Open Postings
This blog welcomes comments that can be helpful and insightful. Not everyone wants to register to comment, therefore, you may post by using the "anonymous" option. You are encouraged to utilize your name. The blog does review the postings routinely and reserves the right to remove postings.
I am getting some good feedback and thoughts on this topic. I posted this in a few different places to get the most out of it. I want to do some research on the conditions of JDC - if it is still inviting for kids to come back, and the points system that allow juveniles to go in and out of the system - ie 2 grand theft autos before 16 yrs old and shoot a cop - amongst other things.
ReplyDeleteFrom Patricia Fleischmann Johnson: I think that kids that have nothing to do and no where to go will find something to do and somewhere to go, however, most of the time the somewhere and the place are not where they need to be. Being from the Fonzie generation, Mom was home, homework was done, yadda, yadda, etc. Moms & Dads have to work, latchkey kids need to have afterschool and out of school places, and a way to get there....we have the places, but, not the transportation to get them there.
ReplyDeleteFrom Lenny Bolinder: Good one to ponder here Jeri...I had to think about what to say for a few hours before I said anything; as you said we/I can't trash anybody or blame people & you guys know I tell it like it is the way I see it...
ReplyDeleteGood point Patty makes, how...ever I kinda disagree with the transportation thing cause there are cars or public transportation to use, we all had cars when we were kids, and we had part time jobs while going to school to earn money to pay for them & insurance, and sadly we are from the Fonzie generation, for us "The 70's Show" was real life (dumb & innocent & carefree), we also had B.O.G. that kept us in line, regardless of B.O.G. our generation still had decent kids that did not have B.O.G. in their school & most all of us grew up to be responsible hard working PROUD American; in school we said the pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and the issue of using God in the pledge was NOT an issue of "offending" somebody. As for the school prayer we had our Moment Of Silent Meditation (remember Gwen Gardner did ours), something else we had in our schools then was The Dean of Boys, ours was Dean Allen and he had the paddle hangin in his office & he used it on a few of the boys, not often, but the threat of that was always there with us, it was more of a humiliation thing than meant as a pain thing & it worked. Today if a teacher or Dean of Students even look at a kid wrong they are accused of beating kids or child abuse, in this day & age they have taken that "child abuse" thing way to far & over the edge & the disrespect the kids have in school more is brazen, so they carry that attitude out to the streets & into our communities so as a result we have 16 year olds that think it is cool to carry a loaded gun & point it at someone & shoot, very sad...
I'm probably showing my age here with this but I don't give a shit, Rap music is simply HATEFUL!!! It is violent, the sound, the words, there is absolutely NOTHING ARTISTIC in someone hollering into a microphone words of violence to a nagging drum beat, it really needs to be phased out of society, it is well past it's "novelty"...I really feel that Rap is a BIG negative on the young society as a whole...
Okay I have said my 2 cents, who's stepping up the the soap box now...
From Pam Cracchiolo: I will get back to you on this because I remember when a parent could spank a child not anymore thanks to the law
ReplyDeleteFrom Gulfport Patch: Jeri! Thanks for posting the question.
ReplyDeleteFebruary 23 at 11:20pm
From The Gabber Newspaper: Fathers. -CS
ReplyDeleteFebruary 23 at 6:55pm
From Juan Happicampa: Most criminals are victims of injustice as they see it. They could be products of poverty, broken families, abuse or neglect. They see a world around them that they will never have unless they take it. They know at an early age that what th...ey see on TV or in the lives of others will never be theirs. They do not understand the value of work or setting goals or achievement; if these realizations come to them, they come late in life. Perhaps by age 30 that 16-year-old boy would have come to understand what is instilled into nurtured children at early ages. Disparity in our society is the cause of much of our criminal activity. Our system is especially designed to optimize competition, which quite often requires an early start in life. As the disenfranchised children get older they fall further behind and into despair. As despair grows compassion for society diminishes, along with societies laws. The system that has catapulted this nation ahead of all others economically has left the largest percentage of collateral damage behind. Automation is replacing production but populations continue to expand leaving more generations with little to do.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing we can do for this generation. We have to redesign our society for the next generation with less injustice and hypocrisy.
Thursday at 4:49am ·
From Margarete Tober: I know people have made jokes about this but I think it is true.."it takes a community". First and foremost strong parental involvement / family involvement-/ love and tough love--setting good examples, setting boundaries, nurturing, teachi...ng right from wrong, monitoring what the kids do, etc. Thereafter, schools doing what they do but also recognizing when something is amiss and when a kid needs some form of help, and the communities ( cities, churches, etc.) making opportunities available for kids to have places to go and things to do to stay out of trouble. Last the police and judical environment--constantly putting troubled kids back out on the streets doesn't help the community and worse yet doesn't help the kids. It seems to me that many kids today don't know what it means to be responsible and accountable and in fact often aren't held accountable and they need to be. What are your thoughts Jeri?
ReplyDeleteThursday at 8:57pm
From Margarete Tober: ..another thing that crosses my mind is that it seems parents' intentionally or unintentionally want to be their kids' "friends". That doesn't work if u want to be an effective parent and it doesn't mean u don't love them and I think some parents don't get that.
ReplyDeleteThursday at 9:46pm
I am a firm believer of "Idle Hands Idle Minds" We need to keep our youth busy and in some type of school. If the parents are capable then Home Schooling is a good idea as they are not subjected to a follow the leader mentality. Now not all children nor parents should participate in Home Schooling but for some it might save a life.
ReplyDeleteI worked as a Correctional Officer for a few years and I saw the Juvenile Offenders, they knew the law could only punish them for a few years unless they were charged as an adult.
I see this problem as a shared blame, Parents, Schools and the Media/Internet etc. We have to get this under control before it marks the end of our nation.
From Judy of Noise Free Florida: Jeri, I can't go through the blog but you are welcome to post this for me.
ReplyDeleteI think whoever said we should give up on this generation hit it on the head. Previous generations of missing parents, half-families, no supervision, a scornful attitude toward education, a worship of jailbirds and violent video games have created a sub-culture across this country that has absolutely no respect for human life. I watch The First 48 regularly and see over and over and over again young black males who for no reason whatsoever have shot or stabbed someone to death, sometimes their own friends. It's rarely pre-meditated - you get angry, you get a gun, you get even. And nearly every one of them already has a child or two or three. I have said it many times - and been held up for derision and anger -- but I'll say it again: There is going to be no stopping this process until we find a way to stop babies from making babies.
Here are two things I find objectionable and worthless in the ongoing dialogue:
1. It's all about poverty. No, not all of it. It's about the lure of the streets, the peer pressure. We have families in my neighborhood who are not poor, who have a mother and a father who work and keep a nice house. And their daughters get pregnant at 16 and their sons are in jail by 17 or 18. The best parents are helpless against this toxic culture.
2. We need to mentor these kids so they can get on the right path. Here's a fact: If you start mentoring a kid at 14, you're about 12 years too late. Long, long ago he watched his father and his uncles and his peers and he knows what life is about: It's the code of silence; it's take what you can when you can; it's never take responsibility; it's an utter failure to realize that there are consequences! It's mothers making endless excuses for their kids, which only reinforces all of the above.
The only miracle is that some of them -- very, very few -- actually escape this stuff. And whatever changes happen, they are going to have to come from within. For the black kids caught up in this stuff, the white community is not going to be able to impose its solutions -- nor should it. We've been throwing money at these problems since the 1950s and while we managed to do away with Jim Crow and a host of evils associated with it, life for young black males in this country is worse than it's ever been. And no one, absolutely no one, knows how to fix it.
Posted by a friend-Lynnanne Bauer-on Face Book. It was not written for this blog, but certainly fits here. I am posting it with her permission: We are all faced with choices; everyday choices, life-changing choices and choices that are difficult to make. We consciously and unconsciously make choices.
ReplyDeleteMany of us seek advice before we choose, validating that our intuition was right. What you have to understand is that it is YOUR choice, YOUR path, YOUR journey. Only you can change YOUR life for the better.
Posted by Juan Happicampa: I would like to introduce something here that I think we could all agree upon but rarely consider as a threat to our society.
ReplyDeleteIf there's one thing in our culture that is as prevalent as air, it's advertising. Under the veil of product promot...ion anything goes. Psychiatrists, psychologists and physiologists are enlisted by companies to penetrate the population with influential ads. These companies have no boundaries; they target our children and our parents with deception. How can you instill basic values into children who see deceptive advertising as an acceptable means of communication? No matter where we look, the ads are there. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, and books. Home, schools, offices, malls, street signs, park benches, cereal boxes, t-shirts, and cloths in general. This is an excepted American value, sponsored by marketers for every corner of our lives.
Our lives and our children's lives have been conducted by marketing influences that we blindly live with.
It's a fundamental contradiction that we accept without threat.
Think about it. 4 hours ago
Posted by Gym Fish: You think it might be an education system that fails to introduce thinking to the classroom?
ReplyDelete6 minutes ago
This is a test posting - trying to find an easier way for people to post.
ReplyDeleteJuan Happicampa said...
ReplyDelete@ Gym Fish I think society has evolved and education has not adjusted properly to meet the need. Children have less time with parents working, and at the same time discipline is dropped. Does that sound like a success story? In schools where teacher have more control, the education is of a higher standard, discipline is applied. This is just one aspect that I find obvious, but with time I could expose more.
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/talk/content/opinion-what-can-be-done
ReplyDeleteIt has been my experience that there are times that there is a lack of parental involvement. Our children are our future and the design of that future depends on the influence parents instill in the their children. It is sad that sometimes parents will leave that responsibility to others such as schools, community organizations, or far worse the streets. Understanding it can be more difficult in todays environment; but, the responsibilty does not go away just because it is more difficult.
ReplyDeleteI know of no creature in this world in which the parents will allow their offspring to go off on their own until, they have been taught how to survive and flourish. Why should humans be the only one's that do this?