American TV personality and singer Kelly Clarkson has stirred debate about whether schools should hold students’ performances during the day. Clarkson appeared Thursday in an episode of the podcast “Not Gonna Lie,” hosted by Kylie Kelce, whose husband is former NFL star Jason Kelce. “I don’t know when the school systems thought it would be a good plan for families and their emotional stability to start having performances at 10 a.m. during the week,” Clarkson said in a recent clip posted on Kylie Kelce’s Instagram account (@nglwithkylie). “This just in, a lot of us work.” Clarkson went on to say that many jobs won’t let employees get the morning off to attend their children’s school performances if they don’t provide enough advance notice. Those who have to miss out on watching their child in the school spotlight would just look bad, she suggested. “Our kids don’t understand, and we just look like a**holes when we’re not there and then they go, ‘Why was this mom there?’ and then you have to say because that kid got a better mom. Like I don’t know.” The post attracted more than 1,400 comments as of 3 p.m. EDT on Friday. One user, who described themself as a public school music teacher, pointed out that teachers’ schedules would explain the daytime performances. “We don’t get paid for evening performances, so daytime performances ensure we get paid for the work that we do,” the user wrote in a comment, with the handle @capitalblooms. “An evening performance often looks like 5 hours outside of our contract time, and although we want everyone to come see their kids and what we’ve been working on, it’s also hard to donate so much time over the course of a year when we teach 6 grade levels.” The person added that school staff do want families there and should give plenty of advance notice. A user called @craig_fisher75 said teachers should be treated like doctors so families can go during office hours. “If you can take time off work for a medical appointment, you can take time off work for an educational appointment,” the person wrote. Someone with the handle @anfunesti said they agree with Clarkson from a parent’s perspective. However, the person pointed out the teachers’ side, as well. They said schools should start having day performances so that no student is left out if they don’t have a ride. “A day performance ensures that all kids can participate and takes a little bit of the load off of a teacher. There is also after school extracurriculars and activities so the timing of that would have to be factored in. ... In the end, we can’t make everybody happy,” the user said. The podcast is described as “One mic. Zero f*cks. No lies.” on its Instagram account.
