Prologue

Dad On Duty – Prologue to 2016-2017

It’s a new school year!  And we have some stuff to talk about.

Before I dive in, please let me clarify what this blog is….and is not.  Let’s do a little catching up, shall we?  So both our new readers and our veterans are on the same page.

This blog is my attempt to share my experiences as a Dad.  I’m the Dad to two kids, 10 years apart.  Although Child #1 (Jack) certainly has his moments, and presents his challenges, we’ve grown past the in-the-trench-parenting with him.  So most of these stories are about Child #2, the10 year old Princess Victoria (“Tori”). To whom we are all indentured as servants.

By way of background, I’ve been a firefighter and paramedic all my adult life. I spent the last 20 years as a director or CEO of emergency service organizations, but always kept active in the field, rendering direct care and managing hazards first hand.  I probably wasn’t very good at it, but I really liked it.

I have a degree in Education. But never taught in public schools.  So, oddly, I’m trained similarly to the teachers with whom I now work, but I interact with them in a completely different capacity.

Because of the loving support and counsel of my wife, Amy…..and, importantly, almost exclusively because of her support, love and counsel……I had some business success and was able to leave the full time work force a few years ago. Since then, I’ve worked at Tori’s school at least one day a week.

So most of these stories are about those days.

My main job at the school is to do as much of the non-teaching stuff as possible for that one day, so the teachers can just *teach*.  So I try to handle security, hallway patrol, bathroom duty, moving furniture, fixing stuff, catching spiders…anything that takes teacher time away from instruction.

I also try to interact with kids that need extra attention, especially those that need a Dad. And that, my friends, is a *lot* of kids.

I will try to tell these stories as accurately as possible, although I don’t guarantee the facts are completely correct.  I’m getting old.

I will do my best not to compromise the trust my colleagues here at the school have extended to me.  That is a tricky balance.  To my co-workers at the school, and my fellow parents: if I tell a story about you that hurts your feelings, I am truly sorry. I don’t mean to.

I’ll protect the identities of the innocent (and guilty) as best I can.

But I want to show the real world of public school.  The *enormous* socioeconomic challenges, even in an affluent school like ours.  It is a story that needs to be told.

I write these stories for three reasons:

• these stories are bursting out of me. I feel like one of the unfortunate characters in “Alien”.  I’ve got to let them out.
• I think the experiences and emotions I write about are ones that you share and relate to. But I’m fortunate to have a forum, here, no matter how inartful my writings may be.  I hope I can serve as your mouthpiece.
• I believe that if folks truly knew the scope and nature of the challenges faced every day by teachers and administrators, our public schools would have the level of support they need.

So, having laid the foundation, I’ll dive into some stories.  I hope you enjoy them.