Peter Savage had the audacity to stand up for himself and want to keep his wallet.
The letter then notes a number of “mistakes” the householder made, including leaving curtains and a window open.
Might not be advised to leave an open window but just because there is doesn’t mean it’s an open invitation.
I think we all know who the real dickheads in these stories are. And I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault these two gutless wonders are devoid of any morality. Hope you get what you deserve and a little bit extra just because…. I don’t know…the wind is blowing in a north-easterly direction today. Why not! Seems to be on par with your brand of logic.
In this last week there have been two announcements about getting young people to stay on in school.
The first is getting teen mums to stay on and finish Year 12 or risk having their welfare payments cut off.
The second is to encourage low income families to keep their kids at school until they finish Year 12. According to this article 41% of kids from low income will not finish Year 12 whereas only 22% of kids from wealthy families do not go onto Year 12.
Why are kids in lower income families leaving school? Because it is more expensive to keep teenagers in school than younger children.
But taking this one step further towards university education, family educational levels are stronger influences on the likelihood of higher education participation than family financial circumstances.
Now Mr M and I went to university so according to the newspaper article and the research article my kids have a higher chance of finishing Year 12 and in fact going onto university studies.
Personally I hope they do. I loved university. It taught me to challenge my thinking; I met a greater variety of people than I had in school or any job; and it was bloody fun. And I met Mr M there 😉
But I can’t force my kids to go to uni but I will insist on them finishing Year 12. Year 12 is very different to Year 10. And I don’t think I have every come across anyone who has ever said education was a bad thing.
Some may disagree and feel that Year 10 is sufficient. I’m not here to tell you your business. But this is something I feel very strongly about for my children. They will have to come up with a very compelling reason to leave school at Year 10.
And here’s just one more financial incentive or punishment depending on which way you look at it. Parents failing to ensure their children undergo the full six-stage immunisation risk losing up to $2100 as part of an expanded scheme that replaces a small carrot with a big stick to increase vaccination rates.
Until now parents were paid a $258 “maternity immunization allowance” as a bonus for completing the immunization schedule. But in recent years immunization rates have been dropping and this year reached a seven year low of 83% of 4 year olds immunized; well below the 90% which assures good community wide disease protection.
And what’s the common theme throughout all these stories? Money.
From all recent reports coming out of England, I am starting to develop the opinion that the kids over there are getting dumber by the minute!
Even though I’m of the opinion that the Government should mind their own business when it comes to parenting decisions, i really like they are encouraging teens to stay in school longer,especially those who have babies. I like the message it send that “having a baby doesn’t mean your life is over” just means you have to discover a different way to achieve your dreams.
I also like the idea of pushing people to get their kid’s immunized. I understand why people don’t,but for these scheme’s to be effective and stop out breaks like whooping cough all over the place everyone needs to be on the same page. It makes me very uncomfortable that my little ones will come into contact with children who are not immunised as it increases the unnecessary risk IMO, of them catching these high infectious and in some cases deadly diseases.
I hope putting a price tag on these policy changes is enough incentive.
Alex, there’s a lady named Bernadette Black who is a public speaker. I saw her talk earlier this year. She was a teen mum and everyone around her was telling her that her life was no effectively over (this was about 20 years I think). Anyway one of her teachers told her “the journey may be different but the destination can stay the same”. She went on to publish a book, be Tasmania’s Australian of the Year.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Education is important in my country. Doesn’t matter if you don’t eat as long as you finish uni. And I want MiniMe to understand that. Education, knowledge is something no one can ever steal from you — unless Inception becomes possible 😉
“Doesn’t matter if you don’t eat”… Yes, you’ll be dead but you’ll be smart. Donate your brain to science to the next person can get smart off your brain.
Speaking of Inception, Mr M got one of those spinning top things Leonardo uses in the movie for his birthday. He’s a very happy boy.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
I’m a big stickler for kids finishing school. I’d actually love my boys to go to uni, but will work on year 12 first. My husband always talks about how he left school in year 8 (!) and look at him now, with his own business etc. I say, the world has changed. It’s different now.
Eden, my husband went to a conference where the like of Donald Trump were speaking. Anyways, one of the speakers was pointing out some of the biggest names in business, Trump included, who hadn’t finished highschool and went onto to fabulous things.
Shall we name all those who didn’t finish school and regretted it? I suspect it will be a longer list.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Cannot emphasise how important education is to my children too much. I only finished Yr 10 and it has stagnated me to some degree but my husband finished Uni (and was the only one in his extended family to do so). I just hope they study and have a career in something they love, no matter how much they earn!
Becci, the thing with my uni studies is half of the info just kind of laid dormant in my mind until, through my writing or blogging, I need to recall it.
So much information that seemed kind of irrelevant at the time, has served me well in the years since I’ve left uni.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Mrs M the tax-threat on immunisation is the best thing I have heard for ages. Phew! Thank god the Gov have done something – I say stop means testing/slashing the baby bonus and hit non-immunisers even harder, but that’s just me, who had to keep my boy at home for 2 wks because a pox outbreak at kindy. Imagine if you lost a baby to whooping cough which has started to happen again – I would possibly turn into one of the psychopaths you mentioned above if that had happened to me. Any way will end rant now – thanks for your news wrap up lovely! Nxx
Yeah if I lost a baby to whooping cough I would not be impressed. I have friends who have moved to Byron Bay and they are confronted with a lot of people opting out of immunisation. And they’re not happy.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
i learnt very quickly that you cannot eat money… 🙂
but it’s sad the stories you tell.. a lot of things my wife and I have done have been greatly influenced by money. never anything as far as crimes though.
but i also hope my boy grows up and gets tertiary education. doesn’t have to be uni (acutally prefer it not to be to save us dollars! hehehehe)
there’s that money things again!
– tork
ps. talked about u in a recent post of mine. thought you’d like to know: http://torkona.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-dont-you-like-dad-blogs-but-love.html
Hi Tork,
We are all motivated by money. Right or wrong it is an incredible motivating factor.
Love & stuff
Mrs M