Operation Oatmeal Date Thursday, April 25, 2024 - 07:33 PM PST Topic Rant I've a question... I had the oportunity to speak with a teacher the other day during a day long lull at work, and we got on the subject of children. She asked me if I felt music, movies, and video games were responsible for the violence in children, for hypersexual awareness and in general, behavior problems. I flat out told her no, and she was sort of shocked that I was so blunt. I then said, to her in effect, that it's not the music, the movies, or the games that were destroying kids, it's the lack of guidance and supervision from their parents that makes them unable to distinguish between entertainment of any sort and real life. They grow up in daycare, then they're sat in front of the babysitter box, drop kicked to the mall's curb and bade "go play", and then they can't figure out why they're unhappy or violent or out of touch with reality, so blame the music and movie characters they associate more with mother and father than their own parents. So naturally when the kid does something wrong, of course it's not something they did, they didn't do ANYTHING...since the kid was born...it's because they did NOTHING. She gave me the most astounded look I've ever seen anyone gave me in my LIFE. I'm assuming she'd never heard someone put it that bluntly...and coming out of the mouth of a five foot 22 year old with 1/2" stretched ears working retail. I said I was sorry, that I'd probably said more than she wanted to hear, and she was just flabberghasted... said she knew exactly what I was talking about.... gave me her card, and said that if I ever wanted to know what it's like to be a teacher, to call her and I could sit in on some classes at the elementary. Wierd! ANYWAY... I also discussed with several kids during back to school about dresscodes. Do you know that in the schools in my area, tanktops on girls aren't allowed? That the straps must be four fingers wide to be acceptable, as the shoulder is considered "provocative"? I know *I* get all hot and bothered at the sight of a supple tender teenage shoulder.... That some kids aren't allowed to wear anything with studs on them, shaped or pointed? Or wallet chains at all? I asked a lot of them why, and they said they were considered weapons. More and more schools are changing to dress codes to keep the cliques and peer violence/bullying down. They actually think it will eliminate it! Take away the stimulus, extinguish the behavior, right? W R O N G ! ! ! ! ! ! What you are doing is just that...eliminating the stimulus so the "symptom" of the behavioral problems don't bubble up and bother people. Not to mention that now these children are immersed in a homogenized mass the equivalent of orderly rice pudding..... and when they finally graduate and hit the "real world" they won't know how to handle people who perfer ambercrombie over the gap let ALONE *gasp* they run into a hippie...what's wrong with their hair?! Chances are they'll graduate, step out into the real world, have the shock of their lives, have an aneurism and die on the spot. Don't get me wrong... I have admiration for educators... I hope to be one some day. Most are fine people who care... some are hopeless unhappy hypocrites who don't even know what their job is anymore. They are expected to raise america's children, but aren't given the authority or the grounds to help the kids that need it... it's a tough job... give them some slack. Anyhoo.... so, in their effort to deal with bullies and social picking and singling them out, they take away the fragile individually they are trying to establish, make the bullies and the victims invisible to each other, right? Again, wrong. Bullies are bullies, victims are victims. Bullies will find something to pick on, if it's not how someone dresses, it's their hair color/style, it's their weight, it's their music tastes, how they talk, how they walk, how they eat, what they eat, where they sit and who they talk to etc. They'll find something, they'll find a victim to release their insecurities and hurt on, just as their parents put it on them by showing the child they don't care by not watching them, not talking to them, not caring...all pleasantly and nicely wrapped in the chant of "kids will be kids". Of course, the only reason they're being picked on is their clothes, right? OF COURSE! *sarcasm* So we'll force conformity on the only freedom they have, their dress, and they'll be happy cause they're not getting picked on for being the freak they are, right? Sure...keep telling yourself that. People don't want kids anymore...they want orderly, obedient, miniature replicas of themselves that are content to sit and mimic and be quiet. Seen and not heard..... They don't want to deal with the behavior problems that they caused, they don't want to deal with their questions, their problems, their MINDS... after all, kids don't have minds, do they? What? They don't want to empower the helpless and humble the viscious...they want them to just forget about it like they do... wrap it up in polo's and slacks, pat it on the head and say "there, isn't this much nicer? now go to the mall and play, mommy and daddy want to be alone." I have fucking kids come to ME with questions! To ME with what they did at school.... to the black haired lady with the seahorse tattoo at the mall. Sad, isn't it? My coworkers and I are the ones telling them why they need a job, why they need to think of the future, listen to their stories and their awful jokes... sad, isn't it? Wrap them up in cute little outfits no different from their neighbor and solve their problems. Mask the bullies and bury the victims. Peace in indifference. Utopia in a polo. Seen and not heard. Sound good to you? This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=310