Post by Chips on May 7, 2008 9:41:58 GMT 9.5
Note to self: stop treadmill, forget about private school
Thank you for William McKeith's timely article ("Families pay the price in a world that never stops", May 6). However, extended shopping hours and longer working days are the tip of the iceberg. Your article focusing on the Saville family in Strathfield reveals another aspect to the dilemma of parents and children spending little time together. As parents, we make choices. The Savilles have identified two choices they have made: to send their children from an early age to a private school and to invest in a large mortgage. They could have made other choices - their local public school, a smaller mortgage.
Spending two hours each evening trying to encourage children to do homework when everyone is tired and grumpy and you are trying to get a meal on the table cannot be described as quality time.
I have never managed quality time with my children over homework.
Quality time happens when you least expect it. It happens when you are just hanging out together or you have shared an experience such as taking a walk, playing in the park, reading a book, laughing together over a joke. You can't really put these things on a "to do" list and tick them off like other chores.
It's during these "hanging out" times that our children pick up our values as they get to know us and we get to know them. They experience a richness to life that no amount of scheduled activities or private schooling or a beautiful home can replace.
Sarah Condie Newtown
William McKeith has a nerve. Many parents are working the extra long hours to pay the huge private school fees that schools such as his demand. Increasingly parents are falling for the myth being pushed by these elitist schools - that the best education must be paid for. As a parent of a child who is about to start his education, I have spoken to many teachers. Teachers at these private schools, including Dr McKeith's, openly perpetuate this myth.
Adam Williams Summer Hill
The time has come to think about the pace of modern life and the cost that it takes on individuals and families.
There may not be as many benefits as we think in a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week type of business lifestyle.
Our pattern of ordinary life and social relationships has changed, and it is not for the better. The call for a community and government rethink on regulating employment and trading hours is long overdue. It is a chance to inject some quality back into our lives.
James Athanasou Maroubra
William McKeith is spot on about how the balance between work and family life is dramatically out of kilter. No one on their death bed ever says, "Gee, I wish I had spent more time at work."
As Bertrand Russell said: "One of the symptoms of approaching a nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. If I were a medical man I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important."
Tony Nicod Mona Vale
So William McKeith thinks we need to look at trends in working hours and patterns of work so children can see more of their parents.
Here's a thought: why not do away with elitist private schools such as his PLC Sydney and give every child an equal opportunity for a quality education in the public school system?
That way, these parents will not have to work extraordinary hours to pay the exorbitant fees of private schools (and the 4WD, BMW, etc).
Pauline Fawkner Summer Hill
Thank you for William McKeith's timely article ("Families pay the price in a world that never stops", May 6). However, extended shopping hours and longer working days are the tip of the iceberg. Your article focusing on the Saville family in Strathfield reveals another aspect to the dilemma of parents and children spending little time together. As parents, we make choices. The Savilles have identified two choices they have made: to send their children from an early age to a private school and to invest in a large mortgage. They could have made other choices - their local public school, a smaller mortgage.
Spending two hours each evening trying to encourage children to do homework when everyone is tired and grumpy and you are trying to get a meal on the table cannot be described as quality time.
I have never managed quality time with my children over homework.
Quality time happens when you least expect it. It happens when you are just hanging out together or you have shared an experience such as taking a walk, playing in the park, reading a book, laughing together over a joke. You can't really put these things on a "to do" list and tick them off like other chores.
It's during these "hanging out" times that our children pick up our values as they get to know us and we get to know them. They experience a richness to life that no amount of scheduled activities or private schooling or a beautiful home can replace.
Sarah Condie Newtown
William McKeith has a nerve. Many parents are working the extra long hours to pay the huge private school fees that schools such as his demand. Increasingly parents are falling for the myth being pushed by these elitist schools - that the best education must be paid for. As a parent of a child who is about to start his education, I have spoken to many teachers. Teachers at these private schools, including Dr McKeith's, openly perpetuate this myth.
Adam Williams Summer Hill
The time has come to think about the pace of modern life and the cost that it takes on individuals and families.
There may not be as many benefits as we think in a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week type of business lifestyle.
Our pattern of ordinary life and social relationships has changed, and it is not for the better. The call for a community and government rethink on regulating employment and trading hours is long overdue. It is a chance to inject some quality back into our lives.
James Athanasou Maroubra
William McKeith is spot on about how the balance between work and family life is dramatically out of kilter. No one on their death bed ever says, "Gee, I wish I had spent more time at work."
As Bertrand Russell said: "One of the symptoms of approaching a nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. If I were a medical man I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important."
Tony Nicod Mona Vale
So William McKeith thinks we need to look at trends in working hours and patterns of work so children can see more of their parents.
Here's a thought: why not do away with elitist private schools such as his PLC Sydney and give every child an equal opportunity for a quality education in the public school system?
That way, these parents will not have to work extraordinary hours to pay the exorbitant fees of private schools (and the 4WD, BMW, etc).
Pauline Fawkner Summer Hill