<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> but we are going to face criticism from a few at our school that will still say we are being "insensitive" and maybe even that we are "discriminating" against kids who don't have fathers. Are we? What do you think? <hr></blockquote>
Nancy,
You are always going to have a few people who are too politically correct for their own good. My father died when I was in second grade and I can remember my uncle taking me to every father/daughter funtion that ever existed and I loved going with him. Ask yourself this....does EVERY child participate in EVERY program that the PTO sponsors? As long as you let people know that "donuts with dad" doesn't pertain to DNA dad, but to a special person (for many kids-mom is dad), I think you'll be fine. If not, you could always rename it "donuts with your special role model or other inspirational person who may or may not be your father"
That should make the PC crowd happy!
Maybe you could call it "Muffins with Men"? Of course, that would negate the doughnuts part,unless you just served them in addition to the muffins.
I've wanted to increase male involvement in our school too, but keep running up against this same type of thinking. Luckily, we've had a few men get involved anyway, so hopefully others will see that-2 are now on the board even-and realize they are wanted too. Good luck!
(BTW-my mother died when I was 3 and there were many functions aimed toward mothers/daughters that I went to alone or with my father, and this was back in the 60's when it was more unusual for a child not to have one of their parents. I survived it just fine. Sensitivity is fine, but we can't protect our children from everything, nor should we.)
We took to heart the recent article in PTO Today on the importance of Dads. We proposed at our recent meeting that our PTO sponsor a Doughnuts for Dads breakfast before school, however we were suprised by a couple of folks who felt that we were being "insensitive" to children who don't have fathers around, for expample, children who have step-fathers and children whose fathers may have died. We replied that first of all, all children DO have fathers. Whether the father is around or not is usually up to the father. However, we would be clear that children would be able to bring any grown up male in their lives such as an uncle, grandpa, older brother, etc. Second, it IS sad when a child loses a parent, but children will need to learn to cope with this loss in many ways throughout their life. Perhaps these kids could bring a grandpa or other important male figure in their lives as well and it would give them also an opportunity to spend a short time together at the school. I'd like to get some more opinion on this. Has anyone else encountered such concerns regarding an event like this? We are still going to do the event as planned,but we are going to face criticism from a few at our school that will still say we are being "insensitive" and maybe even that we are "discriminating" against kids who don't have fathers. Are we? What do you think? :confused:
