What’s School Got To Do, Got To Do With It?

Justin H
Sep 6, 2016
3 min read

When you woke this morning as the sun filtered through your window just after you shut off your alarm clock, if you were silent for just a moment, you could hear the collective groans of hundreds of thousands of students across the country as they had to get ready for the first day of school. I know that tons of schools have already been in session now for a few weeks, but for my two kids and for thousands of districts like mine, school officially starts the day after Labor Day. For many of us, thoughts of ‘back to school’ bring back memories of school shopping with our parents, trying on new clothes, waiting in mile-long checkout lines and finding the perfect backpacks to show off our ‘style’. As a parent, I’m very thankful that I get to see both sides of that experience, which hasn’t changed much in the many many years since I’ve had to be on the receiving end of these supplies. The lists are longer, maybe; have a little more technology focused requirements than I did, but the overall event is very much the same.

A little known secret about these supply lists though; your kid isn’t going to use 5 boxes of tissues or 10 different folders or even 4 packs of coloring pencils in a single school year. Your purchases of these excess supplies are actually collected and put towards students and families who cannot afford to get these supplies on their own. I bring this up because I was approached by a gentleman just last night, whom in the course of our conversation, without him knowing what I do and where I work, confided in me that he still hasn’t been able to take his children school supply shopping purely because he doesn’t have the money. If you think about it, that’s a heavy burden to bear for him and for me. He has to explain to his children that they can’t get the new things all their friends get. I now feel compelled, not obligated, but compelled to help. I am blessed enough to be in a position to do so, and so knowing this person, I will reach out to him today after I arrange the supplies his children desperately need from R&R’s catalog so that they can get the education every child deserves. I am not doing this for the father, or the family or to be noticed.

I know that comes off as a little ironic given that I am writing about my actions later today, but I am simply using the story to illustrate a larger point. This man is humble enough to tell someone, someone who is nearly a stranger, a very painful truth. He wasn’t asking for help, he was stating a fact. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the family’s inability to get supplies, the children shouldn’t suffer because in this, and in most things, they are innocent. The decisions we as parents make affect our children in the most profound of ways: My children will get to see what it’s like to sacrifice a meal or two out at a restaurant because we are going to be spending that money on others, and this man’s children are going to see that people can and will help, without any expectations in return.

Feeling hopeful,

Justin Huereña Staff Blogger