Another young person has thrown their life away. I am saddened to see the death of Heath Ledger especially on the heels of Brad Renfro's. There are many theories why overdoses happen, I personally have never used any illegal substance (unless you count alcohol before I was legal age) so I am not qualified to give my opinion on the matter. That has never stopped me before so I don't know why it would now. The two young men remind me of River Phoenix, and I am sure there are thousands out there that are less well known. It is where I believe Brittney Spears is headed, that girl has done lost her ever loving mind. I think it is truly sad to see such a waste of life when there are thousands of people waiting for just one of the chances they threw away by the fistful.
You know I saw something online earlier, and I am kicking myself for not making note of where I saw it, it said: In the 1940's the biggest complaint of the teaching world was chewing gum in class. Was it really that recently? I mean let's take a look at what a child in a fairly large city would have to deal with in public school 60 years later. You have to pass through a metal detector just to get in the building because of all the guns that are so easily acceptable to irresponsible, egocentric, chickenshits who think nothing of taking as many lives as possible before blowing themselves away. There are drills for lockdown, just like for fire or tornado drills. Then you have to avoid the drug deals going down in the hallways because the staff in charge of supervising the hallways are scared of the kids. They have taken away grading scales in some schools because it applies too much pressure on the children. I was raised with you have to earn grades, if you don't perform, you don't pass. There was extra credit work to help not replace your actual grade. When did it become the adults are scared of the kids and not the other way around. Maybe I am showing my age but I was taught to respect my elders and I am ( I hope) teaching my kids to do the same.
My mom laughs at my trouble with Chick sometimes because she says I used to tell her 'you don't know what it is like in school' (mostly because she never went to high school) and I have been told that too (funny about things coming round and going round). The truth of it is, I don't. Things have changed so much in the 15 years since I graduated. Granted there are some basics that remain the same and probably will till mankind is erased from the earth. There will always be bullies, there will always be 'that girl', there will always be the one that throws all their potential away, the ones that excel. But I never had to worry about some pissed off loser coming to school with a sub machine gun and opening fire. If I got into a fight with some girl over a guy, it wasn't potentially life threatening. If I failed, I failed, my fault, my bad. Not my parents, not the media's, not the school boards for making me say the pledge of allegiance.
It is definitely a different school experience then what I had. When my daughter tells me that I don't know, I hope she explains. And I hope I listen.
1 comment:
i know it is hard to parent children in today's society. I feel as if we don't get to parent OUR way, but...on the flip side..at least you only have to parent, not teach them too! (not saying parents don't teach their kids anything..)it is hard. It is hard teaching children when the parents want to blame all their childrens faults/and even their own faults on a "faulty" education system. Then you add all the children who are born with to drug addicted parents, removed from their homes, etc. Then the fetal alcohol, failure to thrive, etc. Then we have mainstreamed special education students (even severely handicapped) and expect teachers to be able t "teach" all levels, and also be a "parent" to the child, because so many parents aren't. It's hard to be good parents. You're doing a wonderful job with your kids. I wish I had more parents who were as concerned with their kids like you are.
love yas
whimp
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