PLANNED IGNORANCE? NOT SO FAST

Planned ignorance is not a plan for everyone.

Parents who complain about teachers when little Jimmy gets a bad report card?

It’s not Jimmy’s fault and don’t you dare say it is; don’t even think it.

And it’s not the parents’ fault. Just ask them.

Better yet, check with parents whose kids are just starting.

So I did. Here’s what I found:

Young parents are setting their kids up to succeed in school by building a study hall, a room or corner, that challenges young minds like school, but without the school part.

They make learning fun. It’s all right there when the mood hits.

Instead of creating doubt about what kids don’t know, the careful parent creates anticipation for all they will learn.

This is where the experts start talking about the developing brain, which is a good talk.

But it’s mostly restricted to investigating the developing brain in kids, when young parents suffer all of the headaches.

Let’s step back a moment so I can reassure you I’m not that expert, but I did have those headaches as a young parent.

Having kids in the late 80’s and early 90’s meant finding daycare.

Living in SE Portland meant looking around inner SE Portland, which had its own learning curve.

While NW Portland was getting the upscale treatment inner SE was picking up the slack with lower rent and more room.

I’ve been a fan of low rent and more space all my life, but inner SE with a wife and kid didn’t hit the same as single dude living cheap.

There were certain expectations, at least I felt certain expectations.

We didn’t live in a slum, as such, but one neighbor house had steel grating over their windows with a door that looked like a bank vault.

Another neighbor mowed his yard when it started getting dark, whether it needed it or not.

I heard a warning about walking around the block after midnight because that’s when the local pit bull went on patrol.

After a young woman left the bar three blocks down with a guy in van, then jumped/got pushed out in front of my place and died after smacking a telephone pole we decided to move.

We had expectations of living in a more settled neighborhood in 1990.

 

Don’t Accept Planned Ignorance

Parents who build a learning environment into the normal activities of daily life for their kids are way ahead of the game.

They won’t need someone to explain their kids to them.

Whether Jimmy is ahead or behind in his class, Mom and Dad will be ahead of the curve.

Letters, numbers, words, math, ready, go.

The best results come from parents who understand and appreciate the role of education in their own lives.

I brag about my Portland State University degree every chance I get.

Some people ask why, like my wife, to whom I respond with:

 

“Finishing a degree in 1991 that I started on in 1973 is a journey unlike any other. I could have waited and graduated with the kids, but I’ve seen that story. 

I could’ve waited until I was 70 and snatched up my diploma and held it over my head like a trophy.

Instead I endured the hardships of mid-day classes, night classes, any classes that fit the schedule of a young parent with a full-time job and a mortgage.

 

It was a long haul, I won’t lie.

What spurred me on, besides a wife and kids who needed to know daddy gets things done, was the timing.

Academia, even Portland State, which local freshman called Grade 13, changes the requirements for graduating.

The change in catalog meant classes I’d paid for and passed would be dropped from my total hours.

I took that personally.

After I dropped out of Southern Oregon to join the Army, then dropped out of Oregon to chase around Delaware and Brooklyn, I still expected PSU to add my classes to the graduation requirement of total hours.

They took most of them, but the changing catalogue meant some of the allowed would be disallowed.

If I thought I was getting screwed by high tuition, I’d be getting double-screwed by losing those high tuition classes and paying for more at even higher tuition.

I finished with a vengeance, which I believe is the proper approach to higher education, and lower.

If you understand this, then you can understand that. When you understand this and that you’re ready for the big stuff.

 

1 + 1 = 2

I’m in the catbird seat these days with an unparalleled view of world events on the big stage and a granddad view of the smaller things.

If I were a childless man-crone, or a bitter old incel, I’d likely have no view of the smaller lives around me, which would make me more susceptible to things man-crones and bitter incels do, which is piss and moan about the decline of decency, the absence of manners, and the better examples young people should be looking up to.

That’s a big picture view of world events, an interpretation for those who need to be told what is, and what isn’t crap even when it looks and smells and, and, and, “Don’t believe what you see.”

Okay?

Not so fast, pilgrim.

Young parents see the flim-flammery of spending on education.

They understand how hard it must be for kids trying to catch up with the class, and those waiting on the next assignment.

They see the challenges ahead from a micro point of view.

How will it all work out? I’ll tell you:

It will all work out together by lifting the low students, challenging the talented and gifted, and keeping the rest too busy to tear the place down.

The children of young parents today will look back with pride at the way their ma and pa ignored the noise and static of the times and instead focused on the main task at hand: raising better children who will grow into better adults who know the difference between shit and shinola.

 

The goal of the (education) department, according to its mission statement, is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”

 

PS: Learning new things is fun at any age.

PSS: Everything is new to kids.