Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Rules Have Changed


Now here is a real live snotnosed whippersnapper. A nicer word would be juvenile delinquent.

This 13 year old faces 128 felony charges in Ohio. That’s a lot of felony charges for a seventh grader. The charges come from a crime spree that lasted a year. Since he is so young the prosecutor said they will try to get him rehabilitated through the system.

I have a feeling he will need more that a prison system to get rehabilitated. He needs a miracle. A huge one. Some parents might help too.

The incredible crime spree was brought to light after another kid who was a witness to a few if his crimes went to police. Before they could arrest the punk, he beat up the witness. His stepfather was quoted as saying the kid had a rough childhood. I think it would be safe to say he is HAVING a rough childhood.

The other night I was talking to a couple of elementary schoolteachers. I was astounded when they told me that cussing has become so prevalent in their classrooms that they don’t even stop to deal with it anymore. For instance this teacher told a student to put his book bag on the floor and the student promptly replied, “Get out of my blanking face” - and he didn't say blanking. He told me if he stopped to take disciplinary action every time one of the kids in his classroom did that he would never have time to teach.

Wow.

When I was in the fourth grade a student would have been expelled from school if he had said such a thing to a teacher. I remember Miss Susie Woods writing the rules of her classroom on the chalkboard the first day of school. I don’t remember all the rules but I remember two of them. One was we could not say the Lord’s name in vain. The other I remember is we could not say the word “shut up.”

We didn't use either of those particular phrases either because we knew the rules and there were consequences if we broke them. The teachers also had 100 percent backing from the parents at home as well. If we got in trouble at school we would get in double trouble when we got home.

The rules have changed.

I’m reading a book entitled “Murder at the County Line.” It is about a couple of teenagers who killed a man for a small amount of money. The interesting thing is that the murder happened in 1923. So I suppose there have been juvenile delinquents all along. Maybe that makes me feel better.

There is no doubt there is still a large group of great kids out there who have the potential to one day lead our great country. And I sure am thankful for each and every one. But if we are not careful the skedaddlers like the kid pictured on this page will take over. And when that happens we are in trouble.

The rules have definitely changed.

I think we better figure out a way to change them back.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure some of your readers will disagree with me but......I feel that discipline has been thrown out the window--growing up, if I did something wrong, I toted a butt-whippin'--if I did something wrong at school, my mother knew before I got home from school and I suffered the consequences for my actions and believe me it wasn't "time out". I didn't have any "civil rights"--just the privilege to live in my parent's house and eat there. My kids certainly weren't perfect growing up but they did know who was in charge in our household and it wasn't them. Most kids today have no respect for any kind of authority--don't like anyone to tell them what to do. Can you imagine ever being that disrespectful to your teacher? or to anyone for that matter. OMG, I sound like my Mother!!!
Sue

Anonymous said...

Discipline is the a major problem and I believe that the lack of is due to too much government involvement. Young parents are afraid to spank their children because they feel threatened by Family and Children Services. But I feel that the main reason for the problems today is prayer. The lack of it in school. When you completely removed God from anything, you are in BIG TROUBLE. As Sue said, they have no respect for authority and the reason is they don't respect themselves. If they did they wouldn't punch holes in place that shouldn't have a hole or paint there bodies like a billboard.The answer to this problem is to pray for a butt-whippin'.

Anonymous said...

Thank the good Lord for people like you kathy--I haven't given up on the children--it's the parents. I feel a person/child has to be loved unconditionally in order to love themselves and to have self-respect. I have several teachers in my family--you guys are all special. God Bless.
sue

Anonymous said...

In my 21 years of teaching I have never had a student direct that kind of language at me. I would probably cloud up and rain all over his/her parade if it happened. In fact, I have clouded up and thundered at students for much less provocative language. My daughter teaches 7th grade at Taylor Co. Middle School. Recently, one of her students directed some very inappropriate language at her. Anzy Hardman, the principal, quickly took appropriate disciplinary action. I can't imagine an administrator doing otherwise. I may be wrong, but I don't believe teachers at TC have to ignore such incidents as the teacher in your blog described.