It’s back to school time! For 59 years, I’ve looked forward to the first day of school. Twelve of those years were in elementary, junior high and high school. Four were in college, and I’ve been working in schools for 43 years.

I always enjoyed being a student. I was fortunate to have good teachers and I had classmates whom I’ve remained friends with to this day. I always liked the people I taught with or worked with as a principal or superintendent, too. Every school I’ve ever been in, I always felt like I belonged there.

Belonging. It’s a powerful word and a critical concept. The more we fit in with people and get along with them, the more we feel like we belong, wherever it is. Whether it’s a workplace, a team, a class, a whole school, a family, a church, or a group of friends — if people feel like they belong there, they will show up because they want to be there.

The sad fact is, some kids don’t really feel like they “belong” at school. They may not have lots of friends; they might feel like teachers don’t care about them; they will avoid school if they can.

One of the themes we want to stress this year is to make Brandywine a place where people belong. I want kids to feel like it’s their school. School belongs to them, and they belong at school. The more we have that kind of attitude, the better we will be. It’s a simple truth: “When we all do better, we all do better.”

When kids want to be in school, and parents want them there, we will improve student attendance. We have way too many kids now who are considered “chronic absentees.” That means they miss 15 or more days of school year. That’s three weeks — that’s a lot of learning time. So, the other theme we’re pushing this year is “Every Day Counts”. It’s another pretty simple concept — you can’t learn much if you aren’t there, and the more you’re there, the better the chances are that you will feel like you belong there.

Let’s all do our part this year to make our schools a place where people want to belong every single day. Go Cats!

 

John Jarpe is the superintendent at Brandywine Community Schools.