This weekend was a bustle of activity with parents of juniors and seniors flocking to MSMS for Parents’ Day.

“Parents’ Day is our version of open house that most schools have,” explains Rick Smith, Director for School Advancement.

“It gives parents an opportunity to come in, walk through their student’s schedule, meet the teachers, and have a chance to talk to the teachers about what’s going on in that particular course.”

Starting with registration in the morning, everything seemed to be systematically arranged to guide the parents through their day without sweat. The emissaries were proudly posted in every corner to help the parents –  from registration to selling MSMS merchandise – and even holding doors for the lines of thrilled parents.

Emissary Ariel Williams said, “We’re just helping the parents know their child’s schedules so throughout their day they’ll go through the course of the classes so they can get a real perspective of what their kids do here. We’re also giving them pamphlets on insurance, bumper stickers and other things throughout the day.”

Parents were engaged in the various activities. MSMS parent Linda Espy said, “I’m really eager to learn about my daughter’s schedule, but I’m also looking forward to seeing how her day is and meeting her teachers.”

Most of the time, the students are anxious about what their parents perceive or what the teachers will tell them, but sometimes a teacher’s message can be reassuring.

“I teach mostly juniors so I try to help the parents have reasonable expectations of their students because we definitely challenge students here more than their home schools,” said Kaye Truitt, a MSMS teacher.

“They get challenged in every class so the parents need to be prepared for the fact that students might need a little while to adjust,” she continued.

“I also talk to them about what they learned is more important than the grade they achieved, so I try to encourage parents to understand that sometimes a B means that the students have learned a whole lot whereas an A may not represent any learning at all,” she said.