How fast are things changing?

What things? You may ask. This title or rather question is actually a can of worms because everyone has opinion on how things are changing so fast but we shall discuss changes on another day.

Last Saturday I went for parents’ seminar at my son’s school. Usually this happens within 2 two weeks of school resumption and parents are intimated with the what the kids will be focusing on for that term, the kind of support that teachers expect parents to give and how to complete the home work and reading diary (this changes quite often). We also get a bit more explanation on the child’s school term project.

In the first week, my son came home with the science homework which was on “classes of food”. I was so sure I knew the classes of food before this encounter but I was not sure any more by the time he was done giving me the lesson. First he asked me “Mummy do you know the three classes of food?” The number of classes should have set off the alarm bell in my head but I quickly answered in the affirmative. Then he said I should name them, I said: Carbohydrates, Protein, Fat and Oil and was about to name another one when I saw this very blank look on his face as if I was speaking classic Greek. He stopped me half way and said “No mummy you have no clue”. I thought definitely, the ambiguity must be from the term “classes of food” because they cannot be anything different and then came the answer:
Cereal
High Energy Food
Fish, Meat, Poultry and dairy products.

I thought, No way! There must be something wrong here but I said nothing. No matter how much I profess to my son that I know something, if it is in any way different from what the teacher said in class, the teacher wins the case so I have learnt to give up and take it up with the teacher. So during this seminar, when we were being taken through the science lesson curriculum, we were told that the classes of food have been renamed as listed above. One parent wrote to the teacher after the homework that the classes of food are Carbohydrate, protein etc and that what her child came home with are mere descriptions. At least this confirmed to me that I am not the only “ancient mother” with a six year old. I left the school shaking my head about changes. I doubt that the owners of English language (the jury is still out on who own the language) will be able to keep pace with these changes.

Oh I forgot to mention that when we go for this seminar, we dress up as if we are heading out for the runway fashion parade and this past Saturday was no exception except that it was mostly designer casuals that came …the Guccis, the channels, Versaces etc (the handbags were enough for a show) and some Walmart and Dorothy Perkins brands. I think this must be because we have all recently returned from “Summer holidays” so we have only the summer things to show off. I will not tell you the designer yours truly was sporting but you can guess can’t you?