Parent (Behlen)

The following are transcripts taken from the personal journal of Phillip Moss, father of Edward Moss, an eleventh grade student enrolled in Ontario's new online schooling system. The entries are undated and presented chronologically.

A photograph of Phillip (center) and friends in a treehouse, c. 1995.

I’d say the most obvious difference has to be the use of free time. Growing up, I used to be out with the neighbour kids for as long as my mom and dad would let me. We’d run around the forest, building tree houses and trying to spear fish in the stream during spawning season. Or, we’d play street hockey until we could barely see one another in the darkness. Even as we got older and more into video games, it was split screen co-op, always a social affair. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t worry me. Whenever I see Ed, he’s always just slouched like a corpse in that desk chair of his. I used to laugh when my old man would say I was vegetating in front of the TV, but it’s starting to make sense to me. One of those things that comes with age, I guess. When I was younger, I used to imagine parenthood being full of play dates, and meeting other parents, but ever since Ed started with this online school, I haven’t met a single one of his friends. He insists they’re there on the computer, playing games and what not. I hope he’s telling the truth. It just seems unnatural to have a class individually. I always thought the socializing is probably just as important as the stuff they teach in school. I knew some homeschooled kids growing up, and they were always on the weird side. God knows what a generation of them would look like.

I’ve been thinking today about dinner conversations growing up. The family gathered around the table, sharing about school, work, and what not. Of course, at that age I didn’t have much outside of school to talk about. Maybe Ed’s just different, but he barely talks about his classes. He’ll go on and on about television shows, or the things he’s writing, or whatever new thing he’s into this week, but never school. I hate being the prying dad, but it’s like pulling teeth with him. I think Maggie does a better job at getting through to him, she’s always had a way with these devices. It all sounds the same to me. Maggie’ll teach me some things here and there, so Ed and I can talk, but the more I try to learn, the older I feel.

Today, Ed and I got into a bit of an argument. It was stupid, but afterwards I couldn’t help but think about how when I was Ed’s age, the first punishment I’d get was no screen time. I almost said that very thing to him today, but it hit me that’s not really something you can do anymore. I remember before Ed was born, people used to talk about screen time, firewalls, banned sites and what not. Seems like most people these days have given up on any sort of online moderation. Anyone short of some IT professional is never going to be able to outsmart some of these kids. Everything has a workaround these days.