Thursday, October 14, 2010

In case I wasn't convinced...

I hardly ever watch TV.  I watch the show "Parenthood" on Tuesday nights, the Weather channel and sometimes the news.  But the last few weeks, about once a week, I flip on a morning talk show as the girls and I eat breakfast and do our morning chores and every time, it is something about education.  Either it is the crisis going on in our schools where students are under-performing OR it is an issue of bullying where parents are talking about kids laughing at the memorial service of a girl that was bullied until she took her own life.

Sometimes, I think I am meant to see these things to just make me more convinced that homeschooling was the best choice.

We live in a nice, middle class town.  Over the last few days there have been some things going on in town that I am aware, issues of violence against a girl that is a little older than A, disrespect by teenagers for senior citizens in a public setting.  Perhaps, the most troubling, a gun was turned in today at the school that A attended last year and would be at this year.  The notice about the gun came via an email blast from the school system (apparently they did no remove me from their list).

I sit here tonight thankful that my girls don't go to school, thankful that they don't have to deal with these kids, these situations.

I know that I can not protect them forever.

I don't understand what this world is coming to.  I don't get it.  Are we all so caught up in the demands and pressures of society that we forget about our kids, respect, common courtesy?  Have we become completely jaded?  Are we afraid to discipline our kids?  Is this a result of some parents not knowing when to tell their kids no, you can not have or do that?  Are we too tired to discipline our children?  What can we do about this?  How can we stop this?  Are we putting too much pressure on our kids or not enough?  Why do we tolerate this?  What will happen if this kind of tolerance continues?

I am glad that tomorrow morning, my girls and I will get up and enjoy breakfast together and do our morning chores.  We are looking forward to editing A's imovie vlog about making things from clay.  A will do her second bridge in "Life of Fred" and P has her first quiz on "Teaching Textbooks", my girls will work on their lapbooks about the state of New Jersey, learn a little more about the history of our state and complete another test in Sequential Spelling, and then we will prepare for either a park day (if the weather is nice) and friends to come back to our house after, or just prepare for friends to come over and play with clay and hang out if the weather is not so nice.

I am excited for my pre-Twentieth High School Reunion party at a bar in my hometown, to reunite with people that I have known for more than 30 years.  We had our issues, we teased and were teased...but guns were not part of my generation.  When I was in 8th grade, we had a HUGE project and one of the kids ordered pizza to be delivered to the library.  The library called the school and complained.  That was about the worst disrespect that happened.  And now, as an adult and a librarian, I recognize the flaw, but I still find it amusing and I wish that was all we had to deal with: pizza delivery at the library!