Monday, March 22, 2021

The new Siegel Curriculum


I've been thinking.

I have a lot of time for thinking. And in case my friend George Tannenbaum hasn't made it clear, good writing stems from good thinking. 

Perhaps that's why I enjoy working from home. I have my own office. I can close a door. I don't have co-workers breathing over my shoulder at the Long Table of Mediocrity™ and I work fast. I work fast, so I can think slow. And stew over business problems and give them ample time to percolate and produce what I hope to be something worth reading or viewing or engaging in. 

Though it's apparent this piece will not qualify for any of that.

In any case, back to my thinking. 

And back to the fact that both my daughters are home for the weekend. And back to the fact that I have spent well over 1/2 million dollars to educate them in private grammar school, Catholic high school and two out of state universities.

And, sad to say, those institutions have failed me. And so, like I said, I've been thinking. Not on what these schools taught my kids, but what they didn't teach them.

Money -- Year ago, at a fundraising dinner at St. Monica's Catholic High School I had a moment to chat with the school principal. The brass there were always interested in the Jewish POV on matters. So I shared my opinion that the students would be well served with a semester or two in finance. Useful stuff, like a primer of mortgages, the danger of reverse mortgages, an introduction to investments, the ins and outs of taxes, Checkbook Management (though it's my understanding that kids don't use checks.) 

The point is, when it comes to money, my kids and I suspect many others, are woefully bankrupt.

Auto Maintenance -- This is another arena where my daughters don't have two lug nuts to rub together. I might get in trouble for saying this but I think I can be excused for going light on the auto maintenance lessons because I have daughters. If I had sons, I'm sure I would have spent some dirty, grimy time showing them how to jack up a car, how to swap out a tire, how to wrest an oil filter off, and most importantly how to fill up reserve with windshield wiper fluid. My girls were too dainty and would rather have been playing Pretty Princess.

And finally, if I had a seat on the Board of Education or better yet a seat at the table in Washington DC, still cold from Betsy DeVos's useless ass, I would mandate every that child, from age 5 -18, be given a rigorous, detailed and lengthy dissertation on the importance of....



Cleaning 




Up



After




Your



Damn



Self!!!!

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