On Monday, April 13, Take Your Kid to Work Day happened all around the country and at State High. Many parents brought their kids in to show them what their day-to-day life is like.
This day, which happens once a year, is a unique experience for children to see what their parents go through at their workplace. Teachers at State High participate in this day by bringing their kids out of school and bringing them to the high school, and allowing them to experience their job.
Ninth-grade English teacher Jared McConkey spoke about how special it is for his kids to participate in this day. “There’s just something special about getting out of school and going to see what your parents do or your family does.” McConkey said.
McConkey said he has been doing this event for three years now, and did it growing up as a kid. “I remember doing it as a kid and going in with my mom to work, and it just being this really cool experience.”
McConkey spoke about some of the benefits of bringing his kids to work. “Because they see it from a student’s perspective, but to see it from the teachers’ perspective… what a work day can kind of look like, what expectations can kind of be put on you.”
He said it will give his kids a look at what the unpredictability of the workplace can be. When asked if he would hope that his kids bring their kids to work in the future, McConkey said, “I think that it’s a really great opportunity. I think it’s for kids to see modeled all different types of careers, particularly ones that they may not be interested in or are often not really highlighted or showcased.”
Another English teacher, Amanda Hulburt, spoke about how it was good for her children to interact with her students. “I think one of the benefits for my 11th graders at the time was getting to see them interact with a younger person and getting to see some of their personality come out through engaging,” Hulburt said.
Another member of the English department, Kelly Kaplan, a ninth-grade teacher, said it was great for her kids to interact with other teachers’ children. “They definitely enjoy being here and meeting a lot of the students and my fellow coworkers.”
McConkey said he likes how his kids get to see the two sides of him by going to his workplace. “There’s the teacher, Mr. McConkey, and then there’s Jared McConkey. This is a cool way for that, a Venn diagram to meet a little bit for my kids to see the students that I teach and to see the students that I teach to see the kids, my children. So, I like that little bridging between worlds.”
Hulburt said that her students were very kind to her child and that it was a special experience for them. Her daughter prepared a poetry lesson for students and taught the class while also learning about what it takes to be a teacher. “She learned the sense of needing to be prepared as a teacher.”
Hulburt talked about how this day showed her that we are more than just outside the classroom. “We’re not just students and teachers, but we are very complete people.”
She said it felt special because of all the other teachers bringing their kids; they got to play with each other and stay entertained throughout the day. “My three kids sat right here [D-Pod] and played some game with Mr. McConkey’s kids.”
Kaplan also mentioned that her oldest son was able to sit in on an AP class, which was a unique experience he would not get on a normal day at the middle school level.
One day, all of these teachers’ kids will come to State High themselves and be students rather than visitors. McConkey spoke to the significance of this experience for his kids’ futures. “They’ll eventually be in this school, it’s kind of neat for them to get a chance to kind of see what the future will look like.”
