Back to School Night: confusing, chaotic, busy, but overall extremely beneficial. The one night of the whole year where every student’s’ parents come together to discover their child’s schedule and briefly meet their teachers.

The night starts off with hundreds of parents filling into the cafeteria to pick up their child’s schedule and a map. They wait patiently while the student volunteers work hard to find their child’s schedule quickly. After getting what they have been waiting for, they move into the hallways while searching for their first period class. Student volunteers are lined up throughout every hallway to help make the parents’ experience much easier.

Throughout the night parents visit seven or more of their child’s different classes for ten minutes. Some even have to juggle having multiple schedules for each child.

Every ten minutes a new wave of parents rush out of each classroom while trying to find the next room, with only five minutes in between. Most of these parents have never had to navigate the school for themselves, so it can be difficult giving simple directions to them. Just by the looks on some of their faces one could tell they were extremely confused, and it was like dejavu to the first day of school freshman year–busy, scary and even stressful.

Pam Ellis, a mother of a tenth grade student and a teacher herself, believes that back to school night is “really important for all parents.” She also said that this was her first Back to School Night and, “the most important part of Back to School Night is we (the parents) now can put like a face for the name, so when your child talks about your teacher and the class and what’s going on, you now know who they are talking about.” Pam Ellis concluded her thoughts on this night by stating, ¨I think it’s very helpful and I thought it was very well done.”

When asked his opinion regarding the length of the class sessions, Jon Ellis, a father of a tenth grade student, said, “I think ten minutes is fine. If it was any longer this night would be too long, and I know the teachers have already taught all day just like a lot of us have already worked all day. So ten minutes is good.¨

Mr. Bixby, a teacher at Pentucket, claimed that, “For what we (teachers) are expected to do, ten minutes is fine. It allows us to give a brief intro to the course and for asking questions. If it was longer we would have to change the layout.” Mr. Bixby believes that this night, at the beginning of each school year, is “nice for parents to come in and meet the teachers in an informal setting.”

Back to School night is and continues to be a success. Many parents and staff members believe that this night is beneficial. Overall, Back to School night has proven to be very helpful and informative for parents and all are encouraged to attend every year to get to know their child’s teachers and classes.