What it’s like to have a parent at school

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Annie Leow

McKenzie Cornell (10) relaxes and jokes with her mother after a long school day.

For most students, a typical school day begins with throwing a quick goodbye to their parents before heading out the door. But for three Spartans, McKenzie Cornell (11), Ray Curry (11) and Jonas Kannady (9), their mothers teaching at their school has become a routine part of their life.

Cornell describes how having her mom, Maridee Cornell, teach AP Physics at school has its benefits and its drawbacks.

“We spend a lot of quality time after school together,” Cornell said, referring to days where her mother would teach the White Station Robotics club.

According to Cornell and her mother, being in the same classroom for instructional time would prove to be difficult due to their overwhelming similarities, which is why Cornell has opted out of taking AP Physics.

On the contrary, Ray Curry took his mother Alicia Curry’s Computer Applications class as a sophomore, and while the experience was grueling for him, he benefited from it.

While some may think it is awkward to have a parent at school, Curry disagrees. “I never really felt any way about her being there. Me and Mom are best friends, so it’s been all good,” Curry said.

A common thread between Cornell and Curry’s experiences is that when their moms get food, so do they, which is a perk that draws the jealousy of many other students.

On the other hand, they, along with Jonas Kannady, acknowledge a sense of being held to a higher standard due to their parent’s close proximity to their academic lives.

While he relates to Cornell and Curry on this front, Kannady, as a current freshman, has a slightly different experience.

For Kannady, a positive is that he already knew his way around school on his first day, an advantage any new student would love to have.

Unlike Curry, when asked whether he has ever felt awkward, he answered, “Yes, when teachers who I do not know say hello to me, but I do not know who they are.”

While this may be one downfall to having a parent at school, there is no doubt that a vast majority of students would not say no to the free food.