Selma schools are doing something unique in having a Parent Visitation Day.

Students get this day to get in a few extra hours of sleep at home while parents get the chance to visit their child’s school and forge closer ties with their teachers.

One of the biggest criticisms of education these days is that parents are not very involved in their child’s education. Those who made the effort to attend Parent Visitation Day proved those critics wrong.

One parent, Sonja Simpson, said it best when she stated &uot;You have to take time out for you kids, and sometimes you have to make time.&uot;

A child’s education is not something that can be taken forgranted or entirely left up to the system. Not only does parental involvement in education bridges closer ties with schools, it also brings parents closer to their children.

Parents often take their children’s word when they say they finished their homework or are doing well in school. The child might be ashamed or frighten to reveal that they have a weakness in a subject. When parents visit the school and talk to the teachers, they get the educator’s perspective of the situation and not just the child’s.

Parents, in turn, also get to see the environment that their child learns in. They can see the advantages and disadvantages of the schools that they attend and realize how crucial it is that not only do they support their child’s education by helping them at home, but encouraging the state to make sure that proration and other reduction in money to schools is prevented.

The sad thing about Parental Visitation Day is that not every parent attends. Many parents have to work during the day and are penalized for taking off to visit their child’s school.

Companies should make allowances for those parents who want to attend their child’s school for the day and encourage them to take part in their education as well. A good example from an employer to parents of children is just as important as the example parents and teachers set for children.

Perhaps one day, the wishes of principals around the city and county school systems will be realized and there will be a 100 percent turnout for Parental Visitation Day.