Ready, set, go! San Mateo County students have begun returning to school for the 2022-23 school year. After a summer dominated more by personal rest and recovery than prepping for COVID-19 response, students, families and staff are returning to school energized and excited to dive into a healing and positive year with their students.
Educators have accomplished the near impossible, and certainly the unimaginable, these past two years. They morphed from classroom-based instruction to distance learning practically overnight and with little warning. They procured and deployed laptops, organized and distributed school meals, provided COVID-19 testing and tests, held vaccination clinics, and kept their communities abreast of ever-evolving health protocols, all while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy for their students.
San Mateo County schools are jumping into the traditional back-to-school rituals with a lightness not felt in several years. And yet, the leap is not without some weight, as educators also work to apply lessons learned through the pandemic experience. For one, we know our students need more than high quality classroom instruction to fully thrive. Our students need safe and healthy spaces in which to learn. They need to feel a sense of belonging that reflects their cultural and social identities. They need nutritious food to nourish their bodies and opportunities for enrichment that nourish their talents, interests and unique abilities.
For years, research has demonstrated this “whole-child” approach in education is a proven path toward attaining educational equity where every child can thrive. As we emerge from the challenges of the pandemic, the silver lining is that a more systemic whole-child approach is taking hold in California’s schools. We see this in recent educational policy and budget decisions at the state resulting in such programs as universal school meals, additional counselors, behavioral health initiatives, universal prekindergarten, late start times for middle and high schoolers, as well as out-of-school expanded learning, including summer school enrichment and care.
San Mateo County schools are already leaning in to put the vision of a whole-child education system in place with the essential collaboration of community partners. For example, Sequoia Union High School District formed a partnership with Cañada College, San Francisco State University, and California State University, East Bay, to increase college preparation, access and success for the district’s students and graduates. Cabrillo Unified School District is moving ahead with a plan to offer full-day kindergarten. Jefferson Union High School District and Jefferson Elementary School District are leading the county and the state with innovative and critical workforce housing projects enabling their districts to attract and retain the staff to hold up these initiatives. Many districts continue to expand programming around youth mental health, including providing more opportunities for youth to connect with each other and to lead in their communities. With the County of San Mateo recently approving $2,562,500 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to support out-of-school-care programs both within school districts and across community-based organizations, our vision of ourselves as a child-centered county is certainly coming into focus.
The Maasai Tribe of Kenya and Tanzania practice a traditional community greeting which begins with a question: “And how are the children?” The expected response is, “All the children are well.” Their greeting captures one of our best measures of a community’s status — when children are healthy and thriving, so too is the community at large. This school year, let’s lean in together and help make San Mateo County a healthy, thriving county, and let’s start with our children. All community members, even those who may not have children or whose children are no longer school-aged, can support children’s initiatives or their local schools as an investment in our thriving future. A whole-child philosophy should not be limited to the school grounds. When the children are well, we all benefit. Cheers to a fantastic and joyful 2022-23 school year!
Nancy Magee is the San Mateo County superintendent of schools.
However - not a word about actual education. How about improving test test scores in serious subjects as in STEM? Seems to me that a number of the program components are the responsibility of the parents. The school system needs to focus on what we pay them for. Education without woke policies and programs.
We agree on one thing. The parents are responsible for a number of the components of the child's education. Unfortunately the students that do poorly often have the parents that think education is the job of the school. They drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon and expect them to be all trained and ready to go. Even a smart kid in an expensive private school will not do as well as possible if the parents don't participate. Some of the private schools will boot them out if the parents do not participate.
Taffy - my wife worked as a secretary at one of the RWC elementary schools. She is bilingual and told me horror stories of how some kids came to school. She and the janitor actually became foster parents during the school hours. Some kids refused to go home but had no choice. I can see that there are parents who do not care, others and others who just rely on the school system to educate their child without getting involved themselves. That is also how it was when I grew up in the Netherlands. Parents were never involved. I believe the school districts have developed the impression, perhaps inadvertently, that they will do all for the kids and (some) parents have gotten used to it, including not giving their children anything nourishing to eat. It is a sad situation but it will be tough to reverse. The children are our future, in that I agree with the Superintendent. I just wished she would emphasize formal, useful education as more important than equity and other social engineering aspects.
Well written, willallen and Mr. van Ulden. I’d add that public educators in California have accomplished the near impossible – getting paid handsomely for allowing kids to fall a year or two behind. Parents have noticed as they’re pulling their kids out of public schools. We can only hope public educators can do better, although from state rankings, hope will likely be misplaced.
Just imagine what the last generation would have accomplished without the school systems subsuming the responsibilities of parents and real educators. They only made it to the moon..
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(7) comments
However - not a word about actual education. How about improving test test scores in serious subjects as in STEM? Seems to me that a number of the program components are the responsibility of the parents. The school system needs to focus on what we pay them for. Education without woke policies and programs.
Dirk,
We agree on one thing. The parents are responsible for a number of the components of the child's education. Unfortunately the students that do poorly often have the parents that think education is the job of the school. They drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon and expect them to be all trained and ready to go. Even a smart kid in an expensive private school will not do as well as possible if the parents don't participate. Some of the private schools will boot them out if the parents do not participate.
Taffy - my wife worked as a secretary at one of the RWC elementary schools. She is bilingual and told me horror stories of how some kids came to school. She and the janitor actually became foster parents during the school hours. Some kids refused to go home but had no choice. I can see that there are parents who do not care, others and others who just rely on the school system to educate their child without getting involved themselves. That is also how it was when I grew up in the Netherlands. Parents were never involved. I believe the school districts have developed the impression, perhaps inadvertently, that they will do all for the kids and (some) parents have gotten used to it, including not giving their children anything nourishing to eat. It is a sad situation but it will be tough to reverse. The children are our future, in that I agree with the Superintendent. I just wished she would emphasize formal, useful education as more important than equity and other social engineering aspects.
Dirk,
I am well aware of the same stories. My wife taught 1st grade for 34 years in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
This column proves we need to be pro-choice when it comes to where we spend our education dollar.
Well written, willallen and Mr. van Ulden. I’d add that public educators in California have accomplished the near impossible – getting paid handsomely for allowing kids to fall a year or two behind. Parents have noticed as they’re pulling their kids out of public schools. We can only hope public educators can do better, although from state rankings, hope will likely be misplaced.
Just imagine what the last generation would have accomplished without the school systems subsuming the responsibilities of parents and real educators. They only made it to the moon..
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.