Woman in Real Life: When Sending Your Child Off To School Is So Hard

My daughter was just 3 years old when she started Junior Kindergarten. She would turn 4 in October. Sending your little one off to school for the first time is stressful for a parent no matter the child’s age, but when they seem so teeny-tiny, it’s all the more anxiety-inducing.

And that worry isn't just for Mom and Dad to cope with. My little one suffered from separation anxiety. She wasn’t skipping off to school with a smile on her face like some of the other children in her class. She was clinging to Mom or Dad, tears streaming down her face. And Mom and Dad had to get to work. As much as we parents want to be there for our kids always, we deal with sometimes inconvenient social realities - like needing to get to your job on time so you can continue to earn money.

We’ll forever be grateful for our daughter's JK teacher, Mrs. C. This lovely teacher was a welcome face in the morning - she would come right through the Kindergarten play yard outside to take our little girl from our arms. She would comfort her and talk to her and engage her in activities to distract her from her sadness.

It meant the world to us, knowing that we could leave our precious little one with a responsible adult who would not only teach her, but care who she was as a person as well. And I could go off to work without tears in my eyes. As parents we know that our children go through phases - phases that inevitably pass. But when those phases are really hard, really darn stressful, it's difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't long at all before my young JK student felt entirely comfortable going off to school. And we were fortunate that she was taught by Mrs. C again later in Grade 1.

If you were to see my daughter heading off to school today, in Grade 7, you would see a confident, capable and creative person who enjoys school, manages her homework on her own and has clear goals for her future success through high school and post-secondary studies.

As much as I value a solid education for my children, with capable instruction in areas such as math, science, English and the arts, it's also important to me that those most precious to me spend their days with people who respect them, who value them as individuals and who teach them to care for others as well. Children spend a good portion of their daily lives at school and I know I'm not alone in feeling that it should be a time that nurtures them as human beings.

My kids have had the good fortune to attend Ontario Catholic schools - for those of you who don't know, the Province of Ontario has Catholic schools within the public school system - where the curriculum is infused with core values such as fairness, respect, compassion and concern for social justice and the environment.

My kids have participated in frequent fundraisers, as well as on Luke 4:18 Social Justice Committees. My daughter helps her school's caretaker with recycling. For a recent school project, she and her group mates decided to create a prototype of a product that might one day assist visually impaired people. She is teaching herself sign language in the hopes of one day communicating more easily with deaf people. The lessons learned at school carry over into life - an astonishing 72% of graduates from Ontario Catholic public schools volunteered in the last year. I have several Catholic teachers in my family - including my husband and my sister-in-law - and I know they deliver lessons beyond history and English. They promote values that help students become good citizens.

Here's a great example of how in-school study led to an amazing career fully dedicated to helping others. Watch this video to learn more about Cheryl Perera, a Catholic school graduate who was inspired by research she conducted for a Grade 10 Civics class to go to Sri Lanka to investigate child exploitation. She later founded OneChild, an organization that mobilizes young people to take action against sexual exploitation of children.