It has been reported that a man has taken a television company to court because he cannot watch his favourite television programmes any longer; he argues that the television company is being grossly unfair, uncaring and unthinking in cutting off the programmes coming to his television. He is reported to be distraught, emotionally affected to the deepest level, traumatised, and extremely concerned that his future well-being is being damaged. He loved his television programmes; he lived for them. It was made out that any judge in his right mind would recognise that the television programmes must be reinstated immediately to this poor unfortunate abused individual. It was so unfair! What possible defence could the lawyers possibly bring to answer such a charge? Simply, the man has not paid his subscription.
Of course, such a story is made up. No-one in their right mind could conceive of anything like that happening. You want something, you pay for it. You do not want it, you do not pay for it. You can afford it, you can have it; you cannot afford it, you cannot have it. Simple! Yet it is sadly not so simple. We have parents who use the very argument that their child will suffer because the child is not allowed to attend a school when the parent does not pay the school fees. Parents try to use emotional blackmail to make the school keep their child at the school even though they do not pay the fees. Rather it is the parent who is abusing their child emotionally by using the child as a pawn in the parent’s personal crusade to avoid paying school fees.
Of course, a man might not like what television programmes are on the channels he has. That is understandable. The simple solution therefore is for him not to renew his subscription for that particular bouquet of programmes and rather find a bouquet with which he is indeed happy. He may find the programmes repeats or dusty, out-of-date, poorly constructed dramas; he might find them too violent, too serious, too soppy, too whatever! That is fine. He can change what channels he wants to watch. However, he cannot change what programmes are on the channel he has chosen. That is entirely reasonable on all sides. It is the same therefore, once again, when it comes to schooling for our child. If we do not like what the particular school is doing or offering (being too out-of-date, too liberal, too whatever), then we are at liberty to change the school (giving the due notice) but we cannot require a school to change the programme to suit our particular wishes. We may not like the subjects being offered, the sports being coached, the decisions being made – that is fine. No-one is forcing us to place our child there. We simply must find the one that does give us the bouquet that we most wish for our individual child. Of course, if we find that the cooking channel actually has very little cooking programmes but is full of sporting events, then we have a reason to say that the producers are not providing what they say they will.
We have become so used to changing things which we do not like (such as television channels) at the click of a button on our remote control that we think we can do the same with our schools or work places. We have become so used to wanting to see things to our liking immediately, such that we are not prepared to wait to see how the plot unfolds or characters develop in the television programme, failing which we flip the channel; similarly, we think that if a school does not display instant progress we will flip schools. We are like the person who said, “The first time I saw a universal remote control, I thought to myself, ‘this changes everything’”. We think that we have a universal remote to change whatever we want, including the schools to which we send our child. The fact is, we do not have such a remote – and we live in a remote world if we think we do.
The bottom line is this, when it comes to cable television: we can change the channel but we cannot change what is on each channel. The bottom line is this when it comes to independent education: we can change what school my child goes to but we cannot change what that school offers. But if we do change the school, we should stay at the school long enough to get a full understanding of what that school’s education is all about. There is no perfect television channel, where we are delighted with every programme that is presented; so there is no perfect school. Choose your channel and stick with it. Put the remote down now – before a judge tells you to do so.
