School began this week in Pea Ridge and nearly 2,000 children returned to the four campuses in town. Hundreds of teachers, school administrators and staff have been working steadily to assure a productive and pleasant school year for the children entrusted to their care.
The school population here has grown tremendously but the atmosphere is still a home-town feel with teachers and administrators knowing the students by name, often knowing their parents and grandparents. Newcomers are welcomed with open arms and embraced as part of the family of Pea Ridge.
For me, nearing an empty nest with just one child left at home, the feeling is bittersweet as he enters his second year in high school.
The next generation is moving into the Pea Ridge schools with two grandchildren entering kindergarten, another entering first grade and the eldest moving up to the Intermediate School. More and more I find myself saying things my grandmother and mother used to say about the passage of time and reflecting on when my own children were young.
As I watch my own precious daughters parent their children, I reflect on my own parenting and regret my mistakes and rejoice over their successes despite my flaws.
In one parenting book I read years ago, the author compared parenting to a relay race up a mountain and said that if parents, then grandparents, pass on the baton higher up the mountain than the began, each generation begins with more knowledge than the previous one. If we are wise and learn from our elders and our mistakes, that is true.
To young parents, I would remind them, the greatest gift you can give your future grandchildren is a loving and wise mother or father. Parent today's children knowing they will be tomorrow's leaders.
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Editor's note: Annette Beard, managing editor of The Pea Ridge TIMES, chosen the best small weekly newspaper in Arkansas for five of the past six years, is a native of Louisiana. She has nine children, eight grandsons and two granddaughters. The opinions expressed are those of the author. She can be reached at [email protected].
Editorial on 08/16/2017