Posted on 02/02/2007 9:25:32 AM PST by Johnny Gage
There's a childhood epidemic sweeping Minnesota and the nation. Its warning signs aren't fever or skin rashes. The symptoms are behavioral -- and unmistakable.
Consider a recent, particularly virulent outbreak of the affliction in Maplewood, N.J., as reported by the New York Times. In the last few years, out-of-control kids from the middle school have overrun the town's library after school. They routinely mouth off to librarians, disrupt common areas, leave restrooms a shambles and race about, sometimes almost knocking over elderly patrons
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Highly fatherless, raised by daycare workers, legally untouchable (and they know it), no common morality, high sugar and caffeine consumption, video/music modeling, choreless, no responsibility for actions, no repercussions from bad behavior, not disciplined, disrespecting authority, and, oh yes, no fear of God.
The frightening thing is that in the Maplewood library (the library mentioned in her article) the librarians have LOCKED THEMSELVES IN during the hours during which the library is closed, namely, school hours. The kids, meanwhile, are still clustered around the doors, gazing in through the windows and panels. Night of the living dead anyone?
You hit the nail on the head. If that's ADD I buy it.
My wife takes our children to the library all the time. They check out two books a piece and we read them together at home. You might not go to the library, but there are plenty of us who do.
Glad to hear it, but why should taxpayers have to pay for my reading habits? Shouldn't I be responsible for my own reading materials? Since when is the local government responsible for my video/dvd/novel reading experiences? At any rate, I'm only talking about our own library, which is the size of a football field, with thousands of moldering old books, and virtually no patrons. This monstrosity, which is staffed by a half dozen "sleepers," costs us a mint.
It's tongue-in-cheek.
This has nothing to do with the psychological over-diagnosis of ADD. It has to do with not saying no to your children and screwing up their character. It's labeled as Discipline Deficit Disorder as a tongue and cheek poke to those who need to put everything in tidy little diagnostic boxes. As in "I'm sorry, I can't discipline my children because I have DDD." Or "My children have really bad behavior because they are suffering from DDD because of me."
Back up and try reading it again with that in mind and see if it doesn't change the perspective a bit.
BTW, I see you're new here. Welcome to Free Republic.
Back to work for me.
Interesting approach. Of course, I could take that "light hearted" approach with everything. But that's exactly how ADD was introduced into psychiatric nomenclature several years ago - by light-hearted jokes with little labels attached. You'd be surprised how these things take off once the pharmaceutical companies get hold of them. How about "Library Misbehavior Disorder"?
If county funding for the library were withdrawn I would have no problem paying for membership. I agree, it's only fair.
That's exactly what we've had to do.. Trespass them (unfortunately) -
We've raised our kids the same what as yours.
I find it hard to believe that libraries will be around in the next decade. Do children really need a taxypayer funded place to use computers and do their homework? Do we need to air condition and heat thousands upon thousands of books no one reads? Private libraries, on the other hands, are a great idea. They could even have swimming pools and squash courts, etc.
I don't have kids yet, but one policy my wife and I have already agreed to is that we will welcome any reasonable help we can get with discipline. If my kids are hanging out at the library after school, for example, I will make sure to talk to the librarian and let her know that if my kids misbehave:
1. The librarian should feel free to take all steps necessary to keep order and quiet.
2. The librarian should let me know.
3. The kids will be in deep, deep, trouble if the librarian lets me know.
I don't buy this "how dare you yell at my child" crap. Kids aren't born angels, and any help I can get to civilize them is much appreciated.
ADD is hardly a new idea. I was diagnosed as attention deficit/hyperactive when I was 3 or 4. I'm 39, now. Neither the doctor my parents consulted with, or my parents, thought that medication was necessary, however. They could have put me on Ritalin. Who knows, maybe they should have, because I always did have the attention span of a gnat in school.
We use our local library a lot too...just recently my eight-year-old jedi got interested in Route 66 (because of the movie "Cars") and we checked out all kinds of movies and videos about the topic.
Still, we only go during school hours. It's a madhouse otherwise.
I'm sure private libraries would just loose the hounds of class warfare. Barnes and Noble and Borders would have to change their "free look" policies in a hurry as well.
Right. The librarians I've spoken to are afraid of the children. That's key to this problem. They are afraid to ask the kids to be quiet, behave, etc. And who can blame them? One kid in our library went on a rampage smashing windows after he complained to the librarians that he was hungry and they shrugged.
Our library is connected to the community center. They rebuilt it a few years ago, and I do think it is great.
It's close to my son's middle school, and he goes there once a week while I take my daughter to speech therapy.
In the library section, there is a teen reading room, a community room (that has different speakers, and can be rented out), a computer area, a huge kids area with books and comfortable seating. In the community center area, there's a gym, a supervised teen center with lots of teen activities (air hockey, x-box, foosball, board games, and some organized activities), a kitchen that has classes, lots of classroom with tons of different activities.
My kids and I love going there. It's been a godsend for me because my son has a safe place to go when I can't pick him up.
Our library and community center is always busy. It's like a community hub.
I still have the attention span of...Oh, look, a butterfly!!
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