"Woe is to me!" from ...Greek Wedding

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Aristotle

I'm a teacher; you knew that. I'm troubled by the enormous lack of enthusiasm for education by the general public. Education is not high on the list of priorities for too many people. I had trouble the other day with a cashier not understanding exactly how to give change. The cash registers in many fast food restaurants don't even have numbers on the keys but, there are pictures. Simple spelling seems no longer to be important. Verbal skills are waning. Proper grammar skills are becomming rare. Math....what's that? What is literature? "I don't like to read." They simply don't know how to be educated or that it's even important.

Where has education strayed? The difference, as I see it, is that education is only important, for most, when someone else is the teacher. Parents are supposed to be the premier educators. Instead, many parents have chosen their own personal lives as the most important issue and, the child is shoved into the teacher's lap to be educated. Parents of animals seem to be doing a much better job. They protect them, teach them everything they need to know and when the time comes they are kicked out of the nest, den, whatever. Of course, their decorating and housekeeping skills leave much to be desired and they don't have a car. Did someone say that's important.........