After reading an article in the Dallas Morning News in regard to dealing with kids who may or may not be violent, I have to say that I am glad I'm not now growing up in such a restrictive environment. Here's the article: http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/307061_prevent_14liv..html Some of these folks seem to be saying that if, for instance, a child is at recess playing Cowboys and Indians, he should be suspended from school (actually they give an example of where young kids were suspended for something like that), or at the very least, sent to counseling. When I was growing up, playing Cowboys and Indians (or Star Wars or whatever) was considered what normal boys did. I hate to think that all those people I grew up with were ticking time bombs just waiting to explode. I guess it's just luck of the draw that not a single one of them even attempted to shoot up the school. I also don't like some of the other examples they use. For instance, using a variation of the phrase "blown away" isn't necessarily a terroristic threat. I could be a theater arts type person who wants to write a play that is going to "blow people away" or I could say that I'm going to blow some guy away when we race out on Soncy Road this weekend. Personally, I would need some context to know whether the guy using that phrase meant it in a violent way. These experts seemed to think that anyone who uses that phrase needs a good talking to (one even said the kid should be immediately suspended until they can find out what he meant). Sam thing with the phrase "I'm going to kill you". I can't tell you how many times people have said that to me in a playful or joking manner. Some folks would say that person needs to be immediately suspended. (And one kid was suspended for saying he wished a teacher was dead. There are a lot of people I've wished dead: Bud Adams, the guy next door who won't turn down his stereo and has bad taste in music, etc., etc. That doesn't mean I intend to carry out my wish. And really, what I am truly wishing for is that those people would've done things the way I wanted. I don't truly want them dead. I want Bud to have not been a jerkoff with the Oilers, and I want my nextdoor neighbor to turn down the bad music. I also wish that there was something good on TV on Saturday nights. Just wishing it doesn't mean I'm going to buy a network and program good Saturday night shows.) ------------------ Houston Sports Board The Anti-Bud Adams Page
Too true mrpaige... sometimes it seems as if kids have more problems created for them from adults trying to "do the right thing". Just let the kids play. I used to run around during the 3rd grade and throw myself up in the air trying to fly like the "Greatest American Hero"(was that the name of the show??). I always ate crap when I crashed down onto the dirt, but at least I was entertaining myself. I didn't have adults telling me or my parents that I suffered from delusional fits and that I would never be balanced or comfortable on the earth or some bs. ------------------ git it tag, git it!
Russia says the best way to take over a Country is to corrupt its children . ------------------ Oh yes I'm helping with the California Power Crisis , I've turned off more women than Achebe
The biggest difficulty with children is the fact that we attempt to mold them into the behavior of adults which, of couse, they are not. Schools, teachers, parents, churches, etc. are all trying to get kids to calm down, behave, act civilized, pay attention...and on and on. When they don't, they label them "problems," "ADHD" or worse. They put them in counseling or on medication to deal with their natural agressive, antsy and rebellious tendencies. This is not to say kids don't need structure. They do. And, often, parents don't provide it. With sexually transmitted diseases, a high divorce rate, long work hours for parents, juvenille crime, drugs, not to mention all the distractions like TV, the internet and video games, it's no wonder kids have problems. ------------------ fArt don't pay the rent.
Yes, Achebe, but you SHOULD have been talked to...your Nazi-esque patterns of behavior just on this BBS have been QUITE disturbing... ------------------ Jazzkiller
Maybe parents just suck nowadays, with babies making babies and all. Anyone can make a kid, but not anyone can raise a kid. Maybe it's the media hyping everything; maybe kids are more evil today; maybe it's just my imagination. Or what Chris Rock says: "you ever thought they just plain crazy? What ever happened to being crazy?" ------------------ When I die, I want to be reincarnated as that chair in the Britney Spears video.
Its not babies having babies, for that has been happening since the beginning of time. I think Jeff's thought is more like it. 30 years ago, there was a least one parent at home taking care of the kids. They didn't ship them off to day cares or babysitters to let them take care of their children. With all the sexuality and violence they see on TV and around in their lives, how else can you expect them to act? ------------------ Nice guys finish last ... and im surely not going to finish last!
Space: I think single-parenting isn't so much the problem as lack of attention. Kids need lots of it and they don't get it. The worst substitutes are the ones we hear about: gangs, sexual partners, drugs and alcohol. Of course, I almost wish my parents had split up. They stayed together because of me and basically hated each other though I never knew it because they didn't fight. The problem is that, by staying together, they taught me all of their disfunctional problems. My parents had those problems because their parents had exactly the same problems. They hand it down from generation to generation. The difference today is that there is more opportunity for kids to become involve in things that are dangerous. Our entire culture has changed from race relations to child labor to marrying for love (they used to do it for other reasons) to gender roles to sexuality (there was always as much, it just wasn't discussed). Many of these changes have happened in a short period of time, societally. Think of how different we are as a society from 40 years ago! That is not to say we should go back. That would be worse. We have to learn, grow and develop and it takes time. It will be generations before racisim is eliminated, for example. Kim said, "Maybe it's" this or that. Actually, it's ALL of that. It is a problem that doesn't have a single solution. Putting a parent in the home may help a little but it doesn't fix the whole problem. Teaching kids about drugs and sex will help some but not entirely. It will take a much greater, broad-based effort to eliminate the problems of our society. There are no quick fixes and, for some solutions, we'll just have to wait, unfortunately. ------------------ fArt don't pay the rent.
Here's another Zero Tolerance instance. This one from Arizona. Tolerating less than zero justice March 11, 2001 A few weeks before Christmas, 1999, Mike Ford got a call from the police saying his 15-year-old daughter and one of her friends, both honor students at Washington High School, had been arrested for producing a "hit list" of people they planned to kill. The girls said they didn't plan to harm anyone. Neither had been in trouble before. The Glendale Union High School District's own spokeswoman said, "It was basically just making a list and smarting off in class." Then she added, "But we don't fool around with this, especially in today's atmosphere." This wasn't long after Columbine, and already our paranoia was out of control. Already the "zero tolerance" policies in our schools were being enforced with zero common sense. "My daughter was taken to jail, strip-searched, deloused and thrown in a cell overnight," Ford said. "And no one had even bothered to find out if there was any truth to what she'd been accused of." Ford recalled that in the eighth grade his daughter took an elective class in anger management. One technique the kids learned involved making a list of things that angered them. "She had been doing that ever since that class," Ford said. "The idea was, you make the list, then you tear it up or whatever, and it releases the anger." Labeling their negative lineup a "hit list" is what got the girls in trouble. "But anybody with half a brain could see it wasn't serious," Ford said. "It had the names of students and teachers on it, yes. And parents, too. But it also had a cartoon character from the Kentucky Fried Chicken ad. And the Power Rangers. These were girls who'd never done anything violent. They had no access to guns. They were good students." Because we are afraid of what might happen in schools, accused kids are presumed guilty from the start. These are the witch hunts of the new millennium. Ford's daughter was never charged with a crime. The other girl was prosecuted, but a judge tossed out the case. That girl's attorney, Tom Rawles, said, "Zero tolerance only means that we as adults have lost our ability to make tough decisions." It's unreasonable and unfair, yet just about all of us go along with it - until one of our kids is wrongly implicated. "When the charges were dropped, it wasn't front page news like when the girls were arrested," said Ford, who spent about $5,000 in lawyer's fees for his daughter's defense. Facing suspension, both girls eventually left Washington High School. Since then, one has graduated with honors from a different school, and the other will graduate soon. Normally, we'd happily print the names of kids who've overcome obstacles and reached goals. But not this time. "These girls lost a big part of their social lives," Ford said. "They lost friends. And, the world being what it is, they have this terrible stigma attached to them that neither one deserves." As if to prove it, The Republic last week featured a front-page story in which Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley spoke of the need to prosecute dangerous juveniles as adults. Among the local examples the article cited was a case involving a high school girl's "hit list." ------------------ Houston Sports Board The Anti-Bud Adams Page
There's nothing wrong with the music and programming on TV, its the parents that fail to guide the children. They should sit down and talk to their kids about what they are watching or listening to. Parents think that giving kids whatever they want is good parenting, by they forget that the most important aspect of parenting is simply being there for the child. ------------------ Re-elect President Gore!
