I saw a documentary this morning about "The War on Kids" which is about the comparison of public schools to prisons. Admittedly I missed the first 20 minutes of the movie but I found that as I watched the plot unfold, I became angered at the points to ponder. The consensus was that the public school systems have become comfortable in what I call drill sergeant mentality. The powers that be decided that the best way to protect our children was to adopt a zero tolerance policy with drugs and weapons. The problem is that now kindergartners are being suspended for playing harmless games of cops and robbers and using their fingers for "guns". Teen girls who get punished for carrying Midol. In my mind the question has to be asked: how did we get to this point? Where did we stop teaching our kids the basic skills of math, reading and writing and when did we become okay with security guards at every door, security cameras in every hallway and classroom and the entertainment of the idea that teachers be allowed to carry guns? I am a parent and I have one last kid in school. The same high school that "lost" my first born is the same school that now is entrusted to teach my 2nd son. On the eve of the first day of school for my 2nd son, I sent an email to the principal of the school and basically told her that she fucked up with my first and I would be watching to make sure she didn't do the same thing with my 2nd.
(Long story short the school had my oldest both on a junior roster and a sophomore roster. They reported him absent for his AIMS testing. I reported him missing with the police. Although the police officer was standing in the school office asking students and staff about the whereabouts of my oldest, no one bothered to verify if he was in fact taking the test....right where he was supposed to be!)
But I digress. The movie uses "Lessons" as points to ponder.For instance: the use of security cameras as a means of providing eagle eyed security in school rooms and hallways. This is supposed to prevent another Columbine from ever happening again.......yet, as the film points out, the entire carnage was caught on security cameras. With each "lesson" was the pros and con's of the knee jerk responses we keep imposing on our kids under the idea of school safety. At one point the viewer watched as a variety of public buildings were shown and in the background were the voices of grader school kids all shouting either SCHOOL or PRISON. Each new building type was decided by the children based on it's outward appearance and the very last building was a multilevel building with bars on every window, tall iron fences surrounding the property and barbed wire curled along the edges of the iron fences. Looking very much like any standard issue prison.......but it was a school. The film suggests that school children are losing their basic human rights and that when they stand up and voice their independence we label them as defiant and put them on behavior modifications drugs. All of the drugs that we use to "control" ADD or ADHD have serious side effects and those children who are cycling off he drugs are at greater risk of psychotic episodes.
When I first moved from Tempe to Tucson, both my children were having a tough time adjusting. My oldest was having a especially hard time, and rightly so. His parents had separated and through no choice of his own he was uprooted and made to go to a new school with new teachers and make new friends. He struggled with homework, he fought against having to do it and it was a nightmare to get him to do it. He was presenting the signs of ADD so I finally took him to a doctor. This doctor told me he was addicted to sugar and everything would be better if I cut him off sugar and radically changed his diet. Not satisfied I took him to another doctor and his diagnosis was ADD and wanted to put him on Ritalin. I refused and ultimately made my life a living hell when I remained steadfast in my conviction that I would not put him on medication. Once I realized that his behavior was normal and approached him from a different angle things started to fall in place. I also did some research and discovered other and more gentle ways of treating ADD such as a combination of Omega oils and vitamins. My initial response was that it couldn't hurt and it seemed to make a huge difference.
I leave you with this.........
It seems to me, as it did to the producers of this film, that what we are doing simply is not working. Most, if not all of the actions we've taken is nothing more than a knee jerk response to a particular tragedy. As a parent I want to know that my son will go to school and make it home safely. I want to know that the school will take every precaution to protect him while he is under their care. I am no different than any other parent who feels the same. In 2009 when this movie was first released, schools had begun to lose sight of their true purpose: reading writing and arithmetic. Current events show that it's gotten worse in the last 3 years. It's not only the public schools which have failed our children, it is us as well. Somewhere along the way we allowed schools to take over raising our children, we agreed with the philosophy that prison type buildings and drill sergeant mentality was the best use of staff time and our children's time. Somehow we said that children with post traumatic stress disorder was better than no children at all. We decided that zombie kids was proactive parenting. Clearly what we've been doing isn't working. To continue doing the same thing and expecting different results is in itself insanity. I don't know what the answer is but I do know that education starts first at home. In today's world we have to teach our children how to protect themselves. How to "survive" school and where to go or who to go to when the proverbial shit hits the fan. Above all we, as parents, must truly be proactive. No, I do not want my son to learn about drugs from his friends, especially the one's the use drugs. No, I do not want my son to be part of the crowd that thinks guns are cool. But I also do not want my son to be expelled from school because he jokingly threatened his friend with a chicken nugget or go to jail because he has benedryl in his backpack for his hives. If you wouldn't stand for being watched all day, if you wouldn't allow anyone to force you into taking mind numbing drugs, if you would not allow your civil rights and liberties to be messed with-----------
Why would you expect your son or your daughter to? Find the full video here >>>> War on Kids
No comments:
Post a Comment