“Mrs. Jenkins! Look out behind you!” *crash* “Ah…Thank you Sally. Here’s an extra box of animal crackers. As for you Johnny…that axe almost hit me. You’re going to spend the rest of recess in time-out for that.” My question this time around is quite blunt. What the hell is the world coming to? Yesterday’s news included some shocking headlines. At least nine third-graders (boys and girls) were suspended from their elementary school in Georgia for plotting a violent attack (possibly murder) on their teacher. That is not a typo above. Third-graders were plotting homicide.
This is completely appalling. There are issues about children and teens having sex younger than ever (as will be the focus of a future blog), but I’ve never heard of a homicidal eight year old epidemic. This truly can’t be blamed on one source but between violent cartoons on television, anger management, and lack of parental supervision, we may have at least a basic knowledge of the driving force with led the elementary students to react in a violent manner. It really doesn’t matter that the students happened to have learning disabilities or AD/HD. From personal experience, I can safely say, no child is unmanageable when provided with caring, yet assertive parents and proper entertainment sources. Choosing Bill Nye or a book over Jerry Springer might solve some problems.
I hate to think what could happen next. An army of binge drinking two year olds or herds of racist youngins on the verge of their fifth birthday. We need to pay more attention to children. Their environments and family shape who they are. Teenagers all reach a certain point where changing outlooks on life or personalities become an incredibly hard thing to accomplish. It is children who are most vulnerable to the world’s influences. A balanced diet of morals, structure, and parental love must be fed to them. We don’t want Sing-Sing becoming a day care now do we?
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"As for you Johnny…that axe almost hit me. You’re going to spend the rest of recess in time-out for that."
So. Funny!
I saw an entry earlier today about this, but yours was so much better. More of your own thoughts, some humor, and a complete disregard for Johnny's axe. Good job!
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While I hold the opinion that the primary cause of issues with kids and teens these days stems from the parents, I also agree with the poor tastes in TV shows these days.
It's not so much that they're violent. Kid's shows have always been violent, if you think about it. It's the type of violence (cartoon vs realistic) as well as the overall intelligence of the shows these days. You mentioned Bill Nye, and it got me thinking about just how much the quality of kid's TV has declined. When those of my age group (early 20s) were growing up, it was with Bill Nye, the tail end of the classic Bugs Bunny, and The Magic School Bus. I think the most mindless show was probably Ren and Stimpy, but even that was generally for kids that at least had two digits in their age.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Ren and Stimpy along with Beavis and Butthead (MTV in general) were the "bad" shows. But these were set aside for teenagers. You are right on with this comment. The TV should not be the babysitter. We need take three or four hundred closer looks into how our children are developing their perspectives of this world that is aparently bent on destruction.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
definitely been declining in quality since my childhood. I grew up with "consider the following" and Arnold’s incessant whining about attending school on any given day. Now children spend their time watching dreck. Of course the quality of commercials has gone down the tubes as well but that's best left for another of my blogs to discuss.
I loved Bill Nye. Even though we never had the stuff to do the at-home experiments, I learned a lot about science from that nutcase. He was pretty cool back then.
I love abortion. Read more here:
http://progressiveu.org/044921-i-love-abortion-even-if-it-murder
As if educators don't have enough problems facing them already. Low wages, ridiculous no-child-left-behind requirements, and obsessive manipulative parents weren't bad enough? Now we have to continually watch our backs for a possible murder plot?
I've been thinking about this for a while now too. If people don't start to teach their kids morals they will grow up to have none.
I truly believe that the fault rests with inattentive parents. If the parents were attentive and caring, then the fact that there are violent shows on the TV wouldn't really matter because parents would be monitoring what their kids watch. I know that this isn't always possible, but at the very least, a parent could observe whether or not their kids were exhibiting homicidal tendencies and do something about it.
The fact that kids are having sex younger and younger is probably a result of the same thing, but will probably end up being a cause of further problems, I believe. Kids who grow up thinking sex is no big deal have a higher risk of becoming pregnant and then becoming parents way to young to BE parents. The whole thing makes me sad just thinking about it.
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You must be the change you wish to see in the world -- Mahatma Ghandi
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. --Mahatma Gandhi
My Blog: http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/kablock