29. Education at home
First of all rest assured that I am proud of myself.
And that I understand if you stop reading after you found out what this post is about.
Because, let me face it, most of you are parents or/and teachers or have had some kind of experience in both these fields. Nieces and nephews, help with homeschooling the neighbours' brat, etc.
You all think education is important.
I hesitated before writing this post. Thinking no, I am not ready to accept such a failure. Then thinking, yes, I could write this. There is no such thing as failure. Mere stumbling blocks. And each time you get over a block, you are further up the mountain side.
But then again ... this is different. This is about being on top of the mountain, queen of the world, ruler of an empire! And then just giving in...
I have excluded my own son from my own school-at-home system.
For a week.
My son has schoolwork. So he needs his screens (yes, plural, don't ask). I want him to do his work so I give him his screens (plural, don't ask). My son is happy to have his screens and he starts to play or to watch Peaky Blinders (with the code from cousin Tom who got it from his other cousin because his mum had broken his PS4). He has a good time and forgets about his work. I forget about my son (I have a blog to write and a job to do). My son has a great time when I forget and so he also forgets about his schoolwork. Everyone is happy. Everyone? No, not everyone! My son's teachers are not happy! They write to me to say that the work is not being done.
'Here we go again!' I say. 'This time, that's it, I am taking your iPad and your phone. You can share the family computer downstairs if you want to work. But you don't care so you won't. And you know what? I don't care either!'
This has very little effect on him as he knows this story as well as I know the above. It's always the same one. But this time I mean business.
I add a lengthy lecture about the poor children that want to work and don't have the equipment and the poor children that are hungry and him asking for burgers when the fridge is full of spinach and brocoli. And about the poor children who have to work because they could not go to school and would my son like to go and pick tea in the hills of Sri Lanka - bare feet? This has very little effect on him as he has heard the lectures before but it has a positive effect on me. I feel I am educating my son, I am teaching him life lessons. Since I am going to ban him from other kind of lessons.
So for one entire week he fooled around, moaned and groaned and grunted (he's turning into a man), walked the dog, played basketball, baked triple chocolate brownies and gooey caramel popcorn (that made the dog sick), watched movies on the television downstairs but did NO school work. Then the teachers were wondering what the matter was (a teacher's son!) and why my son was not online anymore. Came the difficult part, telling them that he was fine, really, but that he had been excluded from the homeschooling system of his mother by his mother. But I reassured them that the following Monday he would be back 'in school'.
At least this time nothing went in the bin. (Find out tomorrow what did)
Any resemblance to real persons or other real-life entities is purely coincidental. All characters and other entities appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, dead or alive, or other real-life entities, past or present, is purely coincidental.
And that I understand if you stop reading after you found out what this post is about.
Because, let me face it, most of you are parents or/and teachers or have had some kind of experience in both these fields. Nieces and nephews, help with homeschooling the neighbours' brat, etc.
You all think education is important.
I hesitated before writing this post. Thinking no, I am not ready to accept such a failure. Then thinking, yes, I could write this. There is no such thing as failure. Mere stumbling blocks. And each time you get over a block, you are further up the mountain side.
But then again ... this is different. This is about being on top of the mountain, queen of the world, ruler of an empire! And then just giving in...
I have excluded my own son from my own school-at-home system.
For a week.
My son has schoolwork. So he needs his screens (yes, plural, don't ask). I want him to do his work so I give him his screens (plural, don't ask). My son is happy to have his screens and he starts to play or to watch Peaky Blinders (with the code from cousin Tom who got it from his other cousin because his mum had broken his PS4). He has a good time and forgets about his work. I forget about my son (I have a blog to write and a job to do). My son has a great time when I forget and so he also forgets about his schoolwork. Everyone is happy. Everyone? No, not everyone! My son's teachers are not happy! They write to me to say that the work is not being done.
'Here we go again!' I say. 'This time, that's it, I am taking your iPad and your phone. You can share the family computer downstairs if you want to work. But you don't care so you won't. And you know what? I don't care either!'
This has very little effect on him as he knows this story as well as I know the above. It's always the same one. But this time I mean business.
I add a lengthy lecture about the poor children that want to work and don't have the equipment and the poor children that are hungry and him asking for burgers when the fridge is full of spinach and brocoli. And about the poor children who have to work because they could not go to school and would my son like to go and pick tea in the hills of Sri Lanka - bare feet? This has very little effect on him as he has heard the lectures before but it has a positive effect on me. I feel I am educating my son, I am teaching him life lessons. Since I am going to ban him from other kind of lessons.
So for one entire week he fooled around, moaned and groaned and grunted (he's turning into a man), walked the dog, played basketball, baked triple chocolate brownies and gooey caramel popcorn (that made the dog sick), watched movies on the television downstairs but did NO school work. Then the teachers were wondering what the matter was (a teacher's son!) and why my son was not online anymore. Came the difficult part, telling them that he was fine, really, but that he had been excluded from the homeschooling system of his mother by his mother. But I reassured them that the following Monday he would be back 'in school'.
At least this time nothing went in the bin. (Find out tomorrow what did)
Any resemblance to real persons or other real-life entities is purely coincidental. All characters and other entities appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, dead or alive, or other real-life entities, past or present, is purely coincidental.
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