Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post Reply
User avatar
robbyyoung
Posts: 811
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:23 am

Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by robbyyoung » Sun Sep 20, 2015 7:16 am

Hello Everyone,

God bless and thanks for taking the time to read what I think, historically, is a non-issue. In a recent article published on September 12, 2015, titled - "High school cracks down on drop-offs of forgotten items", Principal Michael Kotkin said, "the school will provide a cafeteria lunch if a teenager has left food or money at home, but otherwise he thinks students need to show up prepared for their school day or deal with the consequences." The critics main complaints are as follows:

1. Not very customer friendly.
2. We are all human, and accommodations should be made.
3. Understanding the developmental growth of teenagers should fosters forgiveness in educators when mistakes are made.

I opened saying that this was a non-issue. I say this because this is nothing new in society. In fact, most, if not all, homes adopt some kind of penalty for their kids not taking responsibility due to chronic forgetfulness. Starting in the home, effective planning rewards those who develop this skill early on in life, whether it's a teenager's first job or classroom education, healthy competition over one's peers in regards to 'paying attention to the details' fosters good discipline.

As a Christian, what do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments, pro and con, in the article?

Here's the article: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features ... story.html

God Bless!

dizerner

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by dizerner » Mon Sep 21, 2015 3:38 am

i'm all for showing a little grace

User avatar
steve
Posts: 3392
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:45 pm

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by steve » Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:52 am

I am for requiring discipline. The school should not have to be the one to do it, but should do so if it is neglected by the parents.

Most forgetfulness can be attributed to deliberate inattention and distraction. Most teens today spend a great deal of their time escaping to other worlds through video games, and ignoring the world of responsibilities in which they should be living. A large percentage of them are also smoking weed, or using other drugs. These two choices account for most of the forgetfulness that educators are seeing in the classroom.

In addition, if schools had zero-tolerance for cell phones in the classroom, it would give the kids a better chance of paying attention to the teachers. There is absolutely no reason why a student needs a phone in class. Texting has become an addiction, like a drug, and receiving a text in the class room provides an irresistible distraction—perhaps dozens of times per class session.

I realize that the kids' ability to stay focused is challenged more today than in any previous generation. First, because the real world in which they live (due to boredom, parental non-involvement, turbulence in the home, global political and economic instability, etc.) may be a world from which anyone would be tempted to escape as often as possible—and they are the first generation in history to have so many portable means of escaping into fantasy lands of danger-free adrenaline spikes and hormonal stimulation. The fact that half of the students come from dysfunctional families places them at terrible risk of despising the real world and seeking alternatives.

My wife is a community college art professor. She is in the fourth or fifth week of the present semester, and a large number of her students still have not obtained the materials that they were supposed to bring to class the first day, so she has to lend them materials owned by the school. Chronic forgetfulness is simply a function of apathy. Students in high school and community college often don't really want to be there. They want to get back to their game or their music—or chat meaninglessly with their friends by way of texting.

My wife has to tell the same students repeatedly to take the ear buds out of their ears. Last week, she was talking to a student about his work, and he put the earbuds back in his ears while she was talking (she had made him remove them from his ears at the beginning of the conversation).

Student apathy and distraction is usually a result of poor parenting. The parent who allows the teen to have a television in his/her bedroom, or to spend more than an hour or two a week with a game system is, in my opinion, delegating the training of the teen's character to the media—a hand-off which is more dangerous at this stage of societal degeneration than has ever been in the past.

It should not be the schools, but the parents, who make sure the student doesn't forget necessary items. I am in favor of home-schooling up through Jr. High School—and possibly beyond. I doubt if the character problems the schools are seeing are found in teens whose parents have been adequately involved in their children's education in the younger years, and who still supervise their children's schooling into high school.

Having said that, parents are facing daunting challenges today in that they cannot supervise their teens 24/7 (and by the time kids are that age, it should not be necessary for their parents to do so). There are no guarantees that their teens, while associating unsupervised with other kids, will not encounter and experiment with drugs. Once those are in the picture, sadly, all good breeding and self-discipline can disintegrate rapidly.

dizerner

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by dizerner » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:49 pm

Reminds me of the old Seinfeld bit, "No soup for you!" Well, I went many lunch hours with no lunch back in school, I never thought to complain or whine for a lunch.

steve7150
Posts: 2597
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:44 am

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by steve7150 » Tue Sep 22, 2015 11:38 am

[verseblock]God bless and thanks for taking the time to read what I think, historically, is a non-issue. In a recent article published on September 12, 2015, titled - "High school cracks down on drop-offs of forgotten items", Principal Michael Kotkin said, "the school will provide a cafeteria lunch if a teenager has left food or money at home, but otherwise he thinks students need to show up prepared for their school day or deal with the consequences." The critics main complaints are as follows:
[/verseblock]






The principal is right and he would not be doing them any favors by coddling them. Kids are coddled to much and clearly nowadays they want to remain as "kids" well into their twenties because they never have had to be responsible. Make them accountable and they will be better people and better prepared for the real world.

User avatar
TK
Posts: 1477
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:42 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by TK » Thu Sep 24, 2015 10:58 am

Steve-

If you would be so kind, can you post that response to FB so I (we) can share it? I know a lot of parents and students that need to read that.

User avatar
steve
Posts: 3392
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:45 pm

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by steve » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:56 pm

Okay. I posted it here: https://www.facebook.com/steve.gregg.39?ref=tn_tnmn on September 24th, 2015.

User avatar
TK
Posts: 1477
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:42 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by TK » Thu Sep 24, 2015 8:54 pm

Great- thanks Steve!

User avatar
robbyyoung
Posts: 811
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:23 am

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by robbyyoung » Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:11 am

Excellent narrative Steve, I pretty much agree with your observations and solutions to the systemic problem to this issue, and others, in regards to our young people. The structure of our society is broken on so many levels, but here's the scary part, it's not broken enough for serious change to take place. So what's it going to take? Do we, as Christians, agree we cannot attempt to treat The Tourniquet with a Band-aide?

This is why Christians need to get involved in the process (of governing ourselves) that can fundamentally effect positive change within the structure of America's society. Therefore, young people need an alternative, voices which are catapulted over the current noise that produces adverse behavior. This will be a long tedious battle for the soul of our children and good of society. Darkness must be driven back into the shadows of shame, whereas now, it's encouraged and hailed as points of light in our day. The kids see it as such, and thus, act accordingly with not much push back and backing of the peer pressure of society.

When the parents fail in their responsibility, the structure of society should be able to fill the void, else, we will have a nation of feral children left to survive and figure things out on their own. In essence, this is what's going on in too many american households, and society is failing to do it's part in a manner that fits the tourniquet/band-aide analogy. The featured story is a tourniquet for the soul of the kids, school and community. However, voices in opposition must continue to be beaten-back and shamed, or else, it's ugly head will rise again to fill a void. Christians must get involved locally to present the good of our tenets and shame those who fundamentally erode the decency of a civilized society. This is why I applaud those christians who choose to serve in the governing process, especially when I fail to answer the calling. Therefore, it is right to at least support those who do.

God Bless.

dizerner

Re: Schools crack down on forgotten items?

Post by dizerner » Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:00 am

My how times have changed.

Post Reply

Return to “Family”