parents populate the school
Most students kiss their parents goodbye as they walk out the door to school, or get dropped off in carpool saying the usual, “see you later.” However, for some, this is not the case. While some mothers and fathers are doctors or electricians, these students have English teachers and math teachers as parents, and seeing them on campus is just another day at school.
Just like anything else, having a parent at school has its benefits and its downsides, and sophomore Luke Magnante, his mother an English teacher, knows what he likes the most and the least.
“Favorite thing, don’t have to carry my books, don’t have to go to my locker. Least favorite, the teachers know who I am already. They already have that fact that they know my mom is an English teacher,” Magnante said.
While he has attended the same school as his mom for the past nine years, from Sycamore Canyon Middle School to NPHS, Magnante says that he tries to not let it affect him. He wants to go his own way.
Freshman Chloe Harris is experiencing her mother, a biology teacher, teaching at the same school for the first time.
“I like it, because if I ever need anything I can just go to her classroom and get it. But, sometimes it’s hard because she can go to my teachers directly and talk to them about my grades and stuff, and she can check up on me,” Harris said.
While these students may see their parent at school, they are not being taught directly by them. However, having their own parent as a teacher is not unheard of. For instance, freshman Evan Metcalf’s mother holds the position of both his mom and math teacher. Nonetheless, Metcalf does not let this faze him. Even though he’s only been at the same school as his mom for around four months, he says it feels normal for her to be a teacher here.
“In class, I talk to her casually like she’s my mom. I tried to talk to her like my teacher but it didn’t work,” he said.
Some parents encourage their children to pursue the same career that they have, but surprisingly, the Metcalfs have different ideas for Evan’s future.
“I’m good at math because (my mom) is a math teacher, but she wants me to be a doctor and my dad wants me to be an engineer,” Metcalf said about his future professions.
Senior Karina Anderson also is choosing a different path for herself, instead of being an English teacher like her mom; she wants to be a sports psychologist.
“She can’t really influence that. She doesn’t get to pick the classes I take or anything like that. She obviously would never want to have me in her class, because she said she would grade me harder than all the other kids,” Anderson said.
But she understands where her mother is coming from, especially when her mom checks up on her with her teachers, and says she knows her mom only does it because she cares. Anderson also believes that this understanding has improved since going to the same school as her mom.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot closer, actually, over the past four years, especially since I started to come here as a freshman, mostly because we can actually talk about things that are occurring in both of our lives,” Anderson said.
Even with having both the responsibilities of being a teacher and a parent, teachers treat their students’ education and the students themselves as a priority, much like they do for their own children at home.
“She cares as much for her students and helping them do good in school as she cares for me and my brother and everything that we did,” said Magnante.
