21st Century Dad » education

Bad Grades. No Job For You! Melodrama Ensues.

21st Century Dad — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:07:38 +0000

No matter how sincere you are when you say “he’s a good kid,” they still frustrate you at times. Teens aren’t concerned with making the right choices. They want to make their choices, even if it means doing something to their own detriment. The worst consequences of such choices are far more preferable to them than saying, “Mom. Dad. You were right.”

Au-Teen has been chomping at the bit to get a job. To a teenager, money = freedom. However, we’re not going to allow him to get a job while his grades languish in sub-mediocrity. Indignation is the ineffective weapon he has chosen to fight this. He’s getting totally creamed in this battle and he doesn’t like it.

His long-held belief that any idiot can get a job bagging groceries is being challenged by two people who supposedly know nothing about life as a teenager. If any idiot can get that job, why should he have to earn better grades in school?

As responsible parents, we cannot allow it. No reasonable adult, with or without children, will refute our stance. Why are we at an impasse? We’re not dealing with a reasonable adult here.

Renee and I backed off just a little to gain some ground. In lieu of tutoring or getting extra help at school, he angrily answered the challenge of improving his grades through independent study.

We usually see reruns of Au-Teen’s histrionics. Today, we saw a new episode. He stormed up to his room and proclaimed, “Alright! You win! I’m a nerd now!”

It’s always exhausting when dealing with teenage melodrama. This time, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Big Business Creates Jobs… and Small Businesses

admin — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:41:52 +0000

In a recent speech by Florida State Senator Senator Jeremy Ring, he asserted the importance of teaching entrepreneurial skills and engendering that spirit. Much of his discussion also covered businesses coming to South Florida to diversify our economy. Make us less dependent on real estate development to drive the economy here. His assertion is that entrepreneurial activity, not big businesses coming to South Florida, will spur the growth we seek.
On October 17th, 2007, Ikea made its grand appearance in South Florida. One more “big box” store makes its audacious statement. The first jobs created are easy to spot. They are the workers required to staff such an operation. Inside, you will find a retail store with over 10,000 items, a cafe, a food market, a warehouse, and a child-care facility. The next set of jobs are created by the businesses that spring up in support of and feeding off of the big store. Large scale businesses do create jobs, but do they create businesses? Do they spawn children? Some do. Many don’t.
Ikea furniture requires assembly. They don’t offer the service, but they refer you to a company that performs the service. Ikea could easily offer assembly. It would create jobs, but it takes away an entrepreneurial opportunity. This is what Senator Ring was talking about! New companies are started to meet the demand for furniture assembly. Someone else may be inclined toward offering design and decorating services. Ikea’s arrival created these opportunities.

Where is the parenting lesson here? If you want to encourage your children to become entrepreneurs, you need to be aware of what’s going on out there. I’m not saying that you should tell your children to become furniture assemblers. You need to show them that it is possible to seize opportunity. The beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur is, your opportunities aren’t just found. You can make them for yourself too.

In Florida, and I imagine in most states, a child who is 14 or older is eligible to work. For the past several years, it has been one of Austin’s top gripes in life. The shorthand he developed is to say, “child labor laws,” with frustration seasoned with a hint of sarcasm. Then we know it’s time to change the subject of the conversation before his mood degrades even further.

I’ve suggested a few suitable entrepreneurial ventures. He didn’t bite on any of them. Nevertheless, these opportunities are available. A teen ineligible to work in corporate America can help people optimize their MySpace pages, mow lawns, wash cars, play online games and sell the characters for profit, and so many other things to subvert the dominant paradigm here.

The Government and Your Child’s Education

admin — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:49:00 +0000

I attended the Partners In Education luncheon today. The guest speaker, Florida State Senator Jeremy Ring, spoke about the state of education today, the implications of approving casinos and gambling, the insurance crisis, the property tax situation, and the growth of our economy. None of this interested me until I became a dad.

Things going on at the local and state governments have a profound effect on our children. There is always legislative activity related to children and education. However, anything related to taxes will effect education too!

Some of the highlights of Senator Ring’s speech:

• Tax reform, especially in the form of cuts, takes money away from schools… in the short term.
• Casinos create jobs in the community and revenue for the government. They also bring their share of problems.
• We must shift our emphasis in education toward math, the sciences, social skills, and entrepreneurial skills.
• The kids are smarter than the teachers.
• The teachers are smarter than the administrators.
• The administrators are smarter than the government.

Florida’s economy isn’t based on tourism. It’s based on real estate development. Florida’s economy ebbs and flows with the real estate market. South Florida has experienced unprecedented growth over the past several years. Homeowner’s insurance premiums followed the same steep climb as home prices. The people are crying out for tax reform in the form of relief. I don’t envy Senator Ring’s situation. He’s going to make a lot of people happy and angry at the same time, no matter what he does.

What does gambling have to do with education? Gaming lobbyists often tout the tax dollars that will come in, and invariably they offer funding for schools as part of their package. On the surface, it sounds great. Who wouldn’t want more money to be injected into our schools’ budgets? But as it is in Vegas, the house always wins.

I’m not 100% on board with Senator Ring’s assertion that we need to put more emphasis on math and the sciences. My bias is for the arts. I was overcome with validation when he spoke of social skills. He did his stint in Silicon Valley where met plenty of people with high level technical skills, high level degrees, but no social skills. These were the employees he hid from the clients. I really warmed up to him when he said he knew people who never went to college, but had people skills. These were the people he felt comfortable sending off to meet any Fortune 500 CEO.

Senator Ring went on to say that the next Google or the next [legal] Napster is sitting in a classroom today. Real estate is old news. Home grown enrepreneurs are what this and every community need to prosper.