When I open the front door, a man with a winning smile immediately launches into a slick presentation. Do I have children? Yes, I have two. Would I like them to receive a good education? Yes. Do I want to give them the best start in life? Of course. It’s my lucky day. The young man tells me he has just what I need: a set of encyclopaedias.
He thrusts a brochure at me and says he can give me a special deal. I tell him it all sounds good, but I’m not going to buy anything without first speaking to my husband. The winning smile wavers. What time will my husband be home? 6 pm? The salesman will return at the appropriate hour.
Later, the man appears once again on our doorstep with some samples of his books, and he spends a long time telling us how magnificent they are. The encyclopaedia set isn’t cheap. But that’s okay. The salesman has a plan. We can pay for the books in instalments. It will be worth it. Money well spent. An investment. We don’t want to deny our kids a fabulous education, do we?
Andy and I like the look of the books. They’re crammed with information. And they come with lots of extras: reading plans and dictionaries and a special guide for kids. If we have a question, the encyclopaedias can answer it. They could be our kids’ passport to the world.
Although we’re interested, we don’t want to make a rushed decision. Can we think about it? A frown replaces his smile as the salesman steps up his game. The special offer won’t last very long. Surely we don’t want to miss out? But we’re firm. We’re not going to buy the encyclopaedias without discussing it first.
Once the salesman has gone, we do some encyclopaedia maths. We look at Andy’s wage and all our bills. How much money do we have left over at the end of each month? It doesn’t take us long to realise that we can’t afford to give our kids a good education.
So, we don’t have a long row of large, red, glossy books with gold-edged information-packed pages sitting on our shelf. Our kids aren’t soaking up all those A-Z entries. I feel rather sad about this for a time. But then the salesman’s words begin to fade, and I regain my commonsense.
A good education isn’t packed neatly inside an encyclopaedia. We get a taste, a bite or two of knowledge, every time we open a page. But learning is much bigger than a set of books. It’s more magnificent and exciting and interesting.
Learning is found in everything we see, hear, touch, smell and taste. It’s in the movies we watch, and the stories we read, the places we go, the conversations we have, the joys and sorrows we feel, the challenges and failures and triumphs we face, the thoughts and ideas we ponder, the everyday things we do together, the relationships and connections we share, and everything else we experience in our lives.
These days, probably no one buys encyclopaedias, but parents do buy curricula, sometimes many, hoping that one day, they’ll discover one that contains everything their child needs to know. Learning all packaged neatly into a number of pages, a box, a set of computer files. Organised and labelled. Assessment included. A perfect education.
Does that sound tempting?
Or would you rather have the world?
Photos
I don’t have a photo of a set of encyclopaedias, but I do have lots of photos of my kids living life, learning, experiencing and enjoying the world. These ones were taken a few years ago when my youngest daughter Gemma-Rose (grey coat)was 12.
We had an encyclopaedia salesman come to our door one time time as well, although he didn’t have a slick presentation:). He was quite young and seemed like he might rather not be doing that job! My husband was home so I did invite him in at that moment, but I think when he saw how full our bookshelves were of a range of different books, he felt a bit defeated:(. I actually felt a bit badly because I think he’d been working hard. We also didn’t purchase the set. It did look beautiful but we had enough, ones that we’d chosen specifically for our family, and yes, living life and experiencing the world is hard to beat!
Erin,
Oh, it’s sad seeing young people doing jobs that make them feel uncomfortable. I know how your salesman must have felt. After I graduated from uni, I found it difficult to get a job. Time passed, and I got desperate for work, and I ended up doing the only job I could find: working as a department store demonstrator and salesperson. I moved from store to store demonstrating such things as window cleaners that would clean both sides of the glass at the same time. I was supposed to give a lively slick presentation that would draw the shoppers in. At 22, I was too reserved to do this. I found it very painful. I wasn’t a good salesperson and never tried to persuade anyone to buy my products. I was hopeless. I felt very relieved when I gave that job up!
Maybe your salesman appreciated your willingness to listen. Even though he didn’t sell you anything, he got a bit of practice talking about the encyclopaedias!
I loved how you made the connection of the encyclopedias to curricula. That’s such a good point. Thank you for this post! 🙂
Karen,
Thank you for your comment! I hope you discovered something useful in my record keeping posts. I also hope you and your family are doing well!