Kids, cars and home electronics

[dorian gray]

Time for some education discussion.
Here in Nashville, the public schools are notoriously bad (I dont really even know what that means, tbh) so everyone clamors to get their kids into private schools...or just moves to one of the adjacent counties where schools dont suck. It's something completely and utterly foreign to me. Growing up, we lived down the street from the elementary school and I walked. Then I rode my bike to junior high and high school. All three schools were average at best. The idea of education being mega important wasn't even an issue. I dont even know if there *were* private schools in my hometown haha. And my parents definitely couldn't afford even the cheapest of one.
So the fact that my kids go to even a preschool is almost hilarious to me.

Enter the private lower school admission process: The wife and the boy had their first (and probably only haha) interview yesterday with a highfalutin school. There's a couple of amusing asides: first, I think I mentioned somewhere here on RC how the kids go to the same pre-school as Jack White's kid. Well, before the wife and boy left to go interview yesterday, I made a smart remark about how they'd probably see him and his kid there because they just *have* to do everything *we* do har dee har. So who does the wife have a little roundtable discussion with? Mrs. White. haha What are the odds? Fuckin Nashville. The second funny thing was that, according to the wife, when the boy was done with his hour-long "interview" he came into the headmistress's office where the wife was interviewing and proceeded to tap pieces of art with a pencil he was carrying. Then he proceeded to tap his own head with it. So, hopefully they'll either think he's a genius and can't be bothered with social norms OR think he's retarded and have compassion. It's a win either way.

One other interesting point is that the school costs $16000 a year.
SIXTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR.
SIXTEEN THOUSAND

that might be chump change to some of you rich fucks but that's what my bachelor's degree cost. And my master's is going to cost not much more than that. haha Two degrees for the cost of two years of private elementary school.

Well, young dads, prepare yourselves. Or perhaps you have good public schools where you live. Or perhaps you're loaded. Or perhaps you think private schools are gay.
Or perhaps *you're* gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[lurch70]

yeah, Private ones here are closer to $30K but you get to pick up your kids and rub elbows with hedge fund managers and then get stoned with them later (what one of my partners does)
so it's more of an "investment" for the parents as well. in Public schools you might hang with Pedro and have aroz con pollo at bday parties.

I also think that its not the schools that are bad, but the kids that attend them. if there is some way to teach your kids to not associate with fuckwads, the opportunity to learn IS there.

@ the "tapping"

 

[dorian gray]

I agree with everything you said.

The only "in" I have on this scene is my hot little chick friend from last summer who attended private school her whole life. She claims it "sucks" and it's "horrible" but she never went to public school so I can't really put too much stock in her comments.

haha, yeah, the boy is pretty funny. I wish I had been there for that.

 

[lurch70]

yeah from what I hear also is that private school going kids hate it too. not sure what it is, could be pressure, strict teachers, gay uniforms.
i don't know ... but to be honest i don't think I would have liked to have gone to one.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Fuck private school. wtf @ all that shit.

 

[lurch70]

i was always wondering about the "overprotective" part being a factor in the public school decision.
there is a catholic private school that I pass by sometime and the kids look just as whacked out and nuts once they hit the street as the public school ones.

bad influence will be there no matter where you send them.

as far as my end, from the looks of it right now, my daughter WILL BE the bad influence

 

[dorian gray]

public schools are pretty much shit.

edit: @ Ken

edit: @ two posts back. I'm a little slow today

 

[lurch70]

Ken's son will attend repo school part time

 

[dorian gray]

^hahahahahahahahaha

 

[Krilons Resa]

As far as I'm concerned, it's starts at home.

Also, as already stated, I agree that it's more of the actual fuckwads that are in the school rather than the school itself. Incompetent parents and the state/fed government entering out private familial affairs more and more. School seems to be progressing towards a social program.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Ken's son will attend repo school part time

(Re)possessing niggas' lunch monies.

 

[dorian gray]

I dunno. I just come from a wildly different background.

So do I.

There *is* a bit of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses thing going on, too. At least in this area. It's *extremely* annoying. Most people I know or are friends with are complete fucking ROBOTS. Yet, the other end of the spectrum is really unappealing to me. It's like there's no middle ground here. I think I'd have to move back to Averageville, Ohio to get what I want. And I dont know if I even want that anymore.

Also, I dont want to give the impression Im even in this socio-economic realm. I'm just telling stories. I dont have $16 left over, let alone 16 THOUSAND. The wife would have to work a full time job JUST to cover education expenses and fuck that.
The better idea for me is to move to one of the outlying counties and enjoy "good" public schools.

 

[lurch70]

of course it starts at home, and guess what ... rich parents have less time to be involved with their kids than ones with less means.
rich parents are busy working and maintaining their lifestyle, there's no time for playing house or reading stories.
babysitters and private school are made for that.

except dorian of course who is cut from a different cloth

 

[lurch70]

there is this area of Brooklyn called Park Slope ... it recently became so happening, all young familes, pushing strollers. all pretty well off as to live there is fucko expensive.
have a good friend that lives there with 2 twins (they were literally born a day before our daughter).

so anyway, tons of people, lots of kids, etc. she is telling us that the park they frequent with the kids she hasen't made one friend with another parent or kids. everyone is so into their own world or antisocia, or "better than thou" attitude that mixing it up is like zero.

i don't know where this story is going ...

 

[dorian gray]

thats sucks

all or most of the chicks in our circle of friends stay home with the kids which is fucking great. Shit, *I* only work three days a week. Our kids are SPOILED with parent interaction time. The wife's dad left the picture when she was 4 and mine had bi-polar disorder and was at work 70 hours a week so I either never saw him or he was in his basement rec room doing wierd bi-polar shit. Our kids are have experienced more at 5 and 2 than either of us did in our entire childhood.

But all the kids in our group go to either private schools or the two or three good public schools.....because some of them are rich as fuck. Or, like one couple, moved into their hood when you could still get shot on the corner and have lived there long enough to see it gentrify. The schools we are zoned for are bullshit. Nashvilles schools are really wierd. Its because of the desegregation debacle and subsequent white flight. Ghetto kids are bussed across the entire city - literally - to go to schools where the middle class white kids go. The white kids with the resources just simply fucking moved out. So, all thats left are people like me who hammer out an average living and refuse to live in 50 miles away from the city center and our kids are forced to go to school with the same kind of retards who made *my* life a living hell growing up.

 

[Ars Magna]

There is some truth to the fact that the "bad" schools will still provide an education...they will...if you are there for it. On the other hand, they don't always have the same quality of teacher as the "good" schools. I have a few friends that are either teaching now or have in the past few years and, for the most part, they say the same thing. When there are openings at the good schools, everyone wants it and the school can be much more selective. The bad schools often have to take what they can get whether it's because of funding or the fact that no one wants to work in a warzone where the bitchy, hot soccer mom is replaced with a strung out, hideous methhead that might stab you.

I went to private school through 8th grade (when I was kicked out). I really hated it at the time but, looking back, it was pretty great. Good lunches, nice equipment, etc. The uniforms sucked but made picking clothes a lot easier. :Smug:

 

[dorian gray]

It's about time you weighed in!

 

[dorian gray]

The bad schools often have to take what they can get whether it's because of funding of the fact that no one wants to work in a warzone where the bitchy, hot soccer mom is replaced with a strung out, hideous methhead that might stab you.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA

 

[Krilons Resa]

My future is flashing before my eyes.


FUCK.

 

[dorian gray]

Welcome to parenthood.
Start (or resume) doing drugs RIGHT NOW