Posted by
Playful Walrus on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 3:18:42 PM
This jumped out at me in John Stossel’s
latest piece about the overreaction to child behaviors:
"There's been a disturbing increase in the trend of arresting children for minor infractions that often would have been taken care of … by simply calling in the parent," says Jakada Imani of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "Criminalizing our young people at younger and younger ages … has to be deeply troubling for anybody concerned about this country's future."
This is what happens when too many parents are busy working - with single parents raising kids or two-parent families sending both parents out of the home to work full time and overtime. Add in parenting styles that are hesitant to restrict the behavior of their children even when they are present to witness it. The result? The state becomes the parent, at least in the discipline and behavior modification sense. The state ends up intruding even in cases where involved and good parents are present.
One of my great teachers diagrammed this on the chalkboard when I was in fourth grade. While in school, if self-control doesn’t work, there’s teacher control. If teacher control doesn’t work, there is principal control. If principal control doesn’t work, there’s parental control. If parental control doesn’t work, there is government control. Outside of school, cut out the teacher and principal steps. When we are the child, it is up to us which level it will go to. When we are the parent AND the voter, it is up to us, once the child has not shown self-control, whether it will be us or Big Brother controlling our children.
Of course, the larger message of the piece is the absurdity of labeling normal kids as sex offenders. It is no coincidence that as our sexual morals decline and real problems are on the rise as a result, we turn our focus on to punishing normal adult flirting in the workplace and normal child affection or stupid silliness with unrealistic restrictions and overreactions.