A small kindness with a big benefit

I was a nerdy kid who loved school. While my friends bemoaned the start of school in the late summer, I kept my mouth shut. I was looking forward to it. I loved shopping for a new outfit and getting new shoes. Mostly, I loved getting fresh new school supplies. To this day, I love to sharpen pencils. The smell of the shavings says to me, “Time to learn new things.”

We lived just a half a suburban block from the elementary school. My mother could stand on our front porch and watch me walk in the door. My parents chose this house in this neighborhood because my mom had to move around a lot as a child. She wanted my brother and me to go to the same school for our entire elementary education.

Long before I was old enough to go to school, I played “school.” I had a little desk in our living room at which I wrote important things. I lined up my dolls and stuffed animals and “taught” them. My dad walked me down the block to look into the windows of the corner room, which was the kindergarten room. It was full of colors and little desks and big alphabet letters wrapped across the top of the blackboards. The teacher for that room was the kindergarten teacher for that school for decades, having both my brother and me in her class. She single-handedly ran a classroom of 36 children with no teacher’s aide. Classroom aides were not a “thing” back then and frankly they weren’t needed. We listened.

In adulthood, I have traded school supplies for art supplies. I still love a new pen and a fresh notebook. I still love to write. That’s good because I was required to write sermons for 35 years. Now I get to write these weekly commentaries. I am very grateful for the opportunity and for my readers.

This week, I shopped for school supplies once again. I loaded my Amazon cart with paper, pens, pencils and drawing supplies for the school supply drive at my church, Memorial United Methodist Church downtown. Loading a virtual cart was not as much fun as picking them out at the store. This way I fulfilled items on the wish list of supplies for the upcoming teachers’ supply fair on August 3. I have included the details of the needed items and dates in case you like to buy school supplies too.

Last year, as I left worship on the morning of the supply drive, I saw area teachers from all over the county lined up around the block with empty shopping bags waiting for the fair to open. It breaks my heart to know that teachers in our A-rated schools have to spend their own money for needed classroom supplies. They don’t get paid enough as it is. They would rather do this than have the children go without. These supplies are not just for children from lower income homes or for schools in less affluent towns than Fernandina Beach. All of the collected supplies were scooped up in just over 30 minutes.

Public school teachers are maligned and undermined. They are not indoctrinating their students. They are trying to teach them to read at grade level, think critically and love learning. Unfortunately, they also have to teach so that their students pass standardized tests. They have to manage behavior problems and learning challenges among their students while meeting administrative demands put on them. They do it for love of children and youth and love of learning. Their dedication is underappreciated. I am grateful to have the opportunity to support them in a small way with needed supplies. There are or will be other supply drives in our community if you would rather contribute through another channel.

I shudder to think of what will happen to our public schools in the future as government funding shrinks and the push for school vouchers and charter schools gets the green light. PENAmerica recently published a report titled "Florida: the Blueprint State."

Florida has led the country in book banning and parental rights issues. There are politicians who want these practices replicated across the country. We have an active group of concerned parents and citizens, organized on Facebook — the Nassau Freedom to Learn Working Group. This is a private group of a nonprofit and you have to be vetted to join. We have parents and others reading the books that are subject to banning and participating in the review process. Your participation is needed. If you want to see what demands are placed on our school board in action, please attend a school board meeting. The next one is Thursday, July 10 at 6 p.m. in the administration building on Atlantic Avenue in Fernandina.

You might not have been a school nerd like me who lived for those little stick-on gold stars. Your report card may have read, “Needs improvement.” You may have struggled because you couldn’t hear or see adequately or because learning was hard for you or because you did not have support at home. I hope you had at least one teacher whose name you remember to this day. I also hope you will agree that every child deserves the opportunity to have learning catch fire in their lives. If some school supplies can help with that, I am all for it.