The Real World

I am forever intrigued by people when they think that school is the [only] real world. "Hey, that's the real world! People get beat up on playgrounds. Kids get slammed in lockers. Kids have to learn to deal with jerks."

#1, look what compulsary education has taught us.

And, c'mon, as if jerks aren't present outside of school grounds. As if families don't have jerks, neighborhoods don't have jerks, stores don't have jerks, parks don't have jerks. There is a shortage of jerks outside of school. (Then why do we need to learn to live with them? I forget.) No, gee, I only ever see jerks on school grounds. My homeschooled kids have never met a jerk. There are no jerks on soccer teams, baseball teams, homeschool co-ops, church classes, library hour... Let's see. How can I get more jerks per square inch into my kids' lives so they can learn to be better people? We need more jerks NOW, so we can deal with jerks THEN. Is that proper logic? Do schools teach logic? I do not think so - holy moly.

I had almost no bad peer experiences in school. I got along with people, they liked me, I liked almost everyone, Scott Paleshevski called me "4 eyes" in 2nd grade and I thought, "Hm. He has glasses, wonder why he'd say that?" I didn't have any big bully stories really, Scott did kick me a lot and my mom gave me permission to kick him back, but I had plenty of fights in my neighborhood to teach me good things like that. I didn't need school. What it taught me at school was that school allows jerky behavior.

I have a friend who still talks about the people who were cruel to her in school. Those people hurt her very badly. I guess that is good? Is it good that she never learned to deal with the jerks hurting her at school while she was trying to learn in the compulsary institution? I guess that's her fault for being weaker than the jerks that the school allowed to bully her. Is it good that her already fragile soul was further injured in school? Good thing no one taught the bullies proper manners in school, or else she wouldn't have had the good fortune to deal with their mental problems! Good thing no one insisted that the bullies change, but allowed them to hurt themselves by the behavior too. What kind of jerk will they grow up to be? What hope do they have? Whew! Thank heavens school allows kids to experience that! Good thing my friend wasn't nurtured in a place that allowed her to blossom and learn and feel positively! That would be so "Un-real." She'd grow up having a life like a bowl of cherries, looking through rose-colored glasses, trying to lead a positive, good life! And nothing makes an ignorant BULLY more angry than that!

I also think that schools should expose kids to physical injury so that they learn to grin and bear that. After all, we all get old, suffer disease, debilitation, death. We need to get used to it and learn how to deal with it early.