Friday

I'm sick. Blech.

Yesterday was Pizza Lunch day at school. It took 2 moms nearly an entire day to count money and sort the order forms, took me nearly 2 hours to roll all that coin, and then a student teacher had the *nerve* (more like lack-of-experience, I should say) to add the helpful hint, "You should get more parents to volunteer" AS SHE TOOK A SLICE OF PIZZA OUT OF THE KITCHEN, BELONGING TO A STUDENT, AND *ATE IT* .

What the...???

Actually, I wasn't there, as I was home sick with Jake. I got this info after the fact. I felt so rotten that one mom out of however many there are at that school had to sort through 170 pizza orders, 170 chocolate/white milks, 25 pizzas, and then make sure it was all in the classrooms before the lunch bell rang. Top it off with, this one mom had strep throat and a fever but didn't want the kids to miss lunch. And then this not-smart teacher comes up with that delicious piece of wit.

At the beginning of the year, we sent home forms asking for help throughout the year with various events: book fair, selling raffle tickets, pizza lunch. We received about 50 forms back, with phone numbers and email addresses, or people claiming that they wanted to help (evenings, weekends, whenever they could squeeze an hour in). So we emailed those 50 people asking for help on hot lunch day--sorting orders at home, taking their lunch hour to come to the school to help. You know how many answered this email? BIG FAT ZERO!!! How very rude. At least answer the freakin' email. Or don't send back the stupid form with your offer to help.

I know people work, that's a complete non-issue. I rolled $500 in change after the kids went to bed. My husband works 60+ hours per week and he puts together the student yearbook every single year in his free time (although he is now thinking that it's time that someone else steps up or the project just doesn't get done). Do you know some socialist countries requre that parents put in a set amount of volunteer hours at their kids' school? It's a requirement of the student's registration, and employers are expected to give their employees a morning or afternoon off once a month.

It has nothing to do with government money, and anyone that says that is copping out. It's sheer laziness, we're living in a society that thinks that raising their kids is everyone's responsibility but their own. That one person's comfort level is more important than their kids' well-being. Most people get 2 weeks holiday per year, but no way would they take even an hour of that time to make their kids' school a better place to be. It's all the fault of the governement, that they're not throwing enough money at the school system. What a load of crap. You can't tell me that not one out of 320 parents couldn't use their lunch hour to help out, or couldn't work a bit later that day so that they could take some personal time during the day. Never mind that our school doesn't do field trips anymore because no one will volunteer to chaperone.

And then: to hear parents sit in the playground after school complaining, "You know, at our old school, there was hot lunch every month and it was way better than Pizza Hut. And our old school had field trips all the time!"

I'm so pissed off right now...