Loading ...Yesterday was “take your child to work day” at Kroger corporate. This meant there were about 80 2nd through high school kids running around my building with more energy than I thought the Sun had to offer. But you know what made it even more entertaining? I was in charge of leading around a number of these little balls of energy!
I had a group of 16 (8 of which showed up) 2nd to 4th grade kids, 4 boys and 4 girls, that I was in charge of bonding with, making them feel comfortable, and leading them around to different stations set up around my building. This being the Information Systems building, all of the stations were geared towards technology. Overall, I had a great time. I like kids and when I feel comfortable enough to be myself around them (when their parents aren’t around watching) I think they enjoy being around me as well.
I updated twitter with a quick tweet about my job for the day, and I received a comment from my 2nd grade teacher through Facebook saying she was never a fan of take your kid to work day. I thought this a bit odd, because even though the day is more of a field trip compared to reading writing and arithmetic, I still feel it is rather educational for both school and home life. A bit later I got another comment from her explaining her thought, that kids have June, July, and August off of school, why do they make the take your child to work day in the middle of the school year? And my response… hmm, good point!
After a little research, I came across this site (http://www.daughtersandsonstowork.org). Apparently, it is a little more than a random day that Kroger decided upon. There is an actual organization behind this that helps organize the day by giving ideas and guidance. The date set for “Take our daughters and sons to work” day is the 4th Thursday of April, apparently. This still didn’t answer the question why this date was the date, however.
I put on my investigative journalism hat on and went to the phones. I called the number provided on their website (1-800-676-7780) and was promptly told to send an email with my inquiry. Ok… so I sent the following email:
Hello,
Yesterday, the fourth Thursday of April, I volunteered and participated in my company’s Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work day. I enjoyed leading the kids around to various stations to learn about the work that we do here at my company each day. However, I do have a question regarding the date chosen for Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work day. When students have the months of June, July, and August on Summer Break, when they have many opportunities to head to a parent’s workplace, why is it that the date chosen was during the school year?
Thank you for taking the time to respond,
Jason
Shortly after, I received this reply:
Hi Jason,
Thanks for writing. I want to be sure you are aware there are many ways to work with the date issue.The date for the program ALWAYS has been the fourth Thursday in April as suggested by teachers and others who were on the advisory committee that helped create program. Some school systems make the Day a teacher’s work day, others incorporate the Day in the curriculum (see Broward Co., the fifth largest school system in the nation), on our web site; others make the Day a holiday. Obviously, there are ways to work with the day — last year over 35 million people participated at over 3 million workplaces spread over every state.
George
TODASTW Foundation
All-in-all the organization didn’t provide a response more than saying “well that’s what it has always been…” I think the next step would be trying and dig up contacts for the said advisory committee that created this official program. But I don’t think this particular issue is worth the hassle.
The argument that I will make for my personal opinion of the matter, is that when a kid gets a day off of school for an out-of-the-ordinary reason, such as take your child to work day, it makes an impression on them. A school might take Memorial Day off of school, but I guarantee the child will remember going to their parents work in more detail than some park festivities. But that’s just me, maybe someday if/when I take my kid to work, it’ll make a little more sense.
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1 Comment Received
April 24th, 2009 @2:30 pm
Good for you, Jason — way to get to the root of this
Here is my “problem” with the whole thing:
1. It was originally “Take Your Daughters to Work Day” — with the purpose of giving women a picture at non-traditional roles. It was changed to “take your child” when women became more prominent in the workplace.
2. Most schools do not make it a work day because they can’t afford to. It is difficult enough to squeeze in all the required days. The 3rd Thursday typically falls a week or so after Spring Break. It always falls the week before mandatory state testing.
3. Typically, half of the class still comes to school. A teacher isn’t able to teach any new content. The children who do have to come to school are left with the feeling that they are missing out and somehow neglected by their parents. Hence, the Chocolate Factory… we studied economics by making, packaging, advertising, and selling Ertel’s Turtles. All of my students went home feeling like they had been to work!
4. I fully support such a day for children, middle school and older, who are wanting to experience firsthand a field they are interested in. Some school districts require that children go to work in an area of interest and submit a “log” of their day. One thing that always confused me was parents who were teachers and took their children to school with them or (my personal favorite), the stay-at-home mom who kept their child home to observe her work… hmmmm. The point is not to see how hard parents work but to get a vision for what the child might pursue.
5. Large companies have had to create an entire program for the children because of the disruption it created in the workplace. Most parents, unfortunately, bring their child to work for the program that someone ELSE will lead with their kids so they can get their work done.
I hope that doesn’t sound too cynical. Most teachers I suppose would love to have a small class for a day, but I just didn’t think it was fair for some kids to get a day off and not others. I’m glad there are schools that have made allowances for this but I’m sure that creates problems for many parents who are not in a situation where they can take their child to work (like a policeman or nurse). That’s why it just makes more sense to have it during the summer!
In closing… those kids that went to work at Krogers yesterday and had Jason Pawlak as a leader were VERY lucky!
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