When I was a kid, my mother had a very strong role in choosing my friends. While kids today seem to think parents have no business selecting their friends, and some parents feel the same way, they are distinctly wrong.
Parents not only have the right to be involved in the friends and associates procurement process for their kids, they have a moral obligation to be so involved.
Children are not adults. They do not have the reasoning power of adults, nor do they have the skills, social and otherwise, to make such important decisions. They need and deserve the help of their parents.
Here’s the thing. Children will tend to become like the people with whom he associates. If the people they associate with are classless, they will lift them up, but will sink to the level. This is almost a universal rule.
As a society, we have yielded the control and influence of our kids to the public school system. Not only does their education suffer as a result of this, their social skills do, too.
Does this seem counter intuitive? Does it seem like school would be a viable, maybe even ideal, place to develop social skills? Think again.
There might have been a time when schools were good places to make friends, develop relationships and grow socially. That time has passed. Schools have become quasi war zones and social cesspools.
When did schools degrade to the levels they are at today? The answer is multi-fold. It began with the moral degeneration associated with the removal of prayer the public school life. It progressed with the methods used to desegregate public schools.
The instantaneous desegregation that took place provided an extreme cultural shock to students. They were thrust into social situations for which they had not been prepared. In typical government form, desegregation was thrust upon children without their previous knowledge or training.
Desegregation was very late in coming to public schools in the United States. It should have been done from the beginning, of course. Failing that, however, it should have been introduced gradually over time, beginning with preschool and proceeding year-by-year until it was accomplished and appropriate adjustment had been made. By now the process would have been completed and schools would have been much more of a melting pot and less of a boiling pot.
But like everything else the government does, it was all-or-nothing. Thus the process bred contention and dissimilation. Teachers were not trained, administrators were not trained. The government just threw the desegregation baby in the pool and said, “Swim!”
Another influence in the degradation of class in the society is the entertainment industry’s insistence that people behave without respect or civility toward each other. To see this in its most reprehensible form, watch a few episodes of Maury.
There you’ll find the dregs of society drowning in the depths of depravity. Other shows, as well as movies, are not any better.
The result of all of this is that children have been relegated to the lowest common denominator of society’s fractional nature. As they have grown up, no one has cared to correct their sociological plunge and they have led society to its present condition of virtual classlessness.
Isn’t it time to take steps to reverse the downward spiral? Are we beyond the point of no return? Will we ever see the day when there is a distinction between ignorant classlessness and societal maturity?
Parents not only have the right to be involved in the friends and associates procurement process for their kids, they have a moral obligation to be so involved.
Children are not adults. They do not have the reasoning power of adults, nor do they have the skills, social and otherwise, to make such important decisions. They need and deserve the help of their parents.
Here’s the thing. Children will tend to become like the people with whom he associates. If the people they associate with are classless, they will lift them up, but will sink to the level. This is almost a universal rule.
As a society, we have yielded the control and influence of our kids to the public school system. Not only does their education suffer as a result of this, their social skills do, too.
Does this seem counter intuitive? Does it seem like school would be a viable, maybe even ideal, place to develop social skills? Think again.
There might have been a time when schools were good places to make friends, develop relationships and grow socially. That time has passed. Schools have become quasi war zones and social cesspools.
When did schools degrade to the levels they are at today? The answer is multi-fold. It began with the moral degeneration associated with the removal of prayer the public school life. It progressed with the methods used to desegregate public schools.
The instantaneous desegregation that took place provided an extreme cultural shock to students. They were thrust into social situations for which they had not been prepared. In typical government form, desegregation was thrust upon children without their previous knowledge or training.
Desegregation was very late in coming to public schools in the United States. It should have been done from the beginning, of course. Failing that, however, it should have been introduced gradually over time, beginning with preschool and proceeding year-by-year until it was accomplished and appropriate adjustment had been made. By now the process would have been completed and schools would have been much more of a melting pot and less of a boiling pot.
But like everything else the government does, it was all-or-nothing. Thus the process bred contention and dissimilation. Teachers were not trained, administrators were not trained. The government just threw the desegregation baby in the pool and said, “Swim!”
Another influence in the degradation of class in the society is the entertainment industry’s insistence that people behave without respect or civility toward each other. To see this in its most reprehensible form, watch a few episodes of Maury.
There you’ll find the dregs of society drowning in the depths of depravity. Other shows, as well as movies, are not any better.
The result of all of this is that children have been relegated to the lowest common denominator of society’s fractional nature. As they have grown up, no one has cared to correct their sociological plunge and they have led society to its present condition of virtual classlessness.
Isn’t it time to take steps to reverse the downward spiral? Are we beyond the point of no return? Will we ever see the day when there is a distinction between ignorant classlessness and societal maturity?
5 comments:
Joe - You make a good point when you say that parents should have the right to help choose their kids' friends.
And you are right about what public schools have become.
There are two things you are right about. Maybe there are more.
Joe, now that Radical Redneck has been exposed as the troll over at Shaw Kenawe's blog, he's here trying to pass himself off as Fredd.
I post this just to let him know that he's known and can go back to being himself.
sh: Hmmmm. I can't tell. Have I been insulted?
Ducky: Did you frighten him off?
Ducky,who was Radical Redneck exposed as? Without name,rank and serial # you got nothing.
It really is such a shame about what our public school system has become Joe. Makes me sad that young people are being deprived today.
To turn this around would require a 12 step program. Step one take the liberal ideas out of the equation and replace them with conservative values. Can't go to the next step without completing step one.
If the liberals manged so successfully to denigrate society it is going to take strong values to at least put a rational thought in those vulnerable minds.
Post a Comment