School Homing

School Homing

 

Now there's a term for ya! Instead'a home schooling where the parents keep their kids at home an' teach them the basics of education along with moral an' social values, they've turned it around an' now the teachers teach the students the basics of social graces as well as their school lessons. Hm, that sounds a whole lot like boardin' school or even worse and more accurately, residential school.

What's bothersome about that whole concept is that while children have been goin' to Ivy League boardin' schools for years and years with varying results, and others have been forced into residential schools with a high average of disastrous outcomes, this whole idea aims directly at the middle class.

It kind of looks like a cash grab on the part of the schools, for a ready market of frazzled parents desperate to get away from their (beloved) children, except for holidays - aka respite.

It's one thing to zero in on the middle class for a new way to make a buck, but they could be doin' a much better job of it. I remember jokin' to my son Ron a number of years ago that all the world's children should be centrally housed in government buildin's, with parental visitin' privileges once a week for a couple of hours. That would prompt a mutual appreciation of one another without the stress of actual parentin'. Of course he had the opposite view that perhaps parents could be similarly housed.

Let's face it. Every woman wants to exercise her maternal right to bear children an' I'm NOT gonna talk about what men think their rights are. But once the pain of childbirth kicks in and even more so, when the little critters come home fillin' the house with loud cryin' an' dirty diapers for a week or so, the whole dynamic changes -dramatically. Factor in grandmas an' grandpas spoilin' the kids, the cost of clothin' music lessons, computer crap an' a whole list o' so ons, it all becomes a pretty bleak picture.

If only they can figure out a proper code of conduct an' moral education, the parents can still claim to be parents (while payin' through the nose) an' yet follow their career an' life paths as fulfilled individuals. Jeez, we must be dreamin', or at least that's how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin'.