Weird Parents in Quebec

~ Clarissa

These parents in Quebec who are suing because they are too cheap to spend fifty bucks PER YEAR to buy their kids a dictionary and a calculator really shock me.

If you don’t have $50-150 PER YEAR to spend on dictionaries for your kid, then maybe it’s a good idea to consult the amazing birth control options available in Quebec.

Just imagine how guilty these kids feel knowing that their parents are engaged in a legal battle to avoid paying $50 PER YEAR for a calculator they need.

I don’t even want to think what kind of kids these immature parents will end up inflicting upon us.

Published by Clarissa

50 thoughts on “Weird Parents in Quebec”

  1. I see what you mean (education is free but school supplies can’t be), but actually you can get a decent (paper) dictionary for around US$5.00 and a cheap plastic calculator for about a dollar and I can’t imagine they’d cost any more in Canada. It’s probably the paper and pencils that are what really cost, since those get used up and have to be replaced. And really, $50 – $100 isn’t bad — I’ve seen parents spend hundreds of dollars here on school supplies for just one kid for just one semester.

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    1. It’s not just the dictionaries. The overall annual cost of having a child in public school in Quebec is 50-100$ (dictionaries, calculators, locks for lockers, other miscellaneous stuff).

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      1. Maybe I misunderstood the post….

        I just have difficulty seeing why it is necessary to spend $50 a year on a new dictionary, every year. Unless dealing specifically with neologisms, a dictionary that’s a few years old is almost certainly good enough. And I have difficulty seeing how they would need a new calculator every year. Surely they can use a solar powered one or simply buy batteries? I am therefore having difficulty seeing why it is even necessary to spend that much on dictionaries/calculators every year (if it was something like paper or exercise books, I could see the fees costing that much).

        And when I was in the school band, everyone had to pay for their instrument (because school band was optional).

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        1. That MUCH? People who think that fifty bucks per year is too much to spend on a child in Montreal should not be raising children in Montreal.

          It is completely irrelevant where the money goes. The only thing that matters is that immature greedy parents begrudge the money that wouldn’t pay for half a tank of gas in Montreal. Put yourself in a kid’s place. How would you feel if you had to face your little friends knowing you were the only one whose parents begrudge something so minimal for you and make such a spectacle of it? I actually was in this position and I can tell you that it is not very pleasant.

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      2. I agree the parents are being ridiculous.

        Maybe I’m just applying my experiences in BC to PQ (except for K and Grade 1 and 2, elementary classes always had dictionaries available; I never used a calculator for mere integer arithmetic; we had to pay a flat fee for supplies in elementary school). If that’s the case than education in PQ is different from my expectations.

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  3. Clarissa:

    I could not agree more with ou on this issue. Those parents no doubt spend a lot of money on things that do not matter at all in the big picture of things. Yet they feel entitled not to spend money on important educational aids. What is the matter with such people? Do they not understand that education is the most important gift they can ever to their children give other than love?

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    2. Charles, don’t forget that those parents are overtaxed and that the law is clear on this matter in Québec. In fact, politicians in Québec are so stupid in economics that Obama is a economic genius compared to them.

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    1. Teachers often don’t allow students to use computers during class time because they get distracted. My students, for instance, have to use a paper dictionary during exams. Otherwise, I get a bunch of Google Translate mumbo-jumbo papers.

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  5. How embarrassing for the children of these parents. These ‘adults’ (and I use the term loosely) are showing no respect for their kids. Children hate it when their parents make a fuss at school – they become a laughing stock and the target for gratuitous amusement at their expense.

    When the issue is something as ridiculous as objecting to spending $50 on their kid’s education, it’s sending the message that:
    1) their kids aren’t worth it
    2) they don’t respect their kids
    3) education is worthless

    These parents think it is a better use of their money to pay lawyers to object to spending $50. By the time they finish, they’ll have (hopefully) paid for several hundred year’s worth of eduction in lawyers’ fees.

    Luckily for these people stupidity is not a fatal disease…

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    1. “These ‘adults’ (and I use the term loosely) are showing no respect for their kids. Children hate it when their parents make a fuss at school – they become a laughing stock and the target for gratuitous amusement at their expense.”

      – That’s exactly what I’m saying! These parents should have stopped to consider if the embarrassment this causes to the kids is really worth 50 bucks.

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  6. These parents made too litteral a reading of free education in QC. Also, never underestimate the deep stratum of anti-intellectualism in QC.

    You know that 50% of the population in QC suffers of some degree of illiteracy.

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      1. From this website::

        http://www.fondationalphabetisation.org/adultes/analphabetisme_alphabetisation/

        “Selon les résultats de l’Enquête internationale sur l’alphabétisation et les compétences des adultes (EIACA), 49 % des Québécois, âgés de 16 à 65 ans, ont des difficultés de lecture. Parmi ceux-ci, 800 000 adultes sont analphabètes.”

        So, sadly, yes: 50% of adults in QC cannot read and understand a paragraph.

        Sadly, ROC is not better:

        http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/education/canada-shame.html

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  7. “These parents in Quebec who are suing because they are too cheap to spend fifty bucks PER YEAR to buy their kids a dictionary and a calculator really shock me. ”

    Oversimplification. Don’t forget that those tools should be available for free (at school, not on individual purpose) in Québec, but education boards are too heavily bureaucratic in Québec.

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  8. “They argue the cost of things they have to purchase for their children — such as music instruments, dictionaries and calculators — goes against the provincial law that states primary and high school education should be free.”

    This is THE point. Also, we should discuss the issue of those underuseful graphical calculators…

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    1. “This is THE point. ”

      – For a normal parent, this can never be THE point. The only consideration should be the comfort of the child. Children should not be used as a pretext for political activism.

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        1. I already said that people who can’t find 50 bucks per year for their kid should use a condom. If we believe in reproductive rights, we should also believe in reproductive responsibilities. The planet is overpopulated as it is, so I see no tragedy in a person waiting to procreate until $50 per year stops being a huge amount.

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  12. “The planet is overpopulated as it is, so I see no tragedy in a person waiting to procreate until $50 per year stops being a huge amount.”

    So nobody should breed because you don’t know in advance your financial situation…

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    1. If you invested time into getting financially stable prior to having kids, something really dramatic has to happen for you to suddenly be unable to afford 50$/ year on your child’s education. That being said, tragic situations do occur, but there are also lots of governmental programs to help those in temporary need. A class action suit does not represent these individual/rare cases, but rather speaks to the society’s overall sense of entitlement.

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      2. This sense of entitlement is created by overtaxing poeple who pay the high price for this education and bad spending choices by Education boards. 240 millions in 5 years for white boards, yeah right!

        And again, there is another case where other parents won in a similar case.

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        1. “And again, there is another case where other parents won in a similar case.”

          – At what emotional cost to their children?

          “This sense of entitlement is created by overtaxing poeple who pay the high price for this education and bad spending choices by Education boards. 240 millions in 5 years for white boards, yeah right!”

          – as I said before, if they want to protest against high taxes, more power to them. But they are picking this specific issue without considering how it will impact the kids. That’s the problem.

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        2. David, we are all overtaxed indeed (mind you, people in the lowest salary bracket pay 0 income tax). However, some of us choose to loathe in self-pity, launch bogus law suits, complain that bien être social is not high enough and refuse minimum-wage jobs. Others bust their asses, wait to have children and then do what needs up be done to provide for them.

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    2. People who don’t have some degree of financial security should really think twice. Especially people who can’t find $50 per year for a dictionary.

      “So nobody should breed because you don’t know in advance your financial situation…”

      – I personally know that I can make a very comfortable living in very dire circumstances. Those who have survived the 1990s in the FSU, can deal with anything advanced capitalist countries can throw their way. 🙂 🙂

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        1. I would really like to see you explain this difference to a kid who is forced to feel different at school and a burden at home.

          Just try to see the situation from the point of view of a kid. For one moment, imagine that you are 8 and your parents keep talking about these $50 and how upset they are about having to pay them. Imagine how guilty and miserable that would make you feel, especially if the parents of all your friends just pay the $50 and see no problem with it.

          I’m only saying this because I WAS THAT KID. I know what it feels like, and believe me, it is very very VERY unpleasant.

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    3. “The planet is overpopulated as it is, so I see no tragedy in a person waiting to procreate until $50 per year stops being a huge amount.”

      That’s what I would do myself (or simply spending this 50$) on a same situation (and I would not participate myself in such a class action), but I understand their point.

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  13. “Just try to see the situation from the point of view of a kid. For one moment, imagine that you are 8 and your parents keep talking about these $50 and how upset they are about having to pay them. Imagine how guilty and miserable that would make you feel, especially if the parents of all your friends just pay the $50 and see no problem with it. ”

    That’s why I would not participate myself in such a class suit (because I have too much to lose with this), but I understand their point.

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    1. “That’s why I would not participate myself in such a class suit (because I have too much to lose with this), but I understand their point.”

      – That was not the question. The question was how likely would you be to be this understanding if these were your parents and you were 8.

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  14. “However, some of us choose to loathe in self-pity, launch bogus law suits, complain that bien être social is not high enough and refuse minimum-wage jobs.”

    Maybe these law suits are bogus but these “minimum wage jobs refusals” are anecdotical.

    “Others bust their asses, wait to have children and then do what needs up be done to provide for them.”

    I have no problem with waiting a securization of the financial situation to have children. In fact, I think we should never breed.

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    2. I do wish that my experience with people refusing jobs because they got almost the same amount from milking the government was in fact anecdotal. And I was recruiting for basic clerical positions, not even manual work or heavy labour. Unfortunately I’ve witnessed it first hand and it has driven me to loath people that use and abuse provincial social systems. In the end, it’s the middle class that pays for them.

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  15. I don’t think so. I don’t see at all an academic future in economics right now. The academic market is oversatured in economics. Maybe I will start a private teaching company, but I have to find an administrative partner before…

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