Ping, if you would ping all the MN freepers.
Not liberal. She is the Stribs token conservative.
Our city just started a curfew for unattended teens at the malls. They have to be gone every evening by 6:00 (I think) unless they have an adult with them. I don't know what happens if they disregard the rule - maybe someone tazers them. It's an idea that my wife is happy with and she's started shopping at the mall a lot more than she did before.
Something probably happened to her at the library.
Katherine Kersten...highly liberal? Not hardly.
Part of the problem is the increasing use of public libraries for after-school day care. Parents send their kids "to the library" -- hey, it even sounds like a good thing. Kids as young as 5 or 6, left unattended, or watched by their older siblings.
It's free, it's "educational", and it passes off the problems to the state. Librarians are loathe to take action, because "where else do the kids have to go"?
There are a LOT of kids growing up without parents. Well, they have parents, but they see very little of them. It's almost like "Lord of the Flies", but as a day-trip.
Katherine Kersten is not "a highly Liberal writer".
She's the 'other' conservative at the Star Tibune (Lileks is the other one).
Katherine is a key member of the conservative think-tank Center for the American Experiment, based in Minneapolis.
"...But without rules and limits, kids become self-absorbed, disrespectful and unable to delay gratification, says Walsh. And without challenge and disappointment, they fail to develop the "psychological muscles" -- resilience, resourcefulness and determination -- that they will need to cope with life's inevitable adversity."
Substitute "kids" with "leftists," and you pretty much hit a bigger nail on the head.
This should be daily required reading for all parents, teachers and other people interested in a healthy society. Seasoned and unseasoned. Its so easy to forget and to give in to the prevailing culture.
Thanks for posting it, even from a source as surprising as this.
They should try evicting misbehaving kids. If they refuse to leave, or come back, throw their butts in juvie for criminal trespass.
Most parents we know disapprove of the way we handle our kids, but they like the results. We make them do chores, tell them "no", and basically raise them the way we were raised as military brats.
Our kids are hard workers, polite, respectful, and we can take them anywhere.
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.
Possibly the access to porn in libraries in some communities attracts the wrong kind of patrons.
This morning I took my 6th grade son to our class because he had an orthodontist appointment and he sat in on our speaker for a short while with me....when we walked out of the class early to go to his appointment he said "Dad,why were those kids in the back of the room talking thru the speakers presentation?"....he sat there and watched the disrespect these kids have as Seniors (who should know better) to a visiting speaker. I just told him that let it be a lesson learned on how annoying and wrong it is when someone is trying to help you and you blatantly disrespect his authority and professionalism.
Thank goodness my kid saw that and gets it!
Of course, such liberal writers also lead the crusades to outlaw corporal punishment and crucify any school officials who actually attempt to address DDD . . .