Whenever folks my age hear about kids getting into trouble in school our reaction is the same: we would have been in more trouble when we got home!
This came up again when the St Charles, MN schools detected drunk students and called in the police to do breathalyzers on all the students during a graduation practice. Turns out some has been drinking but were still allowed to march in the ceremony.
But guess what? The ACLU was all in arms that the school had violated the students rights by doing the tests! I don’t know if their will be a lawsuit or what, but it does paint a strange picture.
First, most people are concerned about underage drinking for many reasons. Driving cars, judgment impairment, (like getting drunk at a school function) and potential loss of life via binge drinking to name a few. Check any treatment center for kids and you will hear more problems.
Second, the big topic most days is education; why it isn’t working well and how it can be made better. Most of the solutions involve throwing more money at it. Maybe we just to let teachers teach and give them the authority to enforce rules that make education possible?
I was probably an attention deficit kid in school; back then they called it under achieving or just being a screw off. I needed the authority teachers had in order to stay in line as much as I did and was chastised often for fooling around. I’m glad I was as I am sure I did better with the discipline. I never heard my parents complain about the teachers, they just asked me what was up with me.
Sure, it is more complicated now with unions, Federal and State Governments seemingly getting more say about what is going on in schools. But eviscerating the teachers does not seem like a good idea to me. Many teachers have told me that too.
We have far too many people concerned about their rights rather than their responsibility. The St Charles school is a good example of a school trying to teach responsibility and getting beat up with rights. How can schools teach responsibility if they have no authority?
I think it was a good thing St Charles did and the kids were lucky they had that authority. I applaud them!
Great points. We are too concerned about rights and not offending anyone to focus on responsibility and doing right.