“Why does it seem that both sides of the political spectrum have lost faith in the ability of parents to raise children who are good people?”
My answer is - because we let them control us.
I remember years ago, an 18-year-old student in my class kept falling asleep. When my students sleep in my class, they have to stand up during class. When I called him, his grandmother (who was the one raising him) told me that she could not get him to go to bed and he played games all night long. She said that he listened to me and asked that I called him up every night and tell him to go to bed. Even though I was skeptical, I did call him up for a week at 10pm and told him to go to bed and go to sleep. His grandmother said that he listened to me. After that, I had a heart-to-heart talk with this young man and told him that he was an adult now and he needed to be responsible for himself. He knew what he was responsible for and didn’t need me to tell him when to go to bed. I never had a problem with him after that.
Years ago, teachers would get paid once a month for 12 months of the year, even though we didn’t work the summer months. Then the school district allowed teachers to get their summer pay early in a lump sum. I would take my money and buy a 30-day CD and a 60-day CD so that when they matured, I would pay myself and earn interest on the money I saved. Some teachers told me that there was no way they were going to get their money early because they would spend it all and then couldn’t pay their bills. I never understood that reasoning from a person who is teaching our young people how to be independent citizens in society! These teachers would rather let the district control their money rather than control it themselves.
We need to teach students to take control of their own lives and be responsible for their decisions. As long as people think it is easier to let others control everything, more of our freedoms will be taken away.
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