This Isn't The First Place I've Shared This Rant--And It Won't Be The Last!!!
Nov 30 '04
The Bottom Line WARNING: Our kids are in danger of being damaged!!!
INTRODUCTION:
A little earlier, I wrote a response within a Ritalin thread at this health site--and it exploded into a rant!
I'm now sharing it here after making it the subject of my HODGEPODGE column at Blogit, so you can see that I'm pretty wound up and riled up!
Can you blame me when I read and hear of examples of where our precious future (a.k.a. today's kids) is being taken for granted and put into neat, little packages for the convenience of society?
I hope that you don't get offended and think that I'm generalizing and pointing a finger at "all" teachers and "all" schools, because I'm not, and I think that I make that pretty clear.
Even so, we can't just hide our heads in the sand and pretend that this doesn't go on.
I hope that we can get a lively discussion going in the comment section here--and, if you've written (or will write at a future date) something on ways that our kids are being shortchanged in today's society, please share the URL!
A little while ago, I was in one of those message forums, and one of the subjects was the use of Ritalin in the schools.
Anyway, I ended up really letting loose on this one, and my feedback blossomed out into a major rant, which I'd like to share not only here but, also, a few other places, because it needs to be dealt with!!!
I'm no medical expert, but it's still as plain to me as the noses of Jimmy Durante, Ringo Starr, Bob Hope, & Richard Nixon combined that this Ritalin business is more about cutting corners in funding that should be used on giving kids a quality education--resulting in the "management" of excess-kids-per-classroom via drugging them into an obedient zombie state--of-being!
They talk about "dumbing down" the lessons taught to kids, but that's only part of the story, because a "dumbing down" of requirements to be a teacher is also going on.
And this isn't to say that there are no longer any good teachers out there, because that isn't true at all. There are lots of good teachers--and, unfortunately, many of these good teachers also get their hands tied by rules that limit their ability to teach.
And, no, I'm not talking about bringing back corporal punishment, because I've come to the conclusion over the years that this is NEVER appropriate for use at schools!
But I am talking about all of this "political correctness" and the like that interferes with meaningful interaction between teachers and students and between students.
Such as teachers being told not to hug their students, because it might be interpreted wrongly--or something on the order of a six year old boy kissing a six year old girl being a form of "sexual harassment."
GIVE ME A BREAK, ALREADY!
How well I remember that I volunteered with a class of special needs kids when I was a college freshman (back in late 1971 when all of this nonsense was starting to develop), and there was a little boy who drooled all over himself and wore a bib.
I liked to give gifts to "my" kids--something I eventually found to be discouraged for a truckload of ridiculous reasons--so I bought Timmy a bib from my college bookstore.
I wasn't allowed to give it to him because--GET THIS!!!--his parents might see it as my giving their son "charity."
Anyway, back to my original train of thought...
The teaching profession is, in my opinion, "dumbed down" when teachers are led to believe that they are teaching when they're merely spending a few hours in a classroom overpopulated with drugged-into-cookie-cutter-behavior kids!
Yes, there are actually schools out there--plenty of them, I've been told!--where kids line up at the clinic each day to receive their doses of Ritalin much like we used to line up to receive our little cartons of milk during a mid-morning break!
Why can't we bring back those good, old-fashioned milk breaks and dispense with the Ritalin lines?
Oh yes! I forgot! This might make some of the students "obese" and we certainly wouldn't want THAT to happen, WOULD we!?!
We must turn out kids in a limited number of cookie-cutter designs that are right out of Hollywood--and any kids not meeting this requirement should be "punished" by having to deal with daily taunting while teachers nod, wink, and, at times, even participate in this "fair game" game!!!
Anyway, this has turned into somewhat of a rant, but I hope you don't mind, because I'm sick and tired of kids becoming victims of a society where it's easier to dope them and/or brand them as taunt-able than it is to celebrate their individuality!
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AinsleyJo
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Member: Ainsley Jo Phillips
Location: Anderson, Indiana
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About Me:
I'm hosting a write-off: http://www.epinions.com/content_5362983044
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