Reading my local paper

I was looking through a local community guide which comes out quarterly, and tends to be directed at families. It tells you all the fairs, swimming lessons, etc going on in the area, and has a lot of ads.

We live in an area where some folks think nothing of spending $10,000-$25,000 per year on private school for their 7-year-old. One ad for a private school had the banner "What's the most important decision you'll make in your child's life?" (Uh, not sending them to your school, where apparently life is defined by academics?) Another ad touted "multisensory learning," "SpectorPhonics," "strategies for language organization" and a host of things I'd never heard of. Another said "Come see why our kids are one step ahead!" (Don't people get weary of all this competition?) But hey, if you want to send your preschooler to a place that incorporates Tae Kwan Do into its daily activity schedule, you can find it in my area (seriously, that was another ad).

By far, though, the weirdest thing I read was this:

Therapaws Reading Session: [--] District Library.
September 16 and October 21.
All kids ages 5-10 (accompanied by a parent or guardian) are invited to read one-on-one for 10 minutes to a dog that's been trained by Intermountain Therapy to help improve kids' reading skills by behaving as if it is interested in being read to. Appointments required. 3:30-5pm, free.

I say to the private schools: top that!