the good stuff – www.goodstuffhome.com
by Tami Otterstatter
School Direction
I’m going to date myself a lot here. When I was in high school, big hair was required, mullets were it, and we pinch rolled our jeans on purpose.
Zooba pants with tiger stripes were acceptable, blue mascara looked cool, and leg warmers were something we spent good money on – are they really coming back? Every guy had at least one pink polo he’d wear with the collar flipped up under a Levi’s jean jacket – another trend so old it’s new again.
All of these things, although in poor taste, were not against the rules.
But there were some things not allowed. Gum in class was a no no. If your t-shirt sported an alcoholic beverage, you won a trip straight home to change and explain it to your parents.
If you launched a water balloon at a teacher or pulled “The Cord” in the shady back corner of the chemistry room, welcome to a three day suspension. And carve your initials in a shop table and you’d get a quick introduction to the paddle in the tool room.
But we didn’t know what a bomb threat was, we would have thought meth was some new flavor of cough drop, and never – not once – did we fear for our lives walking through the doors of our school.
Would my classmates and I seem mild by today’s teenage standards? Yep, just like our parents seemed like prudes to us.
But what on earth are we in for if the things in school today are nothing by the standards of teenagers 20 years from now?
It can only go one of two directions as evidenced by two recent school crimes.
The first happened in a small town America school. There were security guards and metal detectors in place to protect the lives of everyone who walked through the doors. But lives were lost anyway as a child gunman broke all the rules and fired shots in disillusioned hate and anguish. It was a tragedy that didn’t even make the top headline on the national news. Where will we be in 20 years?
The second happened in a small town America school. There were federal regulations in place to protect the rights of everyone who walked through the doors. But heads were bowed anyway as people broke all the rules and gathered for a silent moment before a Jr. High basketball tournament to pray in faith and harmony. Where could we be in 20 years?
As parents, we may never be able to control our children’s questionable taste in clothing (did I really wear gauchos?), but the direction of tomorrow’s generation is in our hands today.
Invite in the good stuff…”Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6
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