Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Demise of Our Children

I am so disillusioned by the state of our country these days that I am almost speechless. ALMOST. I am constantly amazed by what I hear on the news about shootings and fighting and killing. Most of you think I am talking about world affairs don't you? No, I am talking about our children and our schools. These things are happening on a regular basis in our children's schools. As parents we should be so outraged that we tell our kiddos that there will not be a toy or car or video game left if we ever hear of them bullying someone. But that is not happening. So do we blame the children, the schools, or the parents??

 I have experienced as a parent the receiving end of the bullying with my child and I will say that with all the very silly privacy rules in place that I was not allowed to know the names of the children or parents of the offenders. How ridiculous is that? This people are terrorizing my child and you are protecting them? I am also very aware that the no tolerance policy in schools only takes effect when they want it to. In our case the bullies were very prominent athletes at the school and they did not receive one iota of disciplinary action. The school's response was to tell my child that if he got in a fight with them he would not get in trouble for defending himself. Um, they are three times his size and you are promoting violence. Nice.

 As a result of this chain of events, my child now despises school and the assailants have gone on to bully others unscathed. I think about the children that have died over bullying. I wonder how many of them begged for help and their schools let them down as well. I wonder how many of them kept their pain and suffering to themselves until they could not handle it anymore and snapped. I am grateful my son came to me so I could help him.

 But what can we do? Parents are so busy anymore and so many are not willing to get involved unless it is something that directly involves them. We have lost our love of community and our theory that it takes a village to raise children. Now if anyone dares correct or even report bad behavior of our children, the first thing the parents do is shuck responsibility. "It could not possibly be my Johnny's fault! He is perfect!" News flash!! All kids mess up and do stupid stuff.

 I truly fear what my youngest son has to look forward to in school in a few years. It is some scary stuff. You are really not safe anywhere anymore. Not at the mall, not at the movie and not even in school. We need to get God, discipline and responsibility back in our kids lives before it is too late. I ask that tonight and every night you say a prayer that our country gets back on track and our children as well.

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