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Monday, August 13, 2007
Back To School With Dad
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Local organizers for The Black Star Project are making their annual push today to get more fathers, particularly African-Americans, involved in their children’s schooling.
Atlanta’s second annual Million Fathers March is part of a movement that started in Chicago a few years ago. The idea is to get dads to take their sons or daughters to school on the first day of classes and get more involved in their education generally.
I was out and about at public schools this morning, observing the first few hours of the new school year in metro Atlanta. I saw a couple dads registering their children and delivering them to their classrooms, but they were definitely outnumbered by mothers.
A handful of schools in Atlanta and Fulton County were expected to participate in the march, including Fain Elementary School in Adamsville. Principal Marcus Stallworth told me he believes students do better academically when their daddies are involved in their lives.
“Dads are the determining factor to any child’s destiny,” Stallworth said. “Moms are great. But research shows when dads are involved in their child’s lives they go further.”
Would you agree?
