It's just a joke. People like to pretend the Illumunati are secretly running the world.

I think you're explaining it just fine. It's just that most of us disagree with you. :D You don't owe us any explanations or justifications. If you're going to do it, do it. But as long as you keep engaging, we will probably keep talking about it. ;) The only thing I haven't seen you address is: what happens if your son gets a permanent job at the theme park? Will you keep picking him up in the middle of the night indefinitely?

Even when the general consensus exists, people often aren't moved to care. Washington Redskins, anyone? Privilege basically means that the dominant group's comfort surrounding an issue is more important than other people's. Native concerns are not taken seriously in this country and are typically dismissed. My kids were unhappy that in all CNN Student News's coverage of the Keystone XL issue, not one single time did they mention Native concerns about it. The kids even emailed CNN SN; they got no reply. Similarly, the Standing Rock Sioux have been protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline for months; there's been barely a whisper of it in the news until the last few days. Native Americans are routinely ignored in this country. Wouldn't it be a good thing to at least respect that some people are offended by non-Native children dressing up as Natives, even if there's not really anything you can do, individually, to affect other Native issues? And I would argue that you really aren't doing your best to be respectful if your attitude is, basically, well, since it only bothers a minority of people, then it's not worth worrying about.

I don't know. It didn't break it down. I just found it interesting that more than half the teachers had graduate degrees.

Yes, I understand that. I would be most concerned about the feelings of those who find it offensive. There is a long, blatant history in this country of the dominant culture ridiculing the concerns of minority cultures. If someone objects to how they are being characterized, it's not up to me to blow that off. A friend made a Jell-o Buddha sculpture. I found it funny. Other Buddhists I know didn't. My friend decided that just because I thought it was funny wasn't good enough reason to go around making other Buddhists uncomfortable. It's not that their opinion matters more than mine; it's that my friend chose to be sensitive to people who felt that something important to them was being ridiculed.

Interestingly, as of 2014 (the most recent year reported), 57.6% of teachers in our cruddy district had masters or doctoral degrees.

My kids play one of the most expensive sports there is. I'm not in favor of school budgets being diverted to it. I'd much rather see community sports (my kids play for non-profit community organizations) that give scholarships to low-income kids. I'm the scholarship coordinator for our son's organization. We do not turn away kids due to lack of ability to pay.

In looking at our district's budget, which is published online, by far the single biggest chunk of instructional dollars is spent on the lowest 15% of kids. These are the kids who are in special education because they have intellectual disabilities, physical/medical disabilities, or both. Given that these are our most vulnerable children, I have no problem with spending the most money on them to make sure that they are not just neglected and warehoused, to use the word of a previous poster. The next largest chunk of money goes to the kids in the 16th-89th percentiles. Given that this is where the vast majority of kids fall, this is appropriate, imo. The smallest chunk of money goes to the top 10%, the kids who are taking AP classes and calculus and, now that dual enrollment has expanded so much here, probably take DE classes, too. I'll be interested to see, now that the rules for DE funding have changed and schooled students can have as much DE money as they want (homeschoolers still have to fight over a limited pot) how much that budget increases. In our district, the smallest chunk of instructional dollars goes to the smallest population of students. I'm not really sure how that can be construed as a problem. Should the top 10% get 20, 30, or 40% of the budget? FWIW, our district sucks (and I mean that objectively; it is regularly in the bottom five districts in the state). I'm not under any illusions that the kids with disabilities are getting super-fab services while the top 10% languish. Pretty much everyone gets crap here. I don't believe that institutional schools can meet every student's needs or are the most effective, attractive, and efficient way of doing so. I'd like to see radical changes to the schools. In the meantime, I'm really ok with the most vulnerable students getting the most help. Although I certainly understand that having incredibly bright, gifted, or profoundly gifted kids is its own kettle of fish that brings along its own struggles, with the limited resources we are given to run the schools, I'm pretty much ok with not doling out the lion's share to the kids who will be more likely to succeed simply based on their inherent gifts. But again, to be clear: I don't believe there is much that can be done with the existing structure of schools to make things better, and I think the schools need radical reformation. I don't think throwing good intentions at bad structures and hoping they stick is the best way forward.

I compare them all the time. I pay cash money for some things to relieve myself of the emotional, physical, mental, health, or time burden of doing it myself. If the financial savings is worth it to you, then you have your answer. Many (most?) of the respondents on this thread wouldn't feel that way. There's no right or wrong, just different.

Exactly. She may as well have accepted a ride from him to the library at lunchtime.

Yep. Our neighborhood has some crime. It's also full of very nice families. It's a working-class neighborhood. In the "nicer" neighborhood that borders ours, the white-collar neighborhood, a high-school kid was shot and killed by a fellow student over the weekend. In the "ultra" neighborhood that borders ours in a different direction, a rapist named Brock Turner grew up.

How will your son handle transportation if the temp job becomes a permanent job?

Mikayla, our local library system offers free GED prep classes. Does your library system offer this? Another option would be to prepare for the Accuplacer, which is used to place community college students in leveled classes, and attend community college. Where I live, you don't have to have a high school diploma or a GED to attend. Good luck to you.

The people to ask would be the people of the ethnic group in question. My dd dressed up as Kaya one year. I later read multiple articles by Native Americans explaining why they felt this wasn't ok. Just yesterday I saw a meme on FB taking up this issue in anticipation of Halloween. I'll be honest and say I don't really understand why it bothers people if children wish to emulate a person or character they admire, but in the end, I don't feel like it's my right to tell others that their opinion on the matter isn't important unless I understand and agree. That's the privilege of the dominant culture, and I try to be mindful of that. With a Halloween costume, I would defer to the feelings of those who felt disrespected, and I would tell my kids to choose something else.

I wouldn't think twice about walking three blocks at 1 am in our neighborhood. And it's not like we live in a fancy gated community.

Truer words were never spoken.

I would complain to the state medical board. I find it unethical for a doctor to begin services that she knows will never, and can never, be completed.

Keep reading. You'll get to the part where I state I'm not in favor of compulsory attendance. :thumbup1:

Every family chooses what works for them, so I am not criticizing you, but this is something I would not do. Losing sleep does not work for me. If my child were dependent on me for transportation to and from a job, my child would have to get a job that didn't involve middle-of-the-night hours. As it happens, my non-driving daughter got a job that meant she was getting off work at 12:30 or 1 am sometimes, but it was three blocks from our house, so she walked home.

My dd attempted a programming class through the edX platform. The auto-scorer for the homework assignments was very buggy. After being in tears multiple times because code that was correct and worked produced an error or was incorrectly scored by the auto-grader, my dd gave up. I've found that we're not a fan of classes where it's not easy to access an instructor or assistant. Supposedly they had assistants, but they were so inundated with students that days would go by before dd received answers to her queries. We were not impressed.

Well, either the Listerine killed the germs, or it didn't. Since it's designed to kill germs, my money is on "killed the germs." It's clean.

Well, it costs less money, that's for sure. But monetary cost is not the only cost to consider. It's great if your son can save money for his after-graduation nest egg. He needs to find a sustainable way to do that and not depend on you to over-extend yourself so he can do whatever he wants. It sounds like your son is taking you for granted. I frown on that. If you're just going to knuckle down and do this, then I wish you good luck and hope you get through it ok. If you decide to reconsider the deal, then you have my full support (for what it's worth).

My dd didn't get her license until she was twenty. She's this close to having it suspended for having too many points on her license. I certainly don't advocate the son in question in this thread just run out and get a license.

I do not argue with people who don't really want to see things any other way. It's why I have stopped arguing with my adult daughter. I just hear her out and change the subject.

I read through this again and thought about it more. I do not think you are doing your son any favors by driving him all over the place. Basically, he has come up with an unworkable schedule that puts no one out but you. I would not do that. If I started doing it and found it was too much for me, I would have no problem saying, "Sorry, Son, I thought I could do it, but it's actually too stressful for me. You'll need to modify your schedule or find alternate transportation." I have a child who did everything she could to shift the burden to me. I bought into it for too long. Then I decided not to anymore.