Too Much of School

When my mom finally decided to take that plum posting as a Divisional
Head, I knew I was in trouble. Her office hours stretched way beyond my
school hours. & anyway, I was privy to the plenty of discussions my parents
had about 'Honey, what do they do with the children?' Well, finally they struck
gold - an educational after school program. Won't that be grand? Children
are learning new things while parents are happily minting greenbacks!

& so, they went directly to another class after our school. The brochure
said that they would be 'using fun activities & innovative teaching
methods to fill the gap in your kid's understanding'. I suppose they
meant that the teacher would write down the home-work & they were to copy
it. At least, this is what happened most of the time. Of work, they didn't
tell our parents. How would that help? They'd basically get smart & shift us to a class that would actually make us solve our home-work.

I detested the classes. Mostly, I was bored to tears or falling asleep.
After so plenty of hours at school who'd require to spend the whole afternoon
with the same books? But, as a child, had small choice in these
matters. when one's parents were cleverly telling that
mommy's wage will help get us that spanking new TV or that video game.
Lose some, win some!

Now, so plenty of years afterward, when I need to take up a job & leave my
own child alone till I get back, I do know how important these after school
programs have become. Discuss history repeating itself! I hope I'd
get her in to a nice, & yes, it is going to be educational .

Then, day, my sister decided to rock the proverbial boat. He decided
he had of studying & refused to go to the after school program.
That is when my parents began to smell something stale. Soon after that,
they put us in a better program (o, yes, another educational). This
was bigger, brighter & somehow more fun. They had some fascinating games,
& a COMPUTER . Each of us got a chance to do something on the PC
(this, when PCs were beginning to make their presence felt). They
somehow managed to blaze through our home-work, most of which had to be
completed by us. Then it was time to have fun. They had a small little bit of
everything. Acting classes, speech, games & naturally painting. Those
hours they spent splashing color on pages & laughing at foolish jokes were
 the highlight of an otherwise boring day. Ironically, I started
looking forward to my after school program.