The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
By Bill Connell.
The dad of a childhood friend, Mr, Kennedy, was approaching me in the frozen food aisle as I was shopping with my one year old daughter. He smiled and said “You are one of us now.” Twenty five years later, I am waiting for him to knock on my door and hand me an AARP card and say the same thing.
As 2022 closes I have much to be thankful for. Covid is still lurking, but I had many chances to just enjoy my over-50 life, including the little girl in the shopping cart getting married. I got to go to Disney World and watch young parents’ struggle. When done correctly parenting is a lot of work. That’s what my wife tells me anyway.
Being in this reflective mood, a campaign sign saying “Education not Indoctrination” struck me. I held on to the thought because I didn’t want it to be a campaign letter for the opponents. My thoughts are about parenting in general and the long, long road it is.
It is not new religion for me to say I worry that public education is trying to do too much. You can go back 10 years and find it on video. Public education is a gift. It seems going to school, learn something, go home and do your homework is a foreign concept. Just do your job. It is a struggle not to become the “get off my lawn” guy sometimes.
That said, relax young parents. If you think your kids are being indoctrinated, then you don’t have enough faith in yourself and your parenting. I can tell you I have grown as a person because my house was filled with discussions of things my kids taught me. That is the fun. I sometimes say wrong things just to see what they come back with. My kids are not short on opinions, but due to the broad spectrum of things they were exposed to, I know they are based in some sort of fact. When they went to college they were not surprised by the spectrum of people and ideas. It’s a long road and school is just part of it. Sort it out with your kids and they can decide what things they want to value and keep.
