Picture this scene: It’s a weekday evening in early June. I am sitting down to dinner with my family when our meal is interrupted by a ringing telephone. “Hello,” I say into the receiver, but my greeting is met by an awkward silence. I’m about to hang up, when an unfamiliar voice begins speaking, addressing me as “parents.” I’m not thinking so much about the oddness of being addressed in the plural. I’m thinking about the child that qualifies me for the title of “parent” in the singular. How important is this call to my child’s welfare? If I understand the caller correctly, the message is that if money isn’t forthcoming, something unfortunate will happen to schoolchildren like mine. I’m told a time and place to attend to this bit of business. The phone call ends before I have a chance to speak.
I am grateful to the Harvard Press for publishing the text of School Committee Chairman Stu Sklar’s pre-recorded Connect-Ed phone message in the paper’s June 20 issue. It is the only print copy I have of that message of June 8th. I am also glad to be reassured that Mr. Sklar intended nothing inappropriate by the call, that it was “simply a ‘get out the vote’ message.” On first hearing, it really sounded like something else.
Elizabeth Cooper
Still River Road
