Dear Editor:
At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I found the articles about the Pre-K parents’ troubles chin-dropping. My mom drove me and my sisters over five miles to get to school by 6:30 a.m. in time for Mass before school, five days a week, then all the way across town for music lessons, each week, after school. My mother, herself, rode in the back of an old truck with other kids from a small farming community into another town to a tiny school house every weekday. When she got older, she had to be boarded in a boarding house, where she scrubbed floors and ironed shirts for her keep – just to go to middle and high school. My father road his own horse to school, 30 miles a day, from his ranch to town, in order to go to school through high school.
These parents are finding their children’s education an inconvenience in their lives. Not very long ago, the U.S. was an almost entirely agrarian country. People travelled far and spent precious money to educate children. In my parent’s time, children could have been employed at home, literally WORKING. If parents don’t appreciate education and think it’s a free baby sitting service, they will not fight to keep it. New Jerseyans are very, very fortunate to have early education programs for all. This whole town is only one mile each way.
These parents should spend a year in rural Alabama, California, or Kentucky and see how they like it. I have to tell my neighbors, frequently, to support these programs, even though their children are grown now. These parents in Hoboken need to see beyond their comfort zone.
Mary Mills