Day 166: Think before you pull out your wallet parents

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 166: Think before you pull out your wallet parents

My friends and I got together the other day. Alice was not in a good mood, in fact, she was fuming mad.

“Get this,” she came straight to the point, “Margaret’s maternity leave is almost finished, and she doesn’t want to go back to work. She wants to be a stay at home mom. She’s a qualified chartered accountant and now she wants to quit her job!”

“Do what I did,” Victoria said, placing a calming hand on Alice’s arm. “The very same thing happened with my eldest daughter Cindy. She studied law, passed the bar exam and got hired by one of the big law firms of Toronto. A month later she and Eric got married and three months after that she got pregnant. When it was almost time to go back to work, she announced that she wasn’t going to, that she was going to be a stay at home mom.”

I said “That’s fine honey, but I invested in your future by paying your tuition, amounting to close to $200,000. Now you have a choice, you either go back to work or you are going to pay me back. I won’t charge you interest, but if you’re gonna throw your future away, I want that $200,000 to be paid back to me. And not with $20 a month, we’ll set up a payment plan. We make the amount payable over 10 years, which will amount to $1,666 per month.”

She started laughing and wondered where in the world she was going to get $1,666 a month. I said, “Well honey, that’s your problem. But that’s how it is.”

When she saw I wasn’t joking, that I was in fact deadly serious she wasn’t laughing anymore. When her maternity leave finished, she returned to work. Problem solved.”

I don’t have that problem with my daughter, Angela,” Maggie piped up. “I wouldn’t mind a grandchild, but when I talked to Ruby about it she was having none of it. “Do you think I put myself through university, studied my ass off and worked two jobs just to chuck it all away in a kid?” she said. “Forget it, mom.”

It seems to me that the problem lies with the parents. If mommy and daddy pay for tuition the son or daughter is more likely to chuck their career at the first opportunity than if the student pays out of his or her own pocket. They know what it took to get where they are and are more likely to appreciate it. 

Think before you pull out your wallet parents!

Day 31: The importance of teachers

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 31: The importance of teachers

More and more families decide to homeschool their children. The majority justifies their action by voicing a concern of the school environment, while others chose to homeschool because of religious reasons or because the child has special needs.  While the motivation might be well intended, parents often forget the importance of teachers.

Why are teachers important?

The Board of Education claims that a primary school teacher holds the most important job in the world.  A teacher is a trained professional, able to deal with all kinds of children and situations. A teacher passes on knowledge and values to her class of young students and prepares them for higher education and life in the workplace. 

The role of the teacher

Teaching gifted students is easy, stimulating ordinary students and leading them to excellence is quite another.  A good teacher sparks the interest of her students, tickles their curiosity and motivates them to work.

The role of the teacher in class

Teachers, whether in elementary or high school, do more than stand in front of a class and deliver a lecture.  Many will claim that teaching isn’t so much a profession as it is a calling.

They influence their students with their commitment, competence, and character. 

They transfer their morals and ethics to their students and stimulate them to learn. 

Good teachers encourage students to participate in lessons, seeks their opinion and use student’s feedback to make the lessons more effective and fun. 

The role of the teacher in school

While teachers are first and foremost facilitators who transfer their knowledge in a particular subject to their students, they take on other roles too.

They are role models who show kindness and good manners to those around them.

They instill the right attitude in students to learn.

They provide guidance to students who need help and support them along the way.

They are confidants to students with problems.  While schools generally have a guidance teacher, many students prefer to entrust a teacher they know with their problems.

Teachers are often instrumental in a student’s career choice.

A good teacher has a way of communicating with parents and encourages them to be involved in their child’s education.

A teacher’s role in society

Being a role model, a teacher should behave impeccably in everyday life.  While everybody deserves to relax and let their hair down, swearing in public, or rude or drunken behavior can ruin a teacher’s reputation. The teacher never knows who is watching. A single misstep can ruin a carefully build up career.

Unless a child is homeschooled by a teacher or professor, it misses out on all these advantages. Not only that, a homeschooled child doesn’t learn any social skills in dealing with other children. In many ways, going to school prepares a child for a working environment in adult life.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Is that fake falcon meant to scare me?

 
Pigeons are smart birds. If anyone doubts this, just watch them downtown Toronto.

Ryerson University has placed two fake falcons on the ledge of their building to keep the pigeons away. So far this has worked, but something tells me this is about to change.
Today I watched a small flock of pigeons looking for a place to land at Ryerson University. Most of them flew away when spotting the falcon and settled at a neighboring building, but one of them felt brave (or lucky). He spotted the two falcons, circled around one of them a few times, then gathered up all his courage and plonked himself next to one.

Then he sat there, looking at the fake falcon, not quite sure what this make of this motionless bird. He crept a little closer, gaining confidence but still not trusting the predator.
After traipsing back and forth a bit, with no reaction from the falcon, the pigeon lowered his head and cast a sideways glance.
He clearly didn’t understand the bird. As a predator he was supposed to show an interest, but not only did he tolerate a pigeon next to him but he ignored the easy pry’s entertainment.

My guess is, if this pigeon figured out that the falcon is fake then so will others and in that case Ryerson University’s security system against pigeons is blown. If word gets out about the fake falcons they’ll be the laughing stock of the bird world.

In Scarborough one of the pigeons went a step further.
In one of the yards of the houses next to the RT railway the residents have placed a pole with a fake falcon at the top. Instead of scaring the pigeons away, the falcon has become a resting place for the birds as I noticed a pigeon sitting on top of the fake falcon.

Fake falcons ... humans are so stupid thinking the pigeons are gonna fall for that one. Don't they know how smart pigeons are? They have eyes, they have a brain, they'll figure it out and then watch out humans ... their revenge will be sweet.