Treat Them Well...

So tomorrow is my first day back to school. Later this week I will be writing posts showcasing my finished offices, about my first day back, etc.

However, I have something more pressing I wanted to blog about. Something very important. Tomorrow is also special because it is my daughter's first day of Kindergarten. In our Corporation we have probably around 300 students starting Kindergarten this year. Last year we had the same. Just like the year before that and the year before that. Next year... yea, it'll be the same. Every year we have new students start our school and we view them as students. But this year, I am seeing first hand having a child starting school. 

A few years ago, around "back to school time", I heard a radio DJ (Kidd Kraddick- RIP) read a poem on air. While reading it, I could hear the emotion in his voice and that poem has always stuck with me. Today, I want to share it with you. Not to make you sad or emotional, but to help you realize our students are somebody's sons or daughters, grandchildren or nieces/ nephews. Take a moment and read this, and try to place yourself in a parent's shoes.

"I Trust You'll Treat Her Well"

Dear World:

I bequeath to you today one little girl...in a crispy dress...with two brown eyes...and a happy laugh that ripples all day long.. and a flash of light brown hair that bounces in the sun when she runs.

I trust you'll treat her well.

She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning...and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. And never again will she be completely mine.

Prim and proud she'll wave her young and independent hand this morning and say "Goodbye" and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse.

Now she'll learn to stand in lines...and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for the sounds of school-bells...and deadlines...and she'll learn to giggle...and gossip...and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way when the little boy 'cross the aisle sticks out his tongue at her. And now she'll learn to be jealous. And now she'll learn how it is to feel hurt inside. And now she'll learn how not to cry.

No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch on a summer day and watch an ant scurry across the crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn and kiss lilac blooms in the morning dew. No, now she'll worry about those important things...like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friends is whose. And the magic of books and learning will replace the magic of her blocks and dolls. And now she'll find new heroes.

For five full years now I've been her sage and Santa Claus and pal and playmate and father and friend. Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers ...which is only right. But no longer will I be the smartest man in the whole world. Today when that school bell rings for the first time...she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group...with all its privileges and its disadvantages too.

She'll learn in time that proper young ladies do not laugh out loud...or kiss dogs...or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms...or even watch ants scurry across cracks in sidewalks in the summer.

Today she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends. And I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long, lonely journey to becoming a woman.

So, world, I bequeath to you today one little girl...in a crispy dress...with two brown eyes...and a flash of light brown hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.

I trust you'll treat her well

Author: Victor Buono

This year, you may have Kindergartners who are scared to be at school. They may not know how to make friends, how to stand in line, how to sit quietly, or how to listen. They may not know how to trust. I implore you to be patient with them and help teach them. 

So, I trust you'll treat them well.

-JW