I had cause recently to check up on a few things with one of the kids’ schoolwork.

Here’s what I had to do.

I called the Bangor High School guidance office.

I was told the name of the five teachers I would need to contact.

All the teachers had different phone numbers and very specific times they were available for parent phone calls.

The English teacher was available from 10:20 to 10:40 a.m. each day; the math teacher was available from 10:20 to 11 a.m. or 1:20 to 2 p.m. each day; the Spanish teacher was available from 12:35 to 1:15 p.m. but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays; the graphic design teacher was available from 9:30 to 10:10 and 11:50 to 12:30 a.m. each day, and the biology teacher was available from 9:05 to 9:25 a.m.

To keep abreast of homework assignments, this was to be my schedule.

Here’s what my buddy Chip in Hampden would have to do if he wanted to make a similar check.

Go to Hampden Academy’s Web site, click on the Power School box and type in his password. In a virtual second his child’s daily attendance record, current homework assignments, missing homework assignments, quiz and test scores and current grade in each class would be displayed before him.

If my kids forget the parameters of a certain homework assignment due the next day, they need to call a classmate, hope they are home and know something more about the assignment. Chip’s son can go to his school’s Web site, type in his password and find out exactly what the assignment is.

Back in August, when I was first told of the Power School technology used in so many schools across the state and the country, I called Bangor Superintendent Sandy Ervin, wondering why I couldn’t seem to find the Power School icon on our Web site.

It seemed like such a remarkable and useful tool for parents, students and teachers that it really didn’t cross my mind that the state’s largest high school would not be using it.

I was wrong.

Seems Ervin is more of an old-fashioned sort and believes that allowing parents such complete and convenient access to their children’s academic record would prevent warm and honest conversation around the dinner table each evening.

Now don’t get me wrong, my kids talk to me a lot.

Every day I hear of a new on-the-playground or clothing crisis or a friend’s crisis, depending on which kid’s talking.

We also, depending on which athletic season it is, sit down to dinner together most nights of the week.

But apparently it is only my children who occasionally forget to mention an overdue homework assignment or a questionable quiz grade.

Even adults tend to put off or avoid things that are unpleasant. There are some kids who may think they will simply make up that homework assignment so the parents don’t need to know or think they’ll do great on the next quiz to make up for that one bad score. For some kids that may work fine; for others that hole just gets deeper. At Bangor High School the first warning a parent gets that there is a problem is in the middle of the school quarter when a warning notice arrives in the mailbox.

At that point parent and student are left scrambling to catch up with the teacher to find out what needs to be done in order to bring up the grade.

For those of you with children at the top of the academic ladder who never make a misstep and who share openly with you each night at the dinner table, perhaps Power School is an unnecessary tool. It would be super-duper if we all had perfect children who would dish out all of the day’s events, even the more difficult ones.

I don’t think that is anywhere near the majority.

As my kids grow, I’m finding that it’s an important time to not only listen to what they are saying, but also to be aware of what they might not be saying.

Parents can use all the tools there are to try to stay up to date with their kids’ whirlwind of a world. Parents of Bangor High School students should be demanding to their school board members that the school begin using this incredible technology.

But I’ve got to go now, it’s 10:07 a.m. and there must be a teacher I have to call.

Renee Ordway can be contacted at rordway@bangordailynews.net.