Tomorrow is a big day for kids. It is national Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day.
For many children in our community and all around the country, it will be a day for satisfying that age-old curiosity: what do these adults do all day?
The program was begun over a decade ago by the Ms. Foundation. Initially it focused on girls - and was criticized both by men's groups and the often-single female parents it was meant to encourage.
Along the way the program evolved by inspiring discussion and new awareness about anti-family assumptions and stereotypes.
Randy Lewis of Mountain View, California, an outspoken men's movement proponent known as "Ms. Basher," advocated from the very beginning for inclusion of sons into the program, arguing that "there is increasing evidence that boys comprise the educationally weaker gender" and that the "National Assessment of Education Progress Tests shows that... girls outperform boys in reading by thirteen points and in writing by twenty-four points."
And while that statement, which may be completely true, does nothing to explain the "glass ceiling" phenomenon that so many women experience when seeking opportunities in upper management, it at least provided some common ground. And the Ms. Foundation responded by not only including sons in the program; they also redoubled their efforts to make the program, as an introduction to mentoring, an even more important event.
The Ms. Foundation states that their priority has been to encourage outreach: "When we say 'Our Daughters And Sons,' we mean more than our own children. The Ms. Foundation encourages workplaces and individuals to ensure all our nation's daughters and sons participate in the program by inviting children from housing authorities and shelters, nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends, and more, to join them for Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day. Through this program, adults can show girls and boys opportunities they would have otherwise never known existed."
There is opportunity for something more, through this - something for the adults. And particularly (but not exclusively) for those who reach out and invite that "other" (not their own) child to take part in a day of mentoring.
It is your chance to really gain something. This is how Phil Smart Sr. (a Seattle resident best known as a luxury car dealer) puts it, based on his regular evening visits to Children's Hospital: "I go to this 'night school,'" Smart said, "and children are my teachers. I take courses in fear, pain, and courage - and I've learned to listen carefully. These children encourage me."
Another thing that many children in our community will tell you about is the "Send My Friend to School" (www.sendmyfriend.org) campaign. This is a huge phenomenon in the United Kingdom, and locally our children are talking it up as well, in the same spirit of empathy, caring and outreach that drives the vision of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work. It is focused on a blunt assertion: the G-7 nations (the world's largest and most highly industrialized democracies) some five years ago decided to make inroads against the enormous number - over 100 million children worldwide - who have been denied their right to education.
The issue is that in five years, zero progress has been shown. The way children on both sides of the Atlantic have embraced this cause is quite a realization.
They are ready to lead us. Will we mentor them?
P. Scott Cummins is a freelance columnist living in Magnolia.
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