Raising a generation of wimps
Hey, I know it's cold out there. I get into a cold car in the morning, which never really warms up. I come in to a library that's cold. I contend with frozen rabbit bottles and chickens huddling together, and thank the Gods that the broodies keep the eggs from freezing. But why have the schools been closed? Maybe in the city, where the kids have to walk and the parents don't (not can't, don't; that's what Unique Thrift is for) afford proper coats, there's an excuse to close the elementary schools; by high school, kids should know how to survive. But out where I live, kids get picked up in front of their house. The same is true of the MR/DD programs (wife got the day off from driving them). The Amish schools have been open, and those kids walk...and the schools don't have indoor plumbing! And they don't have medical insurance to cover frostbite.
When I was a kid, school would of course close when the roads were impassable. We had to walk a quarter mile or so to the stop on the main road (to be fair, when it was this cold, Mom would drive us down and have us wait in the car). But for cold? Not unless the school furnace was down.
On a similar note: my wife belongs to a bunch of Freecycle lists, and her pet peeve is people who say they "need" stuff they don't need. They have no concept of the difference between "want" and "need". The incident that set her off this weekend was the woman who"needs" fencing because she lives on Rt. 44 and her children can't play outside. 'Scuse me? Did it ever occur to her to WATCH her children? Or, if that isn't practical, to EDUCATE them? When I was a child, we were AFRAID of roads. Even our dirt subdivision road was a matter to be very careful about. And a major paved road like M-25 (thumb of Michigan) might as well have been the Berlin Wall for ease of passage. We'd cross if we had to, and didn't see any cars anywhere.
Granted, we had some educational aids. My maternal grandmother, who had mobility problems post-polio, Parkinsons, and probably half the DSM, would threaten to kill herself by running out into the street. We were shocked when my mother (who had grown up with these games) invited her to go ahead and do so, but we definitely imprinted that highways could be lethal. And in 2nd grade, I had to cross the other lane when getting off the school bus. One spring day some old man was rounding the curve and didn't see the flashers because of the sun. Per the story, I ran to escape him, he swerved to avoid me, and we met. Result: concussion, fractured humerus, multiple fracture of the right femur. And my early summer pretty much blown.
But even kids without these "advantages" knew enough not to play in the street, not to play with guns, and how to dress for winter. Why don't today's children know these things?
Comments
Posted by: Jo
Posted on: February 7, 2007 07:08 AM
It's all part of the scheme of the "dumbing down" of America. It's how we end up with at least half of our legistators.
I told my kids that our schools were absolutely never ever closed for cold when I was a kid. Even after the blizzard of '78, our school system was the first in Ohio to go back to school. We had one week off, and as soon as they could clear the streets of the snowdrifts, we were back in action. And the blizzard that happened just a few weeks later didn't shut us down at all.
But close for cold? Never.
We're breeding a generation of unthinking, sissified sheep.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: February 7, 2007 02:41 PM
Too bad somebody doesn't have some Premier or Kencove electronet to give this woman. That would keep the little buggers out of the street. Hey, if we can use Tasers to keep adults in line...