Ask Your Grandchildren Please

When I was a child, children were chattel, threatened by our parents and our preacher. We did not even dare whisper a tiny bit of a sliver of a question at our teacher. Today’s brazen un-mothers drop their children off for breakfast, lunch and supper. They have school toilets destroyed before you can spell the word ‘upper.’ The well-behaved, socialized, well-mannered children experience a daily scene Of how fast our wild ones can commandeer the classroom, showing their mean They respect no one. Least of all themselves. They refuse to go to a buddy room. They yell cuss words, and they make noises that are worse than a rocket’s zoom. What do they receive for disrupting the classroom day after day, in non-moderation? Rewards in the form of extra recess, basketball, an elaborate celebration. How this magnificent reward system for bad behavior has backfired is anyone’s guess. Some of our other children, are starting to throw chairs, wanting to be in this mess. Is it the prizes, the chocolate sundae bar, the cash? Is it the three hour play on the swings? Is it the McDonald’s lunch they receive, while the rest are eating lukewarm onion rings? Is it the laughs they get watching their well-behaved classmates sitting down hard and bored? Is it that they see the tally sheet, and they realize they are the only ones who scored? One of our five-year-olds has our school in lock-down mode daily, never there or here. His teacher is counting the days until break, so she can start interviewing for a different career. What started out as simple defiance is in full-blown mode now. Our fire escape is broken, Most white boards and windows have been destroyed, and this is but a brief token. Is it mean to ask about the rights of the other twenty-six children in the class? Is it okay to wonder, how in the world in math and reading they will ever pass? Ask your grandchildren if I am right, and then run to school and for the good ones, please fight. Written 12-06-2018 Contest: Let ‘Er Rip Sponsor: John Lawless