The War on Boys-Part One
The beginning of a new series in which we will look at the ways in which contemporary society has declared war on boys. First up, two six-year olds receive a valuable lesson that playing as boys have since the dawn of time is now strictly verboten:
Two more Maryland school kids got into trouble for pointing their fingers playing cops and robbers at school.
Actually, in the Eastern Shore schoolyard during recess in this latest case.
It happened last week at White Marsh Elementary in Tabot County.
The two six year olds had been playing and were suspended for a day.
The father of one of the boys is in the Army and said he thinks the punishment was excessive for what amounted to horseplay between two first graders.
School officials declined comment citing federal confidentiality laws.
Go here to read the rest. Boys are going to be boys, and part of being a boy is normally fairly aggressive play that will involve lots of imaginary gun fire. Wise teachers recognize the natural aggressiveness of most boys and their desire to burn off energy through physical play by channelling it into useful paths. Saint John Bosco was a marvel at doing this. Idiots called teachers or administrators adopt zero tolerance polices and attempt to end such conduct by punishment, thereby convincing the boys that either there is something wrong with them, or that their teachers and administrators must be idiots.
19 Responses to The War on Boys-Part One
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What is distressing about this is that it did not occur in some chi-chi suburb in Montgomery County, but in a non-metropolitan county a ways away from Maryland’s cities, i.e. in the ‘red’ portion of Maryland. The effects of the faux-professionalization of teaching and school administration, the effects of tertiary “schools” of “education”, and the effects of the wretched agencies which accredit those “schools” are felt everywhere.
Donald Mc Clarey: I am glad that you used the term “imaginary”. “Let’s Pretend” a radio show in the 1940′s encouraged children to develop imagination. Children’s play is their work, growing into reasonable adults. Growing one’s imagination is creative work. The opposite is also true. The boys will tire and realize that pointing a gun, even an imaginary gun, at another person without a reasonable self-defense is not conducive to joy. This play makes the children think and begin to develop a virtuous life. This story is about Life interrupted from a society that does not love life. Life interrupted is pernicious. And why do taxpayers pay guidance counselors? The suspension did more harm than good. The administrators need to be held to account and give a good account of themselves. They are not off the hook because they are administrators. And of course, the suspension will go into the children’s permanent school records without question or trial, defaming the child who has not yet reached the age of reason. These administrators must be suspended in like manner to offset the injury to the children. Parents need to step up and claim their authority.
Of the two options listed, I’ll choose the second. Nothing wrong with the boys at all.
I’m so glad I homeschool. On most days, after they’re done with their work, my 12, 10 & 8 yr olds go outside to play with their nerf guns. My middle child is a girl & loves this game. They normally run around the house, using the sides & trees as covers. My husband wanted to put cypress firs along the front, near the road (we live on a busy street). At first, I said no, but maybe I’ll change my mind to protect my kids from busy-bodies objecting to their state-unauthorized play. We live in Maryland.
“Nothing wrong with the boys at all.”
Indeed!
When I was a kid Missy back in the Sixties, during the summer on week days local kids would gather together, about 14-20 of us, and play war, or baseball or football or bike races all day long. The only time our parents would see us would be briefly at lunch time. Better days than we are currently living through.
I see this as part of huge problem with school administration in general, too bureaucratic and too just too big. I went to private religious and secular schools. While these schools had consistent punishments, the teachers and administers actually knew the kids. They understood what behavior was just play and what pointed to a real problem. They would tailor their response to the situation and the individuals involved. My sister attends a very large public high school in Houston. The level of bureaucracy is staggering. If she’s going to be out for a day for a routine dr’s appointment she has to go to three separate offices to get an excused absence. Regulations also make it almost impossible for teachers to make exceptions in their grading and discipline. So a student who’s having problems (even temporary problems: illness, death in the family, etc.) and misses a few assignments the teachers can’t just let it go without being buried in a mountain of paperwork. We need to cut most or all federal educational regulations and put the power back in local schools so normal humans can make rational decisions. The regulation robots have taken over.
“The regulation robots have taken over.”
Comment of the month Mrs. Z!
Boys Adrift is an good book related to this subject. I hadn’t realized all the ways modern schools were stomping on boys nature. It goes on to link this with the glut of 20 somethings who live at home, don’t attend school, have no job and don’t see anything wrong with that setup.
http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Adrift-Epidemic-Unmotivated-Underachieving/dp/0465072100/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358346600&sr=1-1&keywords=boys+adrift
We need to cut most or all federal educational regulations and put the power back in local schools so normal humans can make rational decisions. The regulation robots have taken over.
I would agree with you that primary and secondary education is a service the provision of which does not benefit from direction by the central government or by provincial government, though quality control inspection is another matter. Still, I suspect you would still have trouble even if the federal government abstained and the state government limited its involvement to producing curricular guidelines, administering regents’ examinations, and the occasional imposition of trusteeships. Due to…
1. The metastasis of tort law.
2. Civil rights law and the attendant web of regulation and inhibition (supplemented by lawsuits)
3. The ideologies imparted by teacher training programs re-inforced by the agitprop of professional journals and magazines.
4. Degenerate professionalism, or, the wheel spinning and screwball division of labor produced by people in a mode of inflating their importance (a phenomenon more readily seen in library administration than teaching, to be sure).
It goes on to link this with the glut of 20 somethings who live at home, don’t attend school, have no job and don’t see anything wrong with that setup.
DarwinCatholic’s nemesis (Dalrock) has recently assembled some descriptive statistics which suggest that labor force participation rates of young men do not differ much from those of young women. I think you are going to have to drill down farther to identify the effect of this sort of asininity on the way young men interact with potential employers.
I have to agree with Donalds post with regard to the changed nature of our society. I, like Donald, have fond memories of my youth because they have no relationship to the current state of afairs of how children are being raised today… I remember going out in the morning with my friends to seek out adventure and fun… This included making go-carts, playing war games, walking the train tracks and sometimes even “Hopping” the trains as they went thru my neigborhood… I was allowed to make the mistakes I needed to make as a child in order to learn… I was allowed to win sometimes and to lose sometimes because that’s the nature of life… I wasn’t placed in a “Bubble” with my mother hysterically watching over me every second of the day… After I exhausted myself with play I would be called home to supper when the street lights turned on…. I am a successful man today and I arrived here without the benefit of Gay indoctrination in the schools and witnessing condoms being placed on a Banana in the 6th grade and GOD being removed from society by athiests who are “Offended”…
God help us all . Ipods have taken over our children’s minds. Robots indeed..
Normal boys. Weird adults. SNAFU.
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This stuff scares me silly– not because it’s getting kids use to follow-whims-or-be-punished, although that’s creepy, but because this sets up the situation where accidental shootings happen. The preventable sort, where old-enough-to-know-betters find somebody’s gun and “play” with a friend.
My folks never worried about us with guns, although “you don’t play shoot-’em-up unless the other person is playing, too” was enforced (possibly for reasons of parental sanity)… my folks were worried sick about other folks’ kids and their guns. The only time my little .22 got locked away was during family reunion times, because our city-kid cousins were morons about guns.
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There is a good article on the economic effect of the war on boys in The Western Catholic Reporter of January 14, 2013. Google “middlecolumn WCR January 14, 2013″ and go to page 2.