Wednesday, October 17, 2007
royalty for sale
well, i am facing a bit of a disappointment with kalei's school. in their amazingly tireless effort to raise money, the administrators at her school had an idea to have each class (each class, not each grade) nominate one boy and one girl to "run" for either prince, princess, queen, or king. the way the children "win" this contest is by raising the most money. they are not voted into this position like a simple popularity contest that would be annoying enough in itself. they do not achieve this goal by hard work, unless that hard work has a lot of dollar signs attached to it. the one with the most money wins. the losers get nothing. i hate this idea. i am sure it sounded like something new they could try that they hadn't introduced before. i'm sure no one thought about what this might be teaching the kids: money buys you what you want. period. i was talking to a friend whose daughter is in first grade and she said that her daughter's teacher had sent home an opt-out form for those parents who didn't want their children to participate. wonderful! someone actually thinking that some people might be turned off by this idea! so, when i stopped to pick up kalei today, i asked the ladies in the office if this could be done by every teacher if this is to be a yearly event. i was very polite and didn't even give a whiff of what i really thought of this "contest." the princi"pal" was there in the office and his suggestion was that if my child was nominated and i didn't want them to participate, then we could turn it down. yeah. my five-year-old would understand that. my eyes narrowed. that's when i informed the office ladies (the princi"pal" was finished listening at that point - at least pretend to listen to my suggestion!) that i didn't see how this promoted equality among the students or taught them anything helpful. i'm not angry about this whole thing, just disappointed. i'm trying to keep kalei five. i'm trying to keep her in modest clothes and looking like a kindergartner. she's surrounded by classmates who watch "zack & cody" and are going to be sharpei (from "high school musical") or hannah montana for halloween. i know that money can be a large factor in life. but it shouldn't start at five.
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7 comments:
That's horrible!! It's not about the kids or the school- it's about who's got the most money. And what will the raised money be used for?
it's for a fifth grade field trip - so these fifth graders really aren't having to do anything for their fundraiser! i mean, have a car wash or sponsored event (bowling, walking, etc.)! i'm even fine with the whole royalty thing if it was based on service projects (they have to earn the money) or something like that. it's just that we have a lot of upscale subdivisions in our school district and the parents have a lot of money to throw around. i helped kalei's classroom get items for a basket auction and this auction was INSANE!!!! there were 30 baskets valued at anywhere from $200 to $5300. there was one that had a pink papasan chair filled with hannah montana and high school musical items and was valued at $300. i saw this 7-8 year old girl standing in front of her parents and pouting with her arms folded until they won it for $600. that just gives you a taste of what kind of situation we're dealing with. it's kinda sickening.
oh my goodness! that is crazy!
I guess that's the reality of the situation . . . I really try to keep Ilima and Anela grounded but with so many other kids around them with dissimilar values (who have yaya's to take care of them and drivers to drive them to school in they Expeditions - yah, just the driver and the one kid) it's hard. On the school fieldtrip one of Ilima's classmates were boasting that her parents lets her watch JackAss - hello!
This is where I'm thankful that we grew up in Laie where money really didn't seem like a big issue - at least not to me.
i hear you, kei. that is actually one thing we think would be great about a job at byuh - that fundraisers would be plate lunches and things like that. and if no one has money, then no one is trying to outdo each other, right? :) -bess
that's so sad! how do you protect your kids from this stuff when it's their own school and teacher's promoting it? we HATE school fundraisers. i hate how it's a competition for kids to go out and just ask other people to give them money. they should have to earn it - (begging for money doesn't count). we never participate in them. however, if they ask US for a donation, i always donate. but i'm not going to ask other people to give my kid money for school. and to make matter's worse - it's just for a 5th grade field trip? i would be SO mad.
i know, kam! and what was so irritating was that the principal was so dismissive! at least say you'll take it into consideration if they do it next year! doesn't this man know how to be tactful? i don't think we'll participate in any more fundraisers, either. they already did this cookie dough fundraiser and i thought 3 lbs of cookie was a lot more than it turned out to be. :) it was SUCH a rip-off! next year, i think we'll just give the teacher a gift card to the local parent/teacher store instead of bothering. i wish they would just ask for cash from the school families up front and promise no other fundraisers! -bess
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