Friday, February 12

Where Have All the Parents Gone?

I hopped on my favorite news site this morning, and what was among the top headlines but this little gem: Girl, 6, Handcuffed, Committed Because Of Classroom Behavior.

I don't really know which annoyed me more, the article itself or the inane comments posted after it by morons who should be culled out of the gene pool by a handful of efficient eugenics laws. I know I am more sensative to such news this week compliments of some appalling situations happening in our local schools. Though they have not yet garnered media attention and the administration is taking a far less martial approach, the principle is the same: teachers and students have the right to be safe in school. If your child is disruptive, insubordinate to reasonable requests and violent, the school district has the right to restrain them in any manner necessary for the protection of others! Don't like that? Then teach your kid to behave!!

What malady of a diseased brain leads a parent to think that their "little angel" should not have to be respectful of adults and employ civilized behavior when out in the world? Has no one figured out that when you don't discipline children young, and teach them what is and is not appropriate you end up with college interns breaking windows trying to assault the boss who fired them? Has no one done the math and realized that if we continue to raise an entire generation of these little monsters that we will decimate our future? What happens in 20 years when there is no one left in the realms of business or education to restrain these tantrum throwing frenetics, and the workplace becomes a free for all of physical trauma every day? It will be too late to fix it then. Especially since there won't even be anyone who knows enough about the old standards to champion their revival.

I have read that the decline of civilization and development of strong, morally sound men and women began in the late 1800's. Before that point, men primarily worked from home or a close by shop in their given vocation. Child rearing responsibilities were shared by both parents, and often supported by extending family living with them or nearby. Positive role models and firm discipline abounded, and children grew up understanding everything from gender roles to their vocation from their earliest years. They grew up to be productive citizens or were cast out of society; end of story. (For an eloquent essay on this subject by a woman I have huge respect for, read this.)

After the industrial revolution, which drew fathers out of their homes and time honored vocations and into "the world", several wars that left swaths of widows and orphans in their wake, and the social revolutions of the 60's and 70's, we find ourselves here. In a social and cultural mess that threatens to eat us all alive. More days than not, I dream of buying a tract of land in the middle of nowhere, posting signs that say "trespassers will be shot; survivors will be shot again" and withdrawing from this chaos until we are lucky enough to have the Zombie virus wipe everyone out and let us start over.

But then I spend afternoon with a little blonde munchin her mother calls "girl-child". Almost 5 years old, full of boundless energy and laughter. I watch her mother teach her manners, read to her and take her to Sunday school. I watch several sets of friends who have had children in the last year dedicate themselves to their children, enfolding these new lives into a circle of friends and family who see them raised with love and discipline and hope. It is almost enough to convince me that we just might make it.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to start making a point of thanking and encouraging all the parents I know who are doing a good job. I'm going to speak up whenever I see madness and lack of discipline. Finally, I'm going to pray diligently for all the precious little people I know, that they will be safe in this crazy world if we can somehow keep it from self-destructing before they have a chance to change it.

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