My parents have long been gone, but it brings back very fond memories of coming home after school, and eating meatloaf, mashed potatoes and creamed corn.

The offerings should supplement what the home-school parents are doing, but they shouldn't go beyond the public school setting. It's not an equitable situation.

Parents need to reinforce at home what is being worked on at school.

When we sent the note home to the parents we indicated that this was something that had affected our school community, and that one of our students had leukemia and had been treated for it.

Another great benefit of the program is that parents can designate a child's school, and grandparents, aunts and uncles can also participate. Even neighbors can select a local school and participate in the program.

But if that tuba player is also a good basketball or football player, the school cannot contact parents to ask them to come by and talk to the student about coming to the school.