A New Perspective...

Whenever I get too frustrated at my kids over school stuff, I should just remember this...

Yesterday, one of our neighbors came over to introduce her new baby to us.  They are a younger couple who are quite poor.  They live in the duplex across the street in a run down 2 bedroom apartment with 3 small children.  Her parents are our next door neighbors.  I am more comfortable having the parents as neighbors now that we have central air (instead of the swamp cooler in the dining room window that pulled their cigarette smoke into our house).  Don't get me wrong.  They are good, simple people.  I just can't stand smoke!

Anyways, while chatting about this and that, they (both the older mother and daughter were visiting) asked what grade Will was in.  When we mentioned he was in 8th, the young mother said, "Oh.  That's when I dropped out."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

The older mother then piped in verifying that fact!  She let both her daughters drop out of school!

The younger mother commented about going over to the high school one day and deciding that it wasn't for her. 

Holy cow.

She never went to high school.

She doesn't even have a driver's license.

Oh, my heart aches for that little baby girl!  She is such a beautiful baby!  But what chance does she have to rise out of poverty in a household where the mom and possibly the dad are junior high/high school dropouts?!  At BEST, only the dad is a high school graduate. What about their little boy, for that matter?  He is a holy terror already at the age of four!  Their oldest is 6 or 7, but she is so mentally and physically handicapped that she will never function is society.  That is another sad story.

Supposedly, the #1 contributing factor to the level of education achieved by the children of any household is the education level of THE MOTHER.


So.

I am grateful that my kids know that is not an option is this house!  A high school diploma is the bare MINIMUM required of them.  I hope they will not be satisfied to stop there, either!  There is a whole world of knowledge out there.  I cannot even imagine how foggy and incomplete that young woman's mind must be.

To those who would say that formal education is overrated...

You can either get your education from a school of higher learning, or the school of hard knocks.

The choice is yours.