Oh My, My!!

Today, I read in the Atlanta newspaper that another instance of child abuse has occurred in an Atlanta area school. This damnable deed took place at the hands of a fourth grade teacher right in a public place too.

It seems the perpetrator advised the class that while on a field trip to The Atlanta History Center, if anyone's behavior was out of line, they would be tied up. That was her first big mistake. Issue a challenge like that to a bunch of fourth graders, and you will have them lining up to get tied. Well anyway, it wasn't long into the trip when this kid leaves his partner and goes to the back of the line to speak with a friend (no doubt about some cultural tidbit that he had picked up). The teacher, true to her word, lashes a jump rope to his wrist. As is wont to be, there were soon four other boys soon tied in tandem with this first kid.

The beast in charge here later ties the rope to her pant's belt loop (not a good idea if five boys decide to run for it, but she did it). After one kid complained of his wrist being uncomfortable, they were released. One of the boys casually mentioned to his mother at the dinner table some days later that he had been tied up by the teacher. Well, that will always get your attention. After all, how many teachers overtly are into bondage/submission activities? At that point, it really hit the fan. The teacher is now into counseling, and other unspecified remedies are likely. Of course the kid is scarred for life, has nightmares, suffers in intersocial activities, would have loss of consortorium if he was old enough, and in general is just a mess. He would be suicidal if it were not for the fact that he and the four others are legendary heroes in their class.

Well, this tale of disgrace reminds me of my earlier school days with Mr. H. I was in the seventh grade, not the fourth, when Mr. H taught us USA Geography. Part of our instruction was to learn the USA states with their capitols and their spellings. Mr. H made this into a game where we turned down a person next to us if they misspelled or otherwise did not know a state or capitol. We enjoyed this. Mr. H (the ogre that he was) also said if we missed a question, we would have to stay in detention to study what we had missed. Nobody wanted that. He did give another choice to the boys in the class. The boys could skip detention if they chose to take licks (with a paddle, not a tongue-don't get all prurient on me). Mr. H was a football coach and fit the physical bill for that, so we knew that his arm wouldn't give out.

Of course, Mr. H violated a feminist rule by not allowing the girls a choice of licks, but that was another day and time. Some of the more hardy girls wanted this option, but it was denied them. As I recall, no boy ever opted not to take licks in lieu of detention. We all survived and revered Mr. H as a good guy. We also learned the states and capitols.

Back to the present, is it any wonder that we have twelve year old boys raping ten year old girls? After all, no one would ever really punish them, would they? If kids do not learn the unpleasant things associated with failing to obey the rules, won't they do just as they please without a thought of the consequences?

This is an admittedly old fart attitude. I guess that I am just not young enough to be as smart as some.