This
is an older story, but did you hear about the father that sued
the school because his son was given homework to do over the summer?
Happened
last year. Here’s
a link to the full story.
As
the USA Today story points out, the case was ultimately
dismissed. But check out this quote from a
CBS article: “It didn’t completely ruin my
summer, but it did give me a lot of undue stress both at home
and at work. I just didn’t have the energy or the time for it.”
And
my response?
Welcome
to the world Peer… the real world… and since you aren’t a toddler,
it’s about time you learned it. There’s never enough time to get
things done.
I’m
trying to find the time and energy to edit and re-write my novel.
Unfortunately, the gutters need to be cleaned, the garage needs
to be painted, and there are leaves in my backyard I have to rake
up before I can get some more grass seed down. And then there’s
the work week. Geez, the work week. Speaking of which… I think
my work day should end after 8-hours, but I have a few assignments
that I need to finish off at home because I ran out of time while
at work. It’s all creating a lot of undue stress.
The argument that these are still children and it is the summer.
In certain angles, from certain views, if the proper argument
is created, I can understand the perspective Bruce Larson has
on that one. I fully disagree. But I could understand that.
Why?
Well,
in part because schools across the country are having troubles.
Did you hear about Oregon in the 2002-2003 school year? One article
(link no longer active) notes not only how Oregon looked at shortening
its school year to meet the budget, but also some other problems.
Here’s
another that not only goes over troubles in
Oregon and other states, but reviews some tuition increases at
colleges.
In
short, an education isn’t truly a right. Oh sure… it is in fact
a right… public schools are there and educations are provided.
But the staff to student ratios, the pay offered to teachers for
delivering such an important job, or even the ability to participate
in sports and other extracurricular activities is frightening.
A quality education is, in part, as much the responsibility of
the student as it is the school system. And part of that responsibility
might… just might… involve doing the work. Go figure.
So,
while I understand that summer assignments aren’t wonderful things…
there are far worse possibilities the Larsons could be facing.
Get over it. The fact is that to get the reward, you have to do
the work. So, either do the homework or organize other parents
and approach the school board. But don’t give the “whoa is me,
I lost my summer” story. The truth is that homework was assigned…
and both of you should be thankful it was.
~ ~
~ ~ ~
In
the early days of the In My Backpack web site, I was
trying several different ways to present material.
My
journal entries were referred to as “A Momentary Lapse…” for
a period of time, which eventually transitioned to “Are you
chewing gum?” for a bit. Eventually, after a few restarts, modifications,
and relaunches, the Now Playing area took over.
One
of occasional segments—appearing perhaps ten times a year or
so—was called Random Thoughts, which I described as…
Too
long for “A Momentary Lapse…”… Not enough for a full article…
Need to get them off my “ideas to work on” list…
This
essay was originally created and presented as a Random Thoughts
entry. I’m bringing it back as a From the Backpack offering
because I’m curious about the content and the effort. But, worth
noting, it may still seem a bit incomplete, needing more development,
and may or may not have gone through some additional edits and
re-writes beyond my usual finds when searching the archives.