Religion Column
John Hatcher

If I got a licking at school for some sort of violation, I could expect another licking when I got home. My parents always reinforced teachers and principals. Today, it's 180. Teachers and principals are wrong and the students are always right. So, most of the problems in our schools reflect a parental problem. In that vein, Fayette Superintendent Dave Brotherton was right on. In an article in last week's Citizen, Mr. Brotherton said it was rare for a week to pass when a parent, with lawyer in tow, didn't show up at the principal's office or the board's office to protest unfair treatment of his or her child. Sad! And tragic. Schools were once seedbeds where minds were captivated and began to flourish. But, increasingly, schools are garbage dumps. Parents and neighborhoods dump their problems off at 8 AM and expect to pick up at 4 PM a learned, law-biding, and lovable kid. The computer adage applies, however: garbage drop-off; garbage pick-up.

Now, before you write a letter, I am not saying that our precious resources for the future, our children, are nothing more than a pile of garbage. Not so. The problems that many children have, as they come to school, won't be solved by harried, underpaid faculty, regardless how competent and compassionate they are. Parents again must become responsible for the raising of their children. Proverbs 22:6 was directed at parents, not school teachers or even church youth directors: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it." This promise of God's Word should comfort parents who have little children. If parents will be diligent to train their children in appropriate and responsible behavior, then that's the way they will grow. It's an everyday job.

We parents have dropped the ball. We have failed the teachers of our children and we have failed our children. We've quit expecting excellence out of our children. We've quit demanding respect from our children. We hopelessly say to our children, "Okay for that, go to your room and watch your own television and use your own telephone and spew your anger out over the Internet." Before long, children will have their own refrigerator in order to have a cool one on hand. We're raising a generation of spoiled brats who need to be grilled. They have too much money and too much free time. When will we parents start getting tough with our children before law enforcement read them their rights?

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