The Canadian Harm Reduction Network
Letters from Africa
2003-12-11Hello,
I read about Rodgers and his desire to go to high school and thought of some of the shenanigans that my son, an eighteen year old who is currently receiving a free public education in [Canada], has recently been up to in an effort to do as little school work as possible and get as little as possible from his education. I won't bore you with all of the details -- let it suffice to say that he is behaving like a typical spoiled middle class North American kid who does not recognize his good fortune in receiving an education as though it is his right, not the privilege that it is perceived to be in most countries around the world.
He has asked me to buy him an expensive MP3 player this Christmas and it has occurred to me that to spend $300 on an electronic source of amusement for him would be to reward him for his lazy, unmotivated, and cavalier attitude towards school. He skips classes, won't do the reading for class, and spends as little time as possible on homework. Though standardized tests indicate that he is both intelligent and highly capable, his grades demonstrate his work ethic and his disdain for acquiring a 'boring' education.
So, instead of spending $300 on an MP3 player this Christmas for my son – since he has not earned it -- I would like to use some of that money to pay for Rodgers to go to school. I know that Jodi [Scott’s sister] is coming to spend a few weeks with you, so I will [arrange to give her] $100 before she leaves if you can assure me that you will take it to the school that Rodgers wishes to attend and use it to enroll him in his first term.
I think that this is the only way to derive something positive out of my son's teenage silliness and, rather than wrap up that MP3 player and place it under the tree, I would like to put a note in an envelope under the tree that will let him know that, instead of getting an electronic gizmo with which to amuse himself, he has been given, as a gift, the opportunity to help someone else get the education that he is taking for granted.
Regards, D.
P.S. - Please ensure that Jodi gets some flying ant 'protein' when she visits you. ;-)