I was so proud the other day to find out that my son Arvin and his classmates at Walnut Road Elementary achieved one of the highest level of accomplishment in the Climate Change Showdown Contest.
As a result, they were invited to city hall to receive an award from Mayor Dianne Watts and council.
We (parents of children in Ms. Sanghara’s class) were told to be at city hall 3:30 p.m. sharp as the ceremony would begin at 3:45 p.m. sharp. We were reminded of this many times.
Well, we were all there, but the mayor and council were not. In fact, they did not show up until 4:40 p.m. To say that parents were upset at their tardiness is to put it mildly.
When these elected representatives did show up and begin the meeting, did they not provide the customary, “Sorry for being late,” they just began the meeting without any acknowledgement of the late start.
The ceremony took less than one minute in total.
If we are to teach our children any lessons – such as the importance of being punctual; the value of being on time and good manners; and apologizing for making a mistake – then the mayor and council did a terrible job as role models.
Afterwards, the other proud parents and I discussed the bad behaviour of our elected representatives and decided to teach our children a new lesson: how to vote these people out of office.
Shallene Gill
Surrey