Well, one week down, 17 to go!

Hello, friends!

I know that may be a pessimistic way of looking at the school year, but, the longer I teach, the more discouraged I get about today's young people. Oh, don't get me wrong. I LOVE to teach and I love coaching, and I won't be doing anything else for as long as I know, but it IS discouraging to face the fruit of what society is producing today and have a positive outlook for tomorrow.

Why do I say that? Back in the day, the outlook of most young people mirrored that of society. People of my generation were parented by the people who fought WWII. You know, people who knew what it was to sacrifice personal gain for the common good; people who knew what was written in the bible ("he who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted"); people who believed that the best way to get along was to follow the Golden Rule and treat others with respect and kindness whenever it was possible to do so. Today, all of that is on its ear! This is the biggest "me first!" bunch of whiners I've seen yet! They have no concept of building a better society just because its the right thing to do; its all about what can I get for me and how soon can I have it? They have no trouble tooting their own horn whenever they think they've got a little more coming and they have no compunction whatsoever about DEMANDING it regardless of whether they've got it coming or not. Treat others as they would like to be treated? They have no concept of what social grace or manners are whatsoever. You can be carrying on a conversation with another and they will break right in between you, interrupt, and blurt out whatever is on their mind at any time and for any reason! I'm telling you, it mindboggling! Although I must be as much to blame as anyone else who raised some of these kids, I can't help but think that its getting worse by the minute. It's time we reinvested in some of our past child-rearing strategies before its too late:

1. "Spare the rod, spoil the child" isn't in the Bible by accident. At the very root, kids are animals just as dogs are animals. The best way to train them is to create in their very psyche a deep-seated fear of getting in trouble and being punished. Sorry, folks, but "time out" doesn't scare me very much! Sorry....staying after school doesn't petrify me, either. My apologies, but in school suspension (which has become sort of a "badge of honor" for the thug generation we're seeing now), doesn't make me quiver a lot, either. Let's bring back corporal punishment, where we bring out the "board of education" for correction and give them something to think about before they mess up! If parents won't allow their children to be spanked by school authorities, send them home and do not give them the PRIVILEDGE of a free public education until they can abide by the rules and governing authorities of the school!

2. Get rid of all of this "everyone gets a trophy" nonsense! Only the winners get a reward and that's the way it is in life, so why make kids believe that all they have to do is show up and they'll be rewarded when that's not the case! You know what? Life is hard. Keeping your head above water is a struggle much of the time. The sooner we teach kids that they way to do it is to work hard and be responsible, the better off we all will be. Kids today have WAY too much handed to them without working at all for it and they think that that's how it's supposed to be as they get older, so they grow up expecting everything to be simply handed to them. What a shock it is when they get to my class and find out that I won't give them anything they don't earn! Many of them don't survive it and wind up with a consequence called summer school; one of the last bastions of hope for our society when it comes to making the little malcontents realize that there really are unwanted outcomes for less than acceptable performance!

3. If the atheists or antheist apologists won't allow us to teach straight from the Bible, then AT LEAST make a social graces/manners class mandatory! People of my generation went to church every week and attended Sunday School every Sunday morning. Most of us had to attend Catechism or Confirmation classes, and we learned the tenets of Christianity just like anything else that we learned in school or elsewhere. Let's go back to that, shall we?

4. By the way, how is it, in a country where "majority rules" is the backbone of our system of government, that atheists and their "separation of church and state" allies have managed to co-opt our rights to educate our children as we please? Most, if not all of the people who fund public education are Christian. Most, if not all of the educators in those institutions are also Christian. So please, tell me; why do we allow a minority to dictate to the majority? How is it that we can't educate OUR children as we see fit? I have an idea! If it's the money that they're contributing in the form of school taxes, give them a rebate check and let them educate their kids somewhere else! Send their kids to "Atheist Academy" or wherever they might go to be with other atheist children. What about muslim, or hindu, or bhuddist, or whatever else is out there kids? They can do the same thing as the atheist kids! You know what?! I'm tired of apologizing for being a Christian nation! In Saudia Arabia, nobody apologizes for being muslim! And, if you don't like what they have to offer, they'll tell you where to get off real quick, too! Maybe we could be a little more like that here. I know...I know.....turn the other cheek; forgive and you will be forgiven, etc. How about a little more of the "righteous indignation" Jesus, the one who turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple! How about a loud and proud version for the whole world to see?! We're so busy trying to get along with all of these splinter groups and appease the minority all the time, we, the majority, are getting swept under the rug!

Well....that's enough rant for now! Don't be afraid to be who you are, fellow Christians, and don't apologize to ANYONE for it! We know the truth and, the sooner as we proclaim it loudly and proudly, the sooner we'll get what we have coming to US! - Dan