Skip to main content

Tuition Pain… the Postscript

Finally heard back from the Tuition Committee (see also this guest post I wrote for DovBear).  Yay, right?

Here’s what happens when you write that magic number down, the one you have searched your soul and wracked your brain to find.

Step 1 (parents):  Fill in the blank to complete this humble supplication:  “We are unable to pay the full tuition fee and therefore request financial assistance.  We offer to pay a family tuition fee of $_____ for the school year 2010/2011…”  Think long and hard.  Pick a number that is so high it hurts.  Pick a number that will allow you to continue educating your other high schooler, whose tuition is NOT included in this magic number.

Now the fun part.  Are you the PARENTS or the SCHOOL?  Choose one:

Step 2 (parents):  Wait patiently for reply.  Try not to develop an ulcer.  While you’re waiting, toss hundreds of dollars around to pay for textbooks, uniforms, socks and other school necessities.  Try not to cry.  Try to pay a few bills and buy groceries even while desperately hanging onto the money.  Splurge:  $200 for Greyhound tickets to go to NYC for one of your best friends’ son’s wedding.  Feel guilty for taking a “vacation,” even if it will involve sleeping on a bus – TWICE.

OR

Step 2 (school):  Convene Tuition Committee to frolic and laugh at the Magic Number, which is clearly a LIE.  The parents must be hiding their money under the mattress somewhere (or maybe they just haven’t tapped into that world Jewish banking conspiracy!).  Assess tuition at 45% higher than the Magic Number.  Tack on a $263 book fee; tack on a $500 Student Council fee.  $1000 in school supplies is nothing compared to the benefit of a fine education, right?  “I bet they’re hopping on a Greyhound right now with that school-uniform money,” someone chortles.

Finally…

Step 3 (parents):  Cry.  Pay up anyway.  Cry when the cheques bounce at Pesach time:  yes, Daddy, a bounced cheque is a broken promise.  Yes, I feel like scum of the earth for doing it.  But is it really a promise if you make it under coercion?  If they hold your kids ransom?

Secretly, there is an unwritten Step 4:  Appeal.  I’ve done it before… it’s slow and unpleasant and the results not good enough to make it worthwhile.  And now, I’m tired.  I give up.  Or maybe I’m just saving my energy so I can do it all over again next year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a