Apathy

“Science may have found a cure for most evils – but is has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.” ~ Helen Keller

I am truly sometimes amazed at how some people just accept things without challenging them, resigning themselves to either (1) that nothing can be done; or (2) nothing is worth doing. Either of those is a said state of affairs.

The difference I have noticed between the free, public education system and the private, pay education system is the apathy of parents. It is truly sad. A few years ago, we welcomed a new administrator to the boys’ school. There was a “meet and greet” coffee hour planned for a Wednesday evening. We arrived at the school (being new parents to the building ourselves and looking forward to meeting not only the new administrator but other parents) to find literally a handful of cars in the parking lot. Confused, and seeing no one that we recognized, we left, convinced that we had somehow mistaken the date. There is no way, we thought, that out of  two classes of almost a hundred students each, only five cars could be in the lot for the “meet and greet”.

Sadly, I learned the next day that in fact those five cars were for the “meet and greet” event. Out of approximately two hundred students, only five parents or families saw fit to make the time to attend. The rest, it seemed, didn’t care or didn’t care enough to make the effort.

Such a thing would not have happened at our old school. Parents were involved, all the time and in everything. Maybe it was because parent assistance meant the difference between a program that could be held and one that could not since while private, we were a small school – or maybe it was that the parents were footing the bill and they felt that they had the right to be involved in a significant way. In either case, involvement was a good thing and for better or worse it was welcomed by the school. It meant that someone cared.

The same is true of a recent change that occurred at our boys’ school. Only a handful cared enough to ask questions, make comments — in some minds even make waves or as my son put it — be the “psycho mom”.

Apathy is often considered the opposite of love or hate since it means the absence of feeling — the lack of concern – indifference. My boys can accuse me of many things, but apathy, thankfully is not one of them. I care, maybe in the minds of some, a little too much – maybe in my own mind — not enough as I should. If that makes me a “psycho mom” well then, so be it. I’ll take involvement over apathy any day.