Education Gems

Islands?

Ever feel like you are on an island? Our children can be really good at making us feel that way. There is that one dreaded sentence which they toss out at us too often: I am the only one!, or, you are the only ones that…!

I am the only one in my class who doesn’t have a phone, whose parents shut off the internet at 10.30PM, who has to be home at …, whose parents make me hand in my phone when I am supposed to be studying, who has to study in the family room, who can’t go…

You got it. How often haven’t we been caught questioning a decision because our child has thrown out that one liner!
As one parent put it: sometimes you feel like you are living on an island.

We can’t make rules for our community and nor is it wise. But if it was permissible to make a blanket rule for our children attending school, I’d probably make one something like this: All phones and communication devices are switched off at 8PM.  And as much as our children will think that the world will fall apart overnight, surprise! the sun will rise in the morning and all will be well.

Back to islands. On the one hand, we make decisions or the wellbeing of our children. That is the criteria, so pray they are wise decisions.  Which makes the ‘one liner’ irrelevant.
On the other hand, in most cases our children have it wrong. As we did, when we were that age, and as our spiritual forebear Elijah did: I am the only one left!

M Plug, Principal