American Education

Great Googa-Mooga!

I just left a seminar at the office on 529 College Savings Funds. Do you have any idea how much they expect it to cost for a 4-year college when my son gets to that age? $155,000!!! The guy running the seminar suggested that we all needed to save at least $800/month to pay for our children's education. After we all stopped laughing at him (which took about 5 full minutes!) He changed tack and went for the "anything you put aside is good" approach. Who the hell can afford to put aside the kind of cash these "investment experts" recommend for college and retirement? (Other than the folks who have so much money they don't need to save for either one!) It's ridiculous. The last guys we had in recommended that I needed to put $1,500 per month into my 401k to meet my retirement needs. I (kindly) explained to him that I wouldn't need a retirement fund if I followed his advice. I'd starve to death long before I reached retirement age! Idiots.

Much done in the writing/editing departments! I did a solid 20 pages of redline on GS (that stands for "Godslayer" by the way. Lee pointed out that I might not have mentioned that.) as well as about 1,200 words of write-in for another chapter. (Yea, I know I said I was done with that but . . .) I did a lot of the re-read and line editing on "Fish" as well; about 50 pages worth. "Fish" is reading even better than I thought it would (so far) and I like what I have but it surely is some depressing stuff. I'm a little worried it's "over the top" at some points, but I'll let the Crit Circle tell me that when it's done.

So the boy came home upset from school yesterday. He got his semester grade for Spanish and it was the lowest grade he's ever gotten: a seventy-seven. He was terrified he was going to be killed (we had a small explosion by the wife earlier in the year when he only got an 86 in science!) and was on the verge of tears. He didn't know what to do because the whole foreign language thing is not working for him. It just isn't clicking and he doesn't know why. I had a long talk with him and explained that he (for once!) would actually have to work at this class. All his other classes are a cake-walk for him. I don't think he's ever had to actually study anything in his life and his grades average out in the high 90's consistently (though maybe not this semester after that Spanish grade!) Instead of flipping out on him (I called the wife at work and warned her in advance so she didn't wig out when he told her) I offered to sit with him and help him study for 1/2 hour each night after he finishes his homework. He was thrilled by the idea and we promptly set to it. (In all honesty, I think he was more thrilled with the fact that he didn't get his head handed to him than the increased study time!)

The wife and I have very different approaches to these types of situations. She thinks that coming down hard on him and punishment will keep him motivated. I disagree. I figure; the boy's got fantastic grades in general and a little bit of help and some patience will do the trick. In fairness to the wife, my son can really be a first class slacker when he wants to be. Sometimes a swift kick in the ass is all that works. I don't think so in this case though. He's real proud of his school grades and he was genuinely upset at the grade so I talked it over with the wife and we went with the soft sell on this one. I prefer that approach. I remember my folks pulling the whole roof down on my head when I brought in bad grades and it never worked. All it did was make me beligerent and resentful. (Okay, even more so than I normally was at that age!) So in the end it means I get to study Spanish every night with the boy. Should be fun, considering I never had a Spanish class in my life! (I was one of those Latin geeks! Eram, Eras, Erat, Eramis, Eratis, Erant!) Damned if I'm not even sure that is correct anymore!

Ah well, age catches us all don't it? And all the useless crap we were taught in school fades away. Which makes me think: I am a writer (of sorts!) and I have never had a single instance in my life where I have found a use for diagramming sentences or parsing a verb. I mean, if writers have no use for such crap, who does? Anyone out there? No? Then why the hell are we wasting time teaching this crap to our kids? How about we ditch it in favor of some more time with math and science, or even just some more time spent READING! Ah well, that's my rant for today. Short and sweet.

Later!