Something's Wrong, #2

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT

Reducing child-rearing to its simplest terms, one could describe it as, encouraging good behavior and discouraging bad.  "Don't hit your sister!"  "Share your toy with Johnny."  Recent news gives evidence that our culture is doing the opposite.  Yesterday's STTA tells of a "policy" that reflects our society's growing unwillingness to take a chance in order to save a life.  Other news idicates that it is even worse than that.  In our absurd focus on eliminating and controlling things that some people use to do wicked things, we actually end up punishing innocent or even heroic activity.   We can all take comfort in knowing that our schools are being kept safe from deadly weapons, like the one pictured to the left.  I only hope that Al-Qaeda doesn't figure out how to gnaw bread into atomic weapons!  I likewise hope that Arundel County, Maryland, officials are conducting sufficient investigation to find out whether this pastry-based killing machine has a high capacity magazine.  We have to put a stop to such things. Well maybe not. While it is important to take a stand against pastry guns--I mean, after all, these things are invisible to metal detectors--we can't leave disarming bad guys to mere mortals.  Such work must be left to professionals--people with the keen eye and steely nerves that enable them to tell the difference between breakfast and terrorist threats.  In Florida a young man observed a classmate pointing a 22 revolver--non-pastry version--at another student.  The report is that rather than threatening to eat the revolver the young man was threatening to shoot his fellow bus-rider.  Not realizing that gun-removal, pastry or steel, must be left to professionals, the young man stepped in and wrestled the gun away from the would-be shooter.  Fortunately no people were harmed or toaster-pastries chewed.  In order to discourage amateurs--you know, the kind of folk who can't spot a deadly pastry-gun in plain daylight--from saving the lives of others, the young man received a three-day suspension.  One can only hope that the young man is kept out of school permanently.  We have to protect our children; they are our most precious asset. Enough.  It's not funny! I know many educators who are terribly bothered about these examples of common-sense, being replaced by senseless bureaucratic rules.  We need to pray for these points-of-light.  Systems that reward heroism with suspensions are not friendly to teachers and administrators who show courageous Godliness and good sense.  Pray for them. These two examples are just two of the more notable examples of parents being replaced by the education machine.  Mom, Dad, resist this tendency.   I'm so dumb that I think that the only danger posed by pop-tarts is tooth-decay and obesity.  Me, I would have given the Florida lad a medal.  Obviously, I don't know anything about educating children, but if you want to listen to someone foolish enough to believe that parents, not bureaucracies ought to raise children, tune in tomorrow.  In the mean time pray. It's STTA.