My anger over the upcoming Obama speech on Tuesday, September 8, has my thoughts somewhat scattered, so please bear with me if I tend to ramble.
Those of us who are children of the baby boomers remember a much different world than the one we live in today. Parents actually had a say in the upbringing of their children. Now, that authority is being usurped by those who think that they know what's best for today's children.
How many of us remember when children were treated as such instead of adults as today's youth are? You don't know how crazy it makes me to attend a gathering only to find that someone has felt it appropriate to allow their teenager to sit in on a conversation between adults and offer their two cents in every sentence. I didn't get that privilege until after I graduated high school. Sorry, but I don't want to be talking about something with another adult and have the teenage perspective through the eyes of "Twilight" added.
During my childhood, my mom had the authority to spank me and my brother. Do you know that the longest walk a kid can take is the one to get a switch off the sapling in the yard? By today's standards, that parent would be jailed and the kid totally empowered. I always told my kids that if they ever thought about threatening me with calling child welfare to get their way to make the call. I'd make sure that they weren't wasting a trip. We weren't abused as kids, but our mom understood that God puts a child's hearing in the backside.
In much simpler times, we were educated. Calculators were not allowed (not even for the SAT's), and typewriters did not come with spell check. Today's kids are hyperventilating if they have to write a one-paragraph paper. And mouthing off to teachers like today's teens do??? Let's just say that the reason I never skipped school or got into trouble in school wasn't fear of the principal or teacher. It was knowing my mother would be waiting for me when I got home.
What happened along the way from the early 70's to now? Biologically, humans haven't changed, so that can't be it. My opinion? It started with the "You know better than your parents" message taught to the hippies of the 60's. That started the ball rolling. Creation of the Department of Education, elevation of self-esteem as a top priority for kids, and a total breakdown of the family unit fueled the fire. Tuesday's speech by Dear Leader will only further take parents out of the equation of child rearing. We will be reduced to the titles of "incubator" and "sperm donor."
Common sense parenting is not dead. I see it all over the blogosphere. The government needs to get the hell out of our way.
Friday, September 4, 2009
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2 comments:
The Constitution does not allow for federal control of education. It was always a 10th Amendment issue where it was reserved to the individual states, counties and cities to make educational decisions and to manage public education.
The Nanny State stepped in and swept away much of that because they took our money from us and then gave it back to us with massive strings.
Now, years later, Dear Leader plans to use those strings (well intended years ago) to promote his cult of personality.
Things need to be set right, but we need to roll back YEARS (both Republican and Democratic administrations) of federal meddling and return control of the schools to the States individually.
LL: I'm with you, pal. Until the federal government gets out of the education of our kids, we will continue to fight with our dying breaths.
I'm not sure that I'm even comfortable with state governments having a say so in education. I live in Pennsylvania and cringe at the thought of the likes of John Murtha and Ed Rendell dictating educational policy.
I'm angry to the point of nausea right now. I'm going to update soon after I go to my son's high school.
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