I don’t know how many of my friends, acquaintances and/or readers keep up with the news of the day. I suspect most of you. People who surf the web and access web pages such as mine are, I think, curious and likely news challenged. Thus, my comments about a news item of yesterday will come as no surprise. I was appalled by the news report of the young boy who was attacked on a school bus and worse, by the report that it took the father two weeks to gain access to the video of the bus attack. I could not believe that the school, the police and the bus driver would be so derelict in their responsibilities. It is amazing to me that our society has come to a point where we cannot confront issues of violence without “political correctness”.
Several months ago my brother in law, a bus driver for a school in Cottonwood, Arizona, punished a child who was misbehaving on his bus. He was terminated because he did not follow the school’s guidelines in dispensing punishment for a clear act of disobedience. My brother in law is a wonderful person, a strong disciplinarian but he has a unique way of relating to children. As I understand it, his offense was requiring the offending child to sit in an appointed seat away from his friends. If our schools and their staff cannot or will not permit simple ground rules of structure, how can we expect our children to grow up respecting the law? Isn’t it time we revisit our guidelines for building moral character and reviewed what constitutes right or wrong? Certainly, parents should take the lead, but should we not also support those in whose care we entrust our children and give them a broad foundation for the exercise of discipline?
I remember as a child learning first hand that any disciplinary action at school would be met with equal or greater discipline from my parents. My parents always supported the teacher at least insofar as I was ever to know. What, if any, discussions that may have been conducted outside of my hearing range, I never knew and for that, I am glad. I was sent to school to learn and my teachers were empowered to teach me discipline and to educate me. That, in my opinion, is as it should be. On the other hand, our teachers in those days knew right from wrong but alas, that should be a subject for a future dissertation.
