Schools Ban Childish Behavior, But Are They Going Too Far? -- The 'Re-Engineered' Child

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | ANDREA PETERSEN

[TroutStalker]

Should You Worry: No. Eye rolling is the dirty look du jour among kids and while it can be annoying to adults, it's benign.

Should You Worry: No. Having a few loyal pals is good for a child's self esteem. Signs of trouble: If the clique excludes other kids, or if one child dictates how others dress or act.

[kinghorse]

Garbage.

They should punish disrespectful behavior as defined in the school code of conduct. They should also not fear reductions in funding when student class rolls decline due to expulsion. That's the problem.

[yankeedeerslayer]

Boo Hoo... He's picking on me. He looked at me. She said something mean about me. He's laughing at me.

Sounds like my car on a trip with kids in the car.

[bigfootbob]

We need a ban on psychiatrists!

[TroutStalker]

The growth in the number of school psychologists in some states also means there are more professionals around to intervene. In California, for example, the number of school psychologists jumped almost 20% in the past six years to 4,063 psychologists, up from 3,388 in 1997.

Yet Kali is laying off teachers because of the state budget crunch. At what point will public schools indoctrination exceed education?

[ClearCase_guy]

OK: "I feel bad when you swipe my book." Not OK: "You're a thief."

Clearly, there is nothing wrong with a child's chosen occupation of Book Stealer. Equally, it is clear that a child may need an attitude adjustment if they have inappropriate feelings toward another student. Yup. Nothing like isolating the real problem.

[2nd amendment mama]

The growth in the number of school psychologists in some states also means there are more professionals around to intervene. In California, for example, the number of school psychologists jumped almost 20% in the past six years to 4,063 psychologists, up from 3,388 in 1997.

Here is the whole crux of the problem!!!!! When I went to school there was no such thing as a "school psychologist" and we didn't have half the problems in school that they have today. Oh yeah, and when we did do something wrong - the punishment at school was minor compared to what we got at home when our parents found out!!!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

It's all about socialism socialization.

And everyone knows that's the government schools' strong suit . . .

</sarcasm>

[bigfootbob]

"Yet Kali is laying off teachers because of the state budget crunch. At what point will public schools indoctrination exceed education?"

It already has.

[asformeandformyhouse]

At what point will public schools indoctrination exceed education?

1973.

[thepitts]

PC crap.

[JohnGaltSpeaking]

Well maybe if we ban all mean words there will be no more violence in the world. What a bunch of crap. If the teachers could teach, you wouldnt have kids doped up in class. If you had administrators that punished bad behavior you wouldnt have as much of it. But clearly sitting in a sircle and making fun of ourselves is good, model UN like behavior...

[Capt.YankeeMike]

Get your kids out of the public school cesspool....

Only solution, the system is beyond repair...

The Capt.

[Leatherneck_MT]

and yet more of a slide into Utopian Communism. If you haven't pulled your child out of public school and found some way of either schooling them privately or at home, it's high time you did.

Semper Fi

[2nd amendment mama]

Agreed! This was why I homeschooled my son!!!!

[Orangedog]

The only problem with the interaction of these kids is the school's medling and harmful indoctrination. Bullying didn't become a problem until they started coming down hard on the kids who defend themselves. Bullies understand one thing and one thing only...a forceful, brutal and immediate response from their target. When someone knocks you down, you get right back up and then make sure that nothning short of intervention from God stops you from pummling that bully. The best advice I ever gave my kid was "never start a fight, but ALWAYS finish one that is brought to you!"

[A. Pole]

The Anti-Defamation League's "Names Can Really Hurt Us" program gets kids to talk about times they have been bullied. The Southern Poverty Law Center's year-old "Mix It Up at Lunch" day effort encourages students to spend a lunch period sitting with kids who aren't in their clique. A cornerstone of the new movement is enlisting kids to police each other for teasing and nastiness, sort of a junior version of the neighborhood-watch program. At St. Thomas More school in Spokane, Wash., students can fill out a "Request for Assistance" report when they see another child pushing, gossiping or "ostracizing." If a child is caught bullying a third time, the class determines a punishment that can include Saturday detention or eating lunch alone for a week.

The social engineering becomes more radical and intrusive than in early Stalinist Russia or in China of the time of Cultural Revolution. It will not lead to the creation of New Man as the progressive loonies think. It will lead to the collapse of family, of reproduction rate and to the replacement of the Western populations by the Third World immigrants who are less affected by modernist fantasies.

[ladylib]

"I feel bad when you steal my book, you thief!"

[A. Pole]

Get your kids out of the public school cesspool.

The disease of radical modernism is not restricted to the public schools. The article explictly mentions also Catholic school!

The disease is affecting whole scoiety and culture.

[theFIRMbss]

>"I feel bad when you steal my book, you thief!"

Given some headlines
we've seen, this story could have
been even dumber.

It could have been like:
"Susie, you do not call John
a rapist, you just

explain to him that
you become angry when he
invades your space." Yech.