Yesterday was “take your child to work day” at Kroger corporate. This meant there were about 80 2nd through high school kids running around my building with more energy than I thought the Sun had to offer. But you know what made it even more entertaining? I was in charge of leading around a number of these little balls of energy!
I had a group of 16 (8 of which showed up) 2nd to 4th grade kids, 4 boys and 4 girls, that I was in charge of bonding with, making them feel comfortable, and leading them around to different stations set up around my building. This being the Information Systems building, all of the stations were geared towards technology. Overall, I had a great time. I like kids and when I feel comfortable enough to be myself around them (when their parents aren’t around watching) I think they enjoy being around me as well.
I updated twitter with a quick tweet about my job for the day, and I received a comment from my 2nd grade teacher through Facebook saying she was never a fan of take your kid to work day. I thought this a bit odd, because even though the day is more of a field trip compared to reading writing and arithmetic, I still feel it is rather educational for both school and home life. A bit later I got another comment from her explaining her thought, that kids have June, July, and August off of school, why do they make the take your child to work day in the middle of the school year? And my response… hmm, good point!
After a little research, I came across this site (http://www.daughtersandsonstowork.org). Apparently, it is a little more than a random day that Kroger decided upon. There is an actual organization behind this that helps organize the day by giving ideas and guidance. The date set for “Take our daughters and sons to work” day is the 4th Thursday of April, apparently. This still didn’t answer the question why this date was the date, however.
I put on my investigative journalism hat on and went to the phones. I called the number provided on their website (1-800-676-7780) and was promptly told to send an email with my inquiry. Ok… so I sent the following email:
> > Hello, > > > > Yesterday, the fourth Thursday of April, I volunteered and participated in my company’s Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work day. I enjoyed leading the kids around to various stations to learn about the work that we do here at my company each day. However, I do have a question regarding the date chosen for Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work day. When students have the months of June, July, and August on Summer Break, when they have many opportunities to head to a parent’s workplace, why is it that the date chosen was during the school year? > > > > Thank you for taking the time to respond, > > > > Jason > >
Shortly after, I received this reply:
> > Hi Jason, > > > > Thanks for writing. I want to be sure you are aware there are many ways to work with the date issue.The date for the program ALWAYS has been the fourth Thursday in April as suggested by teachers and others who were on the advisory committee that helped create program. Some school systems make the Day a teacher's work day, others incorporate the Day in the curriculum (see Broward Co., the fifth largest school system in the nation), on our web site; others make the Day a holiday. Obviously, there are ways to work with the day -- last year over 35 million people participated at over 3 million workplaces spread over every state. > > > > George > > > > TODASTW Foundation > >
All-in-all the organization didn’t provide a response more than saying “well that’s what it has always been…” I think the next step would be trying and dig up contacts for the said advisory committee that created this official program. But I don’t think this particular issue is worth the hassle.
The argument that I will make for my personal opinion of the matter, is that when a kid gets a day off of school for an out-of-the-ordinary reason, such as take your child to work day, it makes an impression on them. A school might take Memorial Day off of school, but I guarantee the child will remember going to their parents work in more detail than some park festivities. But that’s just me, maybe someday if/when I take my kid to work, it’ll make a little more sense.