Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Career Day

My sister had career day in school today. My mom and sister were both in attendence.

One of the speaker's stories went like this:

-I graduated an all girls school. I wanted to marry a kollel guy. I went to seminary and then to touro college. I found myself a kollel guy. All was well and perfect. It was exactly how we wanted it. I was so happy. Everything was going smoothly. I had a job as a morah. What made me get a real job, was when one day we went to the store and we realized diapers cost money! and then another day we realized Steak costs money! so we realized we couldn't sustain ourselves anymore so we both decided to become lawyers..."-

***

Interesting story, no? The story points out 2 things:
1- school, especially the BY, does not, at all, teach students anything about the "real world."
They should've been taught that things cost money. And they should've been told that money runs out, especially if not budgeted properly (I'm assuming they had enough simcha money, which was why they didn't feel the burden so much until after the baby came).

2- School should not be year round, because it doesn't teach anything about what real-life brings anyway.

***
I do have to put the positive in ...
The lady and her hubby learned their lesson and they aren't the type to encourage kollel on their kids, because they know better. :-)

18 comments:

fave commenter said...

:)
there was another speech there that I assume u heard about...?

frumskeptic said...

possibly maybe... lol. I heard of a few, none that were worth blog space...

but which are you talking about? the pants w/ nursing??

Mikeinmidwood said...

Frumskeptic

You can wear a skirt and be a nurse, not against the rules

frumskeptic said...

mim- lol lol.
thats why i didn't add it to the post..no biggy.
what happened is s/t like this: a nurse mom went up to talk about nursing, and one girl was like "our teacher said yesterday that we shouldn't be nurses because we'd have to wear pants"

and the principal flipped out, because apparently the school is very nurse friendly, and that was a completely stupid comment on the teachers part, for the reason you stated about skirts being acceptible.

%Shocked% said...

"They should've been taught that things cost money. And they should've been told that money runs out, especially if not budgeted properly (I'm assuming they had enough simcha money, which was why they didn't feel the burden so much until after the baby came)."

Lol!!!! I love it!! Who would've thought that things cost money?? The real pathetic part of the story is that this girl needed real life to teach her that diapers cost money and couldn't figure it out on her own. Do I need my school 'teaching me' that money comes and goes??? Did they never hear their parents tell them 'No, you can't have this. It's too expensive.'?? Honestly.

frumskeptic said...

shocked- lollol. where do parents come into the equation if the kids are in school all day and the older ones are the ones watching the younger ones.

%Shocked% said...

haha! cute.. how about the eldest? somewhere along the line, someone was told 'no, it's too expensive.' Parents, siblings, grandparents, etc, doesn't matter. that girl, pardon me saying so, was an idiot. don't blame the school for the parent's inability to teach their children common sense.

chaimsmom said...

I'm with shocked. It's the parents' job to teach kids about money, budgeting, etc. My son receives a weekly allowance and has been taught to divide it into thirds: long term savings, saving for a major purchase, and weekly spending money.

frumskeptic said...

shocked and chaims mom-

I didn't say it was the schools job, I said this is wh school shouldn't be year round (referring to previous post) because it doesn't teach practical stuff. I happen to agree its the parents job. but there plenty of people in both the frum and secular community who have no clue how to handle money until tey find themselves deep in debt with no way out- cuz the parents don't teach.

mlevin said...

Chaimsmom - but all you are teaching is how to alocate the existing flow of money. This still doesn't teach your childr that money flow is not continuous (unless you are Paris Hilton) and it eventually stops unless your son figures out how to create another way to supplement that flow.

Did you hear the latest news from California. It's in such a bad shape that they are considering cutting down on foodstamps and other government programs for the poor. New York is not trailing far behind California. How would all the kollel couples survive if their main source of income (government handouts) is slashed?

chaimsmom said...

I don't see the connection between summer vacation and teaching practical stuff. I teach my son practical stuff year round.

mlevin - My son has already figured out that his ten bucks a week allowance isn't going to be sufficient, especially when mom makes him save half. And he learned about the mercurial world of finance when he planned to shovel driveways this winter to earn extra money and it hardly snowed at all.

frumskeptic said...

chaimsmom- I referd to the post because there was a person who commenetd somehting like "real life doesn't grant the kids the schedule".
my point was school doesn't teach for real life. its a place for book education.

mlevin said...

Chaimsmom - so, all you are proving is that you are a good parent and you are teaching your son that money doesn't continue on flowing indefinitely and etc. This particular mother wasn't taught that by her parents. She wasn't aware of it, until she went to the store and realized that she doesn't have enough... and she was already a mother by that time.

"I don't see the connection between summer vacation and teaching practical stuff. I teach my son practical stuff year round."

Again, you are teaching practical stuff, but as evidenced by this post, other parents do not. Many parents rely on schools to educate their children in all matters. They want school day to be longer and with fewer day offs in between. This way they don't have to be bothered. Try paying attention how often parents complain about yet another day off or about are happy that vacation is finally over and children will be out of their hair again. What about parents who support school on Sundays by pointing out that otherwise their children would just be in a way. Do you really think these parents teach practical things to their children? No, they just see children as another burden to be dealt with like dust and dirty dishes.

Anonymous said...

how old is your sister?

frumskeptic said...

HS age

SubWife said...

MLevin, not all kollel couples are receiving government assistance.

Terree said...

how was this couple able to get into college following their respective by/yeshiva ketana secular studies experience? to me, that is the amazing part of this story.

Ookamikun said...

Only regular nurses are allowed to wear skirts. Pretty sure that surgical nurses are not.

Don't start about the diapers. And the formula is even worse.

Terree, there are Jewish friendly law schools like Hofstra where you get credits for being in kollel. Also, private schools care more about the money then what you did before.

SubWife, the only ones who aren't are the Russian ones who like to be honest.