Donestock Store

This morning was like any other morning in so many ways. But, Japan for me is never quite that ordinary. While standing outside, I came across the teacher from the elementary school where my daughter attended while in Japan. Besides the fact that I was happy to thank her again for allowing my daughter the opportunity to be at school during the summer, I asked her what brought her here. She said that she was making the rounds to the students she taught this school year, visiting each home to meet with the child and parents to go over the year and prepare them for the next one. She said that Japanese teachers throughout the nation do this for the benefit of the children's education. It did not hit me what I had just heard until I said goodbye to her and went back indoors. Can it be that in today's world teachers make house calls to encourage their students for the future? My friends, have we in our world become so distant and remote that the mere act of reaching out for the benefit of others has become a thing of the past? As a City Council Member, I will work with the Department of Education to learn more about what the Department currently does for its students during the long summer vacation, and if we can do something even closely comparable to what I witnessed today in Japan. I am sure we can, and I am confident that teachers and instructors in our school system would welcome the chance to plant seeds of inspiration in the children they teach so that they can emerge as adults ready for society and ones that can contribute in positive, meaningful ways to their future and ours.