Robert

Jackson

Staff

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Writer

I attended the open house/opening night for the Bogalusa City School's youth art exhibit at Northside Elementary School.

The school system's three art teachers were there as were school board members and a few parents with their children. A few community members were also in attendance.

But as I pointed out, only a few parents were there - less than 10 had shown up by the time I left, which was one hour into the two-hour opening.

What a disappointment.

More than 700 individual and collective drawings, paintings, colorings and paper sculptures were on display from all of the city's elementary schools. Work produced by children in grades K-5 hung neatly on the walls of the school's auditorium.

It was a shame not more parents came.

If one wonders about the lack of attendance, it was not because there was a lack of notice. A front-page story appeared in our newspaper the Sunday before the event and the opening was mentioned in the paper's calendar of events.

The opening was special because most parents are not able to take time off from work to visit their child's school during the day and view the exhibit, so an evening program was scheduled.

There was punch and cookies, plenty of cookies, for refreshments.

It was a shame not more people came to see the work of our community's youngest students.

As I was walking from the event, BCS board member Eleanor Duke and I talked briefly about parental support. She told me of a touching story about a young girl at a recent school-day musical program whose mother did not attend the show.

It is good news that Bogalusa High School is starting its PTO once again. Yet, why did it go out of existence?

Where are the parents?

I remember when I was growing up my parents were there even when I did not want them around. Yet, they were there when I did.

On a Friday night I had a father-son dinner and my brother had a weekend Cub Scout campout. My father came home from work early to pack his camping gear to go with my brother to his father-son campout. But, he kept his suit and tie on and made sure he attended the father-son dinner.

After the dinner he pointed his car east and drove to spend the rest of the night, and all weekend, at the Cub Scout event.

Was my father special? I think my father was special, but so does every son.

However, growing up every father and mother in my neighborhood was special.

I wanted to think it was natural. Fathers attended their son's ballgames. Mother's made sure their daughters were given love and care.

But, I've been told that I grew up in the "Father Knows Best" generation and times have changed.

Have times changed so much that we no longer hold characters like Jim Anderson and Andy Taylor up as role models.

Back in the 1990s, churches in North Georgia showed the "Andy Griffith Show" as part of the Sunday School lesson. Not as entertainment, but as a lesson for life.

However, this is not a generational, religious or regional issue.

Bill Cosby's effort to use television with his show about the fictional Huxtable family was ground breaking, but remains an island in a cultural wasteland.

I saw a lot of my father in Cosby's Heathcliff, but I wonder about what is going in today's world.

Where are the fathers and mothers of our children?

Where were the parents of the youngsters involved in the brawl last weekend?

Where are the parents of the young people who sing in the school choir or draw pictures for the art exhibit? Parental involvement is missing, so is parental support.

I guess I am from another generation, but being old fashioned does not make me any less wrong.

(Robert Jackson is a staff writer for the Daily News. He can be reached at 732-2565 or robert.jackson@wickcommunications.com.)