"A Letter to Black Parents"

Dear Black Parents:

As a blackwoman educator, I just wanted to take the time before this year is out to say THANK YOU for being the truth and caring about our youth's health & welfare and academic achievement in 2008...

Thank you for sending your sons and daughters to school with their faces washed and clean so that they were not arriving at classroom doors in the morning with a ring of slobber dried around their mouths and crusts of sleep caked in the corners of their eyes. Thank you for cleaning ears and clipping fingernails and if need be washing their little tails yourself.

Thank you for making sure your child's hair was always washed, combed & brushed, shaped up, freshly faded & or cornrowed / braided, oiled, pressed, and not relaxed too soon. Thank you for seeing to it that there were no knots or lint and that your children were not sent to school unkempt from your doorstep.

Thank for not having overslept. Period.

And Thank you for changing our young sister's beads, ballies, and berets to match their dresses and cute new outfits-- putting belts, shoes, ties and crisp clean shirts TUCKED IN on our young brothers for Picture Day.

Thank you for coming straight from work to mostly every play, concert and recital with a sense of entitlement because you are so proud of your child up there!

Thank you for helping them with HW, projects, test practices reviews and prep.

Thank you for making sure that your sons and daughters had clean uniforms and thoroughly washed under their arms and applied the appropriate amount of 'good brand' deodorant, not whatever was on sale "because oh, s/he's just a child." ..???.. NO. Thank you for knowing that 10, 11, 12 year old and older young brothers and sisters are going through puberty and smell like grown men and women after high energy activities during recess. And perhaps just sitting still. Yes.

Thank you for your support, not having an attitude and being rude during conferences or afterschool when I'm tired and my work day is done. Thank you for having had sense enough to know that I am NOT the one. You will not come to me loud and curse me out because you can't understand why your child was disciplined. Thank you for listening to my reasons why, because between you and me we both know I could have referred your child to the drugged dead zone.. also known as Special Ed. Thank you for hearing and understanding what I've said, not defending inappropriate behavior, knowing you know I love your child.

Thank you showing up, going on trips, sending PLATES, NAPKINS and the CUTTING KNIFE with the cake.

Thank you for knowing how to bake! Those bake sale cupcakes were the BOOOMB.

Thank you for coming to Home & School Association meetings with solutions not just complaints.

Thank you for understanding that teachers are not at all saints. We are human too and have the right to get fed up with the BS.

Thank you for knowing how to dress.. not coming up to the school in head ties/bonnets/scarves, doo-rags, jeans sagging, pajamas, bedroom slippers, hip huggers with thongs and stomachs showing. Thank you for being young parents but knowing better.

Thank you for coming to my Back to School Night knowing you've been there done that..and wonder what you will hear different this year? Maybe nothing.. but seeing you means everything not just to me, but to your child.

Thank you for the joy you bring to a teacher's life for raising your child right, and knowing when to whip some asses.

Thank you for going and getting your child glasses and braces so that they were able to see the board and will grow up with straight teeth and beautiful smiles.

Thank you for knowing we're a team and staying in lock step with me so our children can shine and ride for the Black Community.

My Beautiful Black Parents... thank you for the Unity.
I Love you. God Bless you. Have a wonderful year 2009.

Sincerely,
Leah Jones, M.Ed.