Stranger Danger

There are a number of things I dislike about public school and this year with two of my children in public school and two years ago with first four and then three of them in public school it really reinforced these things to me, as well as showed me new areas of concern that I had not even considered.

Last week a whole new one struck me. 

It was a last Tuesday and the public schools had a two hour delay due to ice on some roads.  Personally, I think they were a little over cautious on this one because ours was the only school in the county to close and there was not that much snow and ice, just a bit on the back roads and the main roads were clear, but I would much rather they err on the side of caution and don’t fault them that. 

It was a bit of a problem for me though because I had scheduled a doctor appointment for Kaitlyn.  Oh well.  I suddenly became the mother of five again, instead of three.  That a weird thing about having children in public school, it can change your perspective and then you remember that you ARE capable of handling your own children and have done it BEFORE! 

When we were done at the doctor’s appointment it was still too early to take the Little Ones to school, but it was late enough that I did not want to run all the way home and all the way back to school again so we parked in the school parking lot and I read the Bible with them.  When it was 11 AM I walked them into the school.  I just am too overprotective, I guess.  I don’t feel comfortable opening the door and shoo-ing them off.  I always walk them in. 

When I walked into Hannie’s classroom there was woman I had never seen before.  She approached me and introduced herself.  She didn’t really explain her presence there and no one else was in the classroom yet.  I asked her if Ms. S was out and she confirmed that H’s teacher was home with her sick, little daughter and that she was the substitute. 

Later I got to thinking about how odd it felt to just blindly hand my 7 year old daughter off to a complete stranger.  I mean, I know she has a background check and must be a certified teacher hired by the school district, but what else do I know about her?  What are her views about life?  Does she yell?  Does she swear?  What messages (blatant or subtle) might she convey to my daughter today? 

Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks!!!  What do I know about most of the staff?  Hannah’s teacher is a nice, sweet, soft-spoken woman (I have LEARNED), but the first time I dropped Noah off in her classroom 2 years ago I didn’t know her from Adam.  I have learned that she has some very different perspectives than I have just by comments that Hannah has made to me at home this year. 

But it doesn’t stop there.  What about the cafeteria staff, playground monitors, janitors, office staff, bus drivers, P.E. teacher, music teacher, librarians, parent volunteers, and even the other students that surround them throughout their days?

We teach our children from toddler-age to be careful of strangers and then we are expected to just leave them with any number of strangers.  Frankly, if I had not dropped the children off that morning I would have assumed Hannie had been with Ms. S. all day.  Unless she remembered to tell me I would still not even know.  I do not know the names of the cafeteria staff and several others.  The school has a new principal that I would not recognize if I saw  him at the grocery store and yet I have entrusted my child into their care. 

No matter how often I am there, no matter how involved I am, I am in essence teaching my children to submit to and trust strangers everyday. 

Two years ago one of our struggles was that Noah would become very distraught whenever there was a sub.  He has Ms. S (the same one that Hannie has this year) and she was out quite a bit with sickness (herself and her little daughter).  Noah really bonded with Ms. S. (that’s ANOTHER whole issue…  my babies giving their hearts to a substitute mommy, in essence) and he would be “undone” whenever there was a sub.  He was uncomfortable and I would have to encourage him to be fine with whatever new stranger was in charge of him that day.  The only sub he liked was his friend, Will’s mom who we already knew from church. 

What a funny society we have.  We expect our children to be leary of strangers and trusting of strangers.  We expect them to trust us and yet we blindly place them into the unknown from the age of 5 and even younger.  We give them one message only to have others speak another message (perhaps even contradictory to our own) to them day in and day out.  We tell them how much we love being with them and then sing our happy little Christmas carol “Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.”  (I always have disliked that line of that song! But I digress! )

We are a bunch of dumb lemmings (as my husband says) just following the crowd without considering that just because that’s the way its done doesn’t make it safe or alright. 

Deep, Deep Water

Just today, when we were inching our way home on our alternate, alternate route home from Costco…  we were finally nearing the end of our long detour and we noticed cars exiting the detour onto a road with a “Do NOT enter” sign.  My husband started down the “normal” road (with which we were familiar) and just at the end of that road we found the road impassable with abandoned cars partially submerged in deep water.  We quickly turned around only to realize that the whole line up of cars behind us had blindly followed US!  What in the world?  We actually had to laugh (partly out of stress) to see all them looking quizzically at us as we entered the highway at the “Do Not Enter” sign. 

The scary part is that there was not a road block or a traffic indicator in sight and it was becoming dark and dusky.  I was worried that if it had been dark we might have driven into the water before we realized how deep it was!!!  We actually saw a car drive into it behind us.  Somehow he managed to get off onto the side of the depths and got through, but I wondered if he would get water into his oil intake and damage his engine! 

This so applies to how we treat many traditional things in our world….  it must be okay because so and so does it or says it or thinks so…. 

STOP!  Think!  Go to the word of God!!!!  Is there a precedent set in the Scripture?  Look out for deep water.  Beware of Strangers and Proceed with caution, but confidence in Christ.  Trust in the Lord and lean NOT on your own understanding.  Acknowledge HIM (not the crowd, not the standard, not the tradition and not the status quo) and HE (not the strangers set up to think for us) will direct your paths.

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