It All Depends on How You Look at It


As we go into the holiday season between Thanksgiving and the new year, I get the feeling that life is a roller coaster and I can't stop or slow it. I was thinking that in some ways, now that I have children, that roller coaster never stops or slows. I realize that my children are in 7th and 9th grade and my years of insanity are more than half over, but the remaining years loom as a terror in some ways. It will be at least 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years before both my children are driving themselves and meeting their own obligations. It doesn't seem very long but, right now, it seems like forever to me.

It occurred to me that maybe we are pushing too much into life and perhaps part of the reason we face so many problems in our world is that we don't seem to ever have the time to stop and see the roses let alone stop and smell them. They fly by in a blur. As the play title says, "Stop the world, I want to get off!!!"

Think about this. My children are up at 6:20 am in order to catch their buses to school. Now that they are in different schools, my taking them in the morning saves no time. We all would have had to get up that early in order for me to leave in time to get them to school in time. That seemed like a waste of gas and my time, so it's the bus for them. They get home about 3:15 pm.

Let's say they are really wonderful and get their afternoon snack eaten by 3:30 pm. My 7th grader has a reading disability which slows him down when he does his work. If he was absolutely perfect, he would still not be able to finish his homework until at least 6:00-6:30 pm. He truly does have that much. My 9th grader should have that much, but that is another subject. So, the point is, homework takes until dinner time.

Now, supposing dinner is on the table at 6:30 pm and finished, kitchen cleaning included, by 7:30 pm. That seems very fast to me, but let's just do that for the sake of my point which is shortly to be made. Let's pretend that showers and bed preparation follow immediately. It is reasonable to give a person about 30 minutes to shower, lay out the next day's clothes, brush teeth, and do whatever other little tasks there are to get ready for the end of the day. Now, that takes us until 8:00 pm.

The copyright of the article It All Depends on How You Look at It in Redefining Education is owned by R. L. Head. Permission to republish It All Depends on How You Look at It in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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