Students Sabotage Parents

Most parents do not understand why students sabotage them. They view allegiance to strangers in faraway places like Gaza and Ukraine over family, as sabotage.

When students do not graduate because of their participation in protests that disrupt the running of the college or when parents have to bail them out from police custody, mothers put hands on their heads and cry: We agreed.

What was the agreement? Students convinced parents that going to college is a win-win situation for the future. In the absence of scholarships, parents made adjustments and found tuition fees and money for everything else. Most students prefer attending out-of-state colleges for obvious reasons: independence. Parents’ sacrifices are even greater in continents like Africa and Asia. They sell land, approach the bank, marry off daughters to rich men, anything to send sons off to the U.S. African parents like the idea of English or American universities because of student strikes in local universities. They might be striking against food or campus bullies that want the student body to follow a particular political leader. English and American colleges were regarded as ‘protest free’ institutions until the Gaza-Israel conflict.

Unless they are politicians, most parents do not understand world politics. That is why they feel betrayed when their kids protest on campus to the point of ruining their future, all because of strangers.  What could be more important than family, the immediate family?

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders