selling cookies for books there’s a problem.
My comment is intended to emphasize the fact that there is a direct correlation between what a government funds and what it holds as valuable.
Given that the education challenges are long standing and objectively recognized, something should be done about it…if it were deemed important relative to other programs that is.
Every day there is little a parent can do to change the situation, but every four years there certainly is.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
It’s comparing apples and oranges to liken the federal budget issues (many of which can be traced back to the Clinton administration, by the way) to the situation CA is in. One of the biggest problems with CA’s economy is that it has been overburdened by the benefits given to illegal immigrants, and we’re paying the price for it with schools, health care, etc.
As for the election, I’d suggest folks do your research and stop believing the platitudes and smokescreens before you start lauding Obama as the Second Coming. The man is the most liberal, nay, radical presidential candidate we’ve ever had, and he’s going to decimate this country.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Our boys’ soccer teams have a buyout option where you can make a donation equal to the net profit that the sale of (paper, cookies, candy,…) would yield the team. I would ask if you could donate an amount equal to the net contribution that her “making quota” would contribute and opt out of this crap.
I think sales skills are critical but K6 education is way too early to start–they have many other more important lessons to learn–especially with the social pressure/shaming that seems to be involved here.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Harry - i love the line “I realize that our taxes don’t cover the cost of the 49th best school system in the country. ” Classic.
your topic and analysis are spot on. Not only do my kids get the same crap at our So. Orange County schools, but teachers actively push their union agenda to the kids. My son, a Sr in HS last year, had a teacher telling him he is underpaid, and to tell their parents to support the Calif Teachers Union. Can you believe that?
Problem starts with the fact we have a Federal Dept of Education. It should be abolished. States should not be in the business of educating our children. They are doing as good a job as the Fed Govt managing the economy. Give parents a tax credit/voucher and let us decide how to educate our kids.
then my kid can learn real business skills that will enable them to sell EDA tools instead of chocolates. Ok, maybe i went to far there….