The Cruel School

Tough luck, kids. That goes for your parents, too. Oh, ya, let’s not forget your teachers, the ones who will still have a job. You may not understand the word “transparency” but it has no meaning in this instance anyway.

Face it, boys and girls, education is just too darned expensive – you’ll just have to make do with what’s left over from the budget cuts set forth by the Hernando County School Board. Your quality of learning will be hit hard but you’re not likely to realize it until you find yourself at a disadvantage if you should actually graduate with an honorable grade point average and try to make it on your own in the job market. It will be even more of a challenge if you venture outside the state of Florida where education is already considered one of worst in the nation.

Yep, hard economic times put hardships on everybody’s backs. Eventually, Mom and Dad might have to taxi your little bodies to school if school bus routes are reduced or eliminated. You might find yourself hoofin’ it, wearing down the tread on your sneakers.

You would have to be very careful walking to school because there aren’t always sidewalks or sufficient street lighting, so wear bright colors and reflectors (that’s cool!) and a helmet with a flashing red light. Safety first.

But don’t worry, little ones. Mom and Dad won’t put you such danger. Either they or some other adult will make sure you’re not in harm’s way because they love you so very, very much. They might moan and groan at the inconvenience or even get angry but it won’t be directed at you. Try to understand that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they should be tardy at getting to work. You know what tardy is and how it can affect your attendance record – not good. For them, it could mean losing their jobs (money) and that would affect the security of you family’s home – even worse.

But, hey, kids, with the budget cuts you’ll have the opportunity to make more friends because class sizes will increase. To heck with the teacher, he or she still has to perform their jobs as best they can with much less to work with.

You might have to accept last year’s school books with torn pages and all kinds of scribbles, some of which will have to be blacked out because they might contain nasty words or pictures.

Lads and lasses, you’re about to learn some very important lessons, ones that will help prepare you for the eventual introduction to living on your own as you enter the adult job market. A four-day school week, if mandated by the school board, could give you some insight on how those extra hours on the “job” give you an extra day off – and another stress on Mom and Dad thanks to extra daycare expenses. Just like adults, you’ll find it’s no vacation because you’ll end up spending part of the day doing household chores. Unfortunately, you’ll have the extra task of catching up on homework. I agree, that’s pretty yucky but it’ll be necessary just as your teacher will have to spend even more time than he/she’s already doing to grade papers after school hours.

All of these changes will help prepare you for adjusting to the job market, however many years before you graduate. By the way, don’t count on going to college – the cost of higher education is even more expensive and, for now, your parents might not be able to add to your college fund. I pray they aren’t forced to dip in your learning nest egg just to make ends meet.

Maybe Mom and Dad might have to give you a private lesson of money management by putting a bunch of pennies in a pile and divide them into smaller groups. One for food. Clothing. Doctors. Car expenses. Cable. The biggest pile will be for housing, including electricity and water (nothing is free). Then watch closely as they take away a few pennies from each pile, because of lost wages or higher expenses, and you might understand that there’s not as many pennies to go around.

You’ll pass the lesson with a gold star if you live your life as a penny-pincher.

[I’d like to express my appreciation for Hernando Today’s website for providing me up-to-date news and information. The numbers of on-line reader comments prove that I’m not the only one. Although there are no Monday and Tuesday printed editions, Hernando Today’s reporters’ jobs are never done.]