Once in a while I wonder whether I understand the "real world" at all. Things that seem normal to a lot of people I find upsetting, even absurd. Here are a couple of examples.
1. Recently a private school for kids under 2 opened in an affluent Manhattan neighborhood, promising to each such skills as "napping" and "self-feeding". The annual fee: $33,490. I have no doubt that a good number of well-off yuppie parents will enroll their children in the school to give them a head start on success. But since when do toddlers need to be taught how to nap and since when do parents need help in teaching their children how to use a fork and spoon? As I say, I must be out of touch with real life!
2. In England, a British judge ordered a father involved in a custody case to stop emailing his children in all capital letters, because it was the same as shouting. He now has to work with a social worker to make is emails more "child- friendly". I can understand there would be an issue if the content of his messages was rough or vile. But since when do capital letters by themselves equal shouting? Again, a sign that I'm out of touch.
3. Finally, a South Carolina construction worker was fired and hit with a $525 fine for "theft of government property" after failing to pay 89 cents for a soda refill. The worker said the didn't know he had to pay extra for his second cup at the VA Medical Center in Charleston, where he worked. "I never had the option to make right what I had unknowingly done wrong" he said. Maybe there's more to this story than meets the eye, but if not, doesn't this seem like an absurd
penalty? Or do I just need to stop living in my own little world?
