CRIMSON COMMENTS by Rose McGlew
Anyone who has spent a significant time in school as anything but a student will tell you the real key to success in the classroom is parental involvement.
Teachers agree that having parents or guardians interested in their child’s progress is great. Having one as a partner in the process is a dream come true.
On a recent Saturday, involved parents had the opportunity to shine at the state championships for Destination ImagiNation (DI), and Washington Township did well!
Destination ImagiNation enables students to put their critical thinking skills to creative use. Teams are formed early in the school year, and each team selects a challenge from a set of choices presented by the DI administration.
The team spends several months formulating a plan for its challenge. The challenge requires cooperation among team members and a strict hands-off approach from the team managers. This is where the parental involvement plays a part.
The teams meet on a weekly basis to strategize, brainstorm and collect ideas into a cohesive blob of possibility. The meetings are held in the school if the team manager is a teacher, or in one of the team member’s homes, with a parent or guardian as coach.
The meetings aren’t hectic, however, until the frenzied week or two before the competition.
My husband decided to take up the mantle with another first time coaching parent, Saritha Krishnamoorthy.
I’m not sure about Saritha’s reasons for coaching but Paul’s were purely due to peer pressure.
"Come on," I said. "You need to be more involved in his school activities and this won’t be too much of a time commitment. You can do this."
Every week for the past several months, five to seven fourth and fifth grade students gathered in our basement to research fairy tales, practice voice projection, manufacture props from newspapers, and eat snacks.
The challenge their team selected was "Once Improv a Time."
The team selected 10 fairy tales in which they would become familiar, and then incorporated several aspects of each tale into one. For instance, they wove the characters from "Little Red Riding Hood," the setting of "The Three Bears," and the moral of "King Midas" into one new fairy tale to be presented on stage.
The team had 30 minutes to work on their story. I tried to stay out of the basement as much as possible, but from all the screaming, I assumed cooperation was not always high on the kids’ agenda.
Saritha and Paul emerged from the practice sessions sometimes smiling, sometimes shaking their heads and I wondered if they doubted the kids’ abilities or their own sanity. I even noticed one or two extra gray hairs during that last week of practice.
The day of the competition the team left Sharon School about 6 a.m. They performed, and we heard nothing. Lunch came and ended with still no word to home.
Finally, about 4 p.m., our intrepid warriors walked in with glowing comments about their performance.
When Paul received the call letting us know that the team placed second, relief and pleasure shined on Saritha and Paul’s faces. They both were subdued about what I considered a great coup. Their team had been amateur last year and now they had actually placed. Impressive, I thought.
This is a big pat on the back to all the students, parents and team managers who participated in DI this year. Thank you to veteran team coach, Sonja Walter, who shared terrific insight with the team as well as references and encouragement.
Another person who deserves to share in the team’s victory is Amy Fuchs, the drama teacher at Sharon School. Mrs. Fuchs wasn’t a coach but she took much of her personal time to help the performers perfect little nuances that led to achievement.
Thanks to all the parents and guradians who take the time and energy to make their child’s time in school a memorable one. It may seem like just another task for you, but to our students it means the world.
Rose McGlew, a resident of Robbinsville, contributes a weekly column to the Messenger-Press.

