Information overload as son’s freshman year looms
An envelope roughly the size of the federal budget arrived at my
house this week, heralding the start of San Benito High School’s
academic year and helping me realize why freshmen and their parents
are so overwhelmed when school starts.
Information overload as son’s freshman year looms
An envelope roughly the size of the federal budget arrived at my house this week, heralding the start of San Benito High School’s academic year and helping me realize why freshmen and their parents are so overwhelmed when school starts.
All of the information in the big manila envelope is important, for sure. There are 37 separate items in there, including flyers, handbooks, brochures, leaflets, pamphlets, dittos and order forms. I hope to have read through it all by the time my incoming eighth-grader graduates, or by the time Freshman Orientation rolls around on Aug. 14, whichever comes first.
I am proud of my alma mater/employer. Some parents have concerns about sending their child to a school with roughly 3,000 students, but as I enter my fifth year as an SBHS teacher, I am confident that my freshman will have a good experience as a Baler.
Our principal’s emphasis on respect – The Baler Code – and an environment that encourages students to work toward college admission are laudable. Communication is key, she realizes. I certainly am glad to receive my huge packet of information, because I’m hopeful that over the course of the next three weeks I will finish leafing through it and have answers for most of my questions.
I have learned that we need to buy my son grey shorts and white shirts for P.E. and a lock and towel for the locker room. He needs a physical before he goes out for basketball and he needs to buy a “Baler Pak” so he can get a yearbook and Associated Student Body stamp for his ID card.
We need to decide on a picture package. Do we want a CD of the images? Should we add his name to the wallets? Should we order premium retouching that “whitens teeth, evens skin tone and removes blemishes, scars and fly-away hair?” More importantly, I want to know why that last option is not offered to teachers who have to have our goofy, un-retouched faces and fly-away hair in the yearbook.
My son now has a map of the school, but like all freshmen, he’ll probably get lost a time or two early in the year (freshmen are easy to spot in the first few weeks of school, especially when they open a classroom door looking for a bathroom or a bathroom door looking for a classroom). My son knows that if his phone or iPod is seen by a teacher in class that it will be confiscated and a parent – probably Dad the teacher – will pick it up from the office (and probably not return it to him for quite a while).
The information packet even includes an Emergency Supplies Checklist from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Service. It asks us “Can you go it alone for three days?” and gives a list of supplies that will help us be self-sufficient for at least three days following a major emergency. The governor and legislature have pretty much left schools and other government agencies on their own in this budget crisis.
Hopefully, freshmen aren’t thinking they’d have to go it alone for three days at school, because they can barely function for a class period without calling mom at break to ask about a ride home or what’s for dinner. I’m sure the checklist is a reference to a major earthquake that would shut the school down and keep students at home.
If my freshman were left alone for three days, I’m not sure he’d change clothes or brush his teeth without being reminded. And without a microwave to heat up some Bagel Bites, I don’t know what he’d do for a snack.
There was the requisite brochure about “The Reality of Gangs” and a letter to help families prepare for a flu pandemic. There were also reminders that student support services are an essential part of the San Benito High School experience.
The transition from junior high to high school is a stressful and exciting time for students and parents. This is the final four years before adulthood and college or a job. If parents and their freshmen can make it through the 37-piece high school intro packet, they can conquer anything.
Adam Breen teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School and is a reporter for The Pinnacle. He is former editor of the Free Lance.
